'As Theatrical As Possible'

Train whistles and sandpaper blocks are some of the items Sean Hagerty will be using for sound effects during the TheatreSquared production of "Around the World in 80 Days."

Hagerty is the composer and one of two musicians and foley artists for the show, joined by Ashtyn Nilsen. The show will be performed Wednesday through Dec. 21 at Nadine Baum Studios in Fayetteville. Hagerty says a foley artist uses objects to create sound effects, and foley is typically used for radio plays and cinema. Some foley examples include sounds of doors slamming, feet stepping on the ground and fights. For this show, many of the sounds used are "somewhat environmental," such as the sounds of waves or of a storm rolling in, he adds. He and Nilsen will also be seen creating the sounds for the various means of transportation, among them trains and a boat.

The book "Around the World in 80 Days" by Jules Verne, set in 1872, was adapted into a production by Mark Brown with five actors in 39 roles.

"When Phileas Fogg makes a wager that he can circumnavigate the globe in just 80 days, he sets out with his servant Passepartout -- but his every step is dogged by a detective who thinks Fogg is a bank robber on the run," according to a TheatreSquared press release.

Phileas Fogg is played by Gil Brady, who notes he is "the only actor in the show who only plays one character." He says portraying Phileas is "deceptively hard," though.

"Phileas is one of those characters that, on the surface, he seems to be typically stiff upper lip, British and boring, but he's not at all. Underneath, there's so much complexity, so much conflict, all these things that he wants but he has trouble expressing," Brady says. "In a lot of ways, he's very different from who I am because I'm very much a people person, and Phileas is a loner. "

Director Mark Shanahan is friends with the playwright, and he says he thinks Brown gets a kick out of how people have interpreted and adapted the show in so many ways. As Shanahan was reading it, he thought about how it would be a shame for the play to become a high-tech show where all the work was done for the audience.

"What if we were as suggestive and theatrical as possible?"

Shanahan wanted to have the musicians play instruments live on stage and also become the sound of a train whistle, a train track or a boat on the high seas. He wanted to let everything happen on stage, he says.

"If the play is to take place in 1872, I feel like everything we do could have been done on stage in 1872 using props and instruments and costume pieces," Shanahan says.

Brady says being on stage with the foley artists and musicians has been an amazing experience. He loves how they are able "to craft a scene or a country or a mode of transportation just with what they have within arm's reach."

"It just takes it to a whole other level. It heightens the whole production," Brady says.

Hagerty says he and Nilsen both play a variety of instruments during the show to convey locations in the story. He plays a combination of guitar and violin when in England, and when the story gets to India, Nilsen plays a native Indian instrument called a shruti box. They both then play percussion, and he also plays violin in a more Indian style, he says. When traveling in America, they use guitar, harmonica, banjo and mandolin. All of these instruments are in conjunction with different train sounds and other sound effects, he says, adding that they often work together musically.

To make train sounds, they use a combination of sandpaper blocks and brushes on snare drums, Hagerty says.

"We have to use harmonica holders with the train whistles because we're using our hands for other things," he says.