P R O C E S S

After spending one summer as a full company member at Princeton Summer theater in 2018, Spann returned to compose the music for and play Puck in their production of Shakespeare’s Midsummer. Directed by the up-and-coming Maeli Goren, the production centered Titania’s musings on the endangered environment to explore the role of love in anthropocentrism and conservation. Each designer carried this theme through their work, and Spann was no exception, composing the score for portable, environmentally based instruments that she could play while engaging in the dramatic action as Puck. Landing on the right orchestration to support the 75 minute cut of the play was crucial, leading Spann to learn to play the accordion in two weeks specifically for the production. Other instruments included mbira, gravel, tin basins, watering can, rice, jingle bells, mulch, buckets, and bamboo wind chimes. In addition, this was the first process in which Spann incorporated looping pedal in a dramatic context, a discovery that would greatly impact her later work. By creating loops out of layered non-verbal vocals, Spann painted dreamscapes to support the text and push the momentum ever forwards in this swift summer cut.

R E V I E W S

“Allison Spann has boundless energy as Puck…Spann prances around the stage, giving the audience a merry wink that lets them in on the tricks Puck plays…

“The production…makes use of Spann’s considerable talents as a musician. Onstage she plays accordion; behind the scenes she is the composer of the otherworldly incidental music — which, along with Naveen Bhatia’s sound design, creates an artfully disorienting effect.”

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