Bruno Louchouarn is a 2008/2009 Ovation Nominee for Sound Design – Intimate Theatre for his work on COURTING VAMPIRES at The Theatre @ Boston Court.

If you’d like to add a congratulatory message for Bruno (or any other Nominee or Nominated Company), to the Ovation Awards commemorative poster (distributed to all nominees and all attendees at the Ceremony), click here!

As an Ovation Award Nominee, LA Stage asked Bruno the following questions:

What was the moment that first inspired you to pursue working in the theatre?

When I was a little kid in France I was mesmerized by “Guignol” puppet performances and later, growing up in Mexico City, I directed a Latin American music ensemble and was very attracted to the progressive cabarets in Coyoacan.  When I came to LA to score films and work in concert music, I started to cross boundaries between forms and explore the theatricality of music, working in theater and dance; so it is the creative collaborations there with artists like Jessica Kubzansky, Sheldon Epps, Corey Madden, Paul Lazarus, Stephen Wadsworth, Laural Meade and Herbert Siguenza that attract me.

What do you feel made the production you were nominated for particularly successful, either overall or for you specifically?

Many thanks to the director Jessica Kubzansky for eliciting such creative drive in her design team and bringing it all together so beautifully.  In Courting Vampires, the early integration of design elements into the flow and performances allowed us to fine tune and go for subtlety so the play was never overtaken by the technical elements. In terms of music, having a through-composed score with simple clear elements allowed us to create continuity and support the play’s hauntingly beautiful text.  The score uses bowed glasses for the colder side of the characters and solo cello for their warmer side, eventually bringing them together at the end.  Listen at http://web.mac.com/blouchou/CV

What project or projects are you currently working on?

I just finished “Tree” a wonderful new play by Julie Hébert, directed by Jessica Kubzansky at [Inside] the Ford.  The original score features swamp slide guitar soundscapes.  Coming up I am particularly excited about “A Weekend With Pablo Picasso” created by Herbert Siguenza, of the Culture Clash, directed by Todd Salovey, opening this Spring at San Diego Rep.  I’ll be doing a through-composed score for the piece, exploring themes relating to Picasso’s paintings.  Herb will actually be painting on stage and there will be projections of Picasso’s painting sequences. So there are both great kinetic multimedia moments and text-centered scenes.

What do you love most about theatre in Los Angeles?

The creative community, the breadth of talent and the freedom to cross boundaries. Also the diversity of audiences, from Pasadena to the Westside.

What’s your dream project?

Corey Madden, Jacques Heim and I producing our dance rock musical “Surf Orpheus” on the beach in Santa Monica.

Biography: BRUNO LOUCHOUARN’s music has been performed nationally. He has extensive film, theater, and commercial credits, including the futuristic cantina music in Total Recall. He teaches music, multimedia, and cognitive science at Occidental College.
Recent projects: Alcances, at the Art Center College, by Vicki Ray and the LA Percussion Quartet, a special commission by the Pasadena Art for the Art and Ideas Biennial: ORIGINS. Original music: Tree, by Julie Hébert, directed by Jessica Kubzantsky at [Inside] the Ford; The Night is a Child, by Charles Randolph Wright, directed by Sheldon Epps, at the Pasadena Playhouse;  Courting Vampires, by Laura Schellhardt, directed by Jessica Kubzansky, at Boston Court; Beggars in the House of Plenty, by John Patrick Shanley, directed by Larry Moss, at Theater Theater. Rock Paper Scissors, winner of a Rockefeller MAP grant, written and directed by Corey Madden and Laural Meade, at Childsplay, Tempe AZ. Surf Orpheus, a new musical created with director/book writer, Corey Madden and choreographer, Jacques Heim, at UCSD and the Getty Villa. Agamemnon directed by Stephen Wadsworth, featuring Tyne Daly, at the Getty Villa. Of Mice and Men, directed by Paul Lazarus, at the Pasadena Playhouse.  Shekinah, at La MaMa, New York.

For a full list of Ovation nominees, or for information about the Ovation Awards Ceremony on January 11th, click here!