I was the sound designer, composer, and engineer for Sender by Ike Holter. For this production, it was very important that the audience felt as if they were really in Chicago. I achieved this by using many different sounds of the city: people shouting, dogs barking, sirens going off, airplanes, garbage trucks, crickets, birds, and traffic noises. The play takes place on the 4th of July. Rather than using one long track of fireworks, I took individual firework explosions and planted them at specific places in the script. Sender takes place over 3 days, and has several transitions going from morning to night and vice versa. For these transitions, I created a main theme using guitars, a banjo, and a synthesizer. This theme becomes more elaborate, but darker, as the play continues. “Messages” occurs at the end of the play, where Lynx’s anonymity is destroyed when he impulsively posts on social media. An onslaught of notifications roar in as time passes to the following day, where Lynx has to deal with the damage of what he has done.