Conversations with Sound Designers

Adam Fisher started his career as a sound operator and spent over a decade as Mick Potter's associate. He's worked as a sound designer internationally on Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and Phantom of the Opera, among many other productions. His career highlights include the critically acclaimed productions of Billy Elliott, from Leicester Curve, Lord of the Rings, Watermill, Jimmy Lloyd's reimagined Sunset Boulevard, West End and Broadway, kinky boots at the London Coliseum, The Lost Boys at the Palace on Broadway, and Jesus Christ Superstar in London's Palladium. Adam was also awarded the Olivia Award for best sound design in 2024, What's on stage award for best sound design in 2024, a Tony award nomination for best sound design in 2025. 

Deanna H. Choi is a sound designer and composer recently relocated to London from Toronto, Canada. Her background is as a classical violinist and neuroscience researcher, and she currently works in theatre, film, dance, and installation. She has collaborated on over 150 productions across 2 continents with companies including Mirvish, the Stratford Festival, Ballet West, the Unicorn Theatre, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, RADA, Van Gogh Immersive, CBC, Universal Studios, and many others. As an associate and assistant designer she has worked on productions at the National Theatre, Jamie Lloyd Company, Punchdrunk, and Wessex Grove. She highlights strings and vocals in her work, and thrives by playing, recording, and manipulating live instruments in a world saturated by digital creation. She co-created and performed an award-winning cabaret show about Asian fetishism called Love You Wrong Time, now published by Playwrights Canada Press. And yes, she may have been named after a Star Trek character. 

Dan Balfour is an Olivier Award Nominated Sound Designer, whose work explores the intersection of storytelling and form. His practice investigates how aural design, technical craft, and composition converge to shape and heighten an audience’s theatrical experience. Theatre Includes: Winter’s Tale (RSC); Vanya (West End, Lucille Lortel NYC); Dear England (National, West End, Tour); The Maids, The Cherry Orchard (Donmar, St Anne’s Warehouse NYC); More Life (Royal Court); Miss Myrtles Garden (Bush Theatre); Stranger Beasts, I Am Kevin (Wildworks); My English Persian Kitchen (Soho); Make Good, One Of Them Ones, IDYLL (Pentabus); Mrs Caliban (Theatre Technic); Wuthering Heights (Royal & Derngate/ Tour); Les Dawson Flying High (National Tour); Dear Annie I Hate You, How To Break Out of a Detention Centre (Riverside Studios); Private Peaceful, LAVA (Nottingham Playhouse/ Tour); Two Character Play, Wilderness (Hampstead); The Hatchling (Trigger Productions); hang (Sheffield Crucible); Counting Sheep (Belarus Free Theatre); Sugar Syndrome, The Misfortune Of The English (Orange Tree); Operation Mincemeat (Splitlip); Effigies of Wickedness (Gate); The Double Act, Great Apes, Sputnik Sweetheart, I Call My Brothers, Dance Of Death (Arcola).

Niamh is a Theatre Sound Designer for Autograph Sound. Born and raised in Ireland, 

After studying Theatre Performance & Production, focusing on Dance & Musical Theatre, Niamh decided her passion lay in production and moved to London in 2017 to study BA (Hons) Production and Technical Arts at LAMDA.

Niamh worked as Associate for Autograph Sound Designers Nick Lidster, Ian Dickinson & Luke Swaffield for such productions as Cabaret (Westend & Broadway), Secret Cinema’s ‘Bridgerton’ & ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and ‘Fiddler on The Roof (Barbican). Working a mixture of theatre genres such as Musicals, Plays and Immersive. 

Aswell as creating her own journey as a Sound Designer, she has worked on productions such  as These Demons (Theatre 503), Fair Maid of The West (RSC) and A Child of Science (Bristol Old Vic), with works as a co-designer along with Ian Dickinson for ‘Waiting for Godot’ (Haymarket, London) and Terry Jardine for ‘The Producers’ (Meiner Chocolate Factory, London).

Jonathan Deans is an English sound designer with a wealth of experience whose career has been in the UK and USA.

He is a five-time Tony award nominee, winning in 2025 for Buena Vista Social Club,and has won countless other awards.

His work spans musical productions on Broadway, West End and worldwide, as well as plays and spectacles, including 16 productions for Cirque de Sole.

His recent musicals include: Redwood, Buena Vista Social Club, and Hippist Trip the Soul train musical.

His ability to create immersive soundscapes has earned him a reputation as one of the leading sound designers in the entertainment industry.

He's known for his attention to detail and ability to seamlessly integrate sound into the production's overall concept, elevating the music and audience's experience.

Jonathan has taught and created graduate and undergraduate theater sound design courses at UCLA, UNLV and UCSD and has given lectures at many conventions.

In addition to being a freelance sound designer, he's recently started working with Meyer sound to develop future software for the sound industry. 

Gareth Owen is one of the worlds leading Sound Designers, with a prolific career spanning over 25yrs. His work can be found all over the world including Broadway, Las Vegas and London's West End. He's designed over 250 productions, with over 50 million people enjoying his sound designs worldwide. Gareth is the proud recipient of a Tony Award for MJ the Musical, and Olivier Awards for Come from Away, Memphis and Merrily We Roll Along.

John Leonard produced his first sound design in September 1972 for a production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company's Little Theatre. Since then, he has: produced countless soundtracks for theatres around the world; spent eleven years with the Royal Shakespeare Company; worked regularly as a freelancer for the Almeida Theatre, Hampstead Theatre and Donmar Warehouse; written articles and a book about theatre sound and developed a sideline in recording sound effects. He is a Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, an Honorary Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts and a Companion of the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.

Nicola T. Chang is an award-winning composer/sound designer for stage and screen from Hong Kong, now currently based in London. She was the Composer/Sound Designer on the 2020/21 Old Vic 12 and a co-winner of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund (Audio Design) in 2021. She started her theatre career in performance, having performed in STOMP! West End and Six the Musical, and continues to perform alongside her composition and sound design work. Most recent theatre credits as composer/sound designer include For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy (Apollo Theatre/Royal Court Jerwood Downstairs/New Diorama), My Neighbour Totoro (RSC/Barbican) and Kerry Jackson (National Theatre

Donato Wharton is a Sound Designer and Musician, he was born in Cardiff Wales in 1976, he grew up in Worthing West Sussex and went to school in Stuttgart in southern Germany. Donato's career as a musician, and his life in theatre began in Stuttgart. Donato's music spanning the genres of Alternative Rock, Hip Hop, Electronica, Digital Ambient and Filed Recording based music has been published on several labels. The first of these releases is from 1995 and his music has been used in radio features, television programs, theatre productions and art installations internationally. Donato trained for Sound Design in Theatre at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, and holds an MSC in Digital Composition and Performance from the Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh. As a Sound Designer Donato works almost exclusively in theatre, his work has been heard at major theatre in the UK and abroad in Germany, France, the Netherlands and the US. Donato also teaches Sound Design, is a lecturer in Sound Design and Production at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, has also given lectures and workshops at the Royal Academy of Art, the Royal College of Artand the Ruskin School of Art Oxford, amongst others. Donato is a native speaker of both English and German, he lives in Reading, Berkshire and is married and has a son.

Carolyn Downing is an award-winning sound designer working in a variety of fields including exhibitions, fashion, theatre and live events. Creativity and collaboration are at the heart of her work from initial concept development with fellow designers through to realisation with technical and project delivery teams.

Carolyn’s most memorable projects include Goya And Munch: Modern Prophecies for Munch Museet in Oslo; Life Of Pi with Sheffield Theatres & Simon Friend Entertainment created for West End, Boston A.R.T, Broadway, the UK Tour and beyond, for which she was awarded a Tony in 2023 & nominated for an Olivier in 2022; The Commonwealth Games 2022 Opening Ceremony performed at Alexander Stadium, Birmingham; The Nightwatchman by Prasanna Puwanarajah, a one-woman show with Stephanie Street for the National Theatre; Jean Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure exhibition shown in NYC & Los Angeles; Ness a geo-located audio experience based on Robert McFarlane’s poetical work.

Most recently, Carolyn has enjoyed collaborating on Mark Ravenhill’s new play Ben & Imo at The Swan Theatre, RSC.