Math Out Loud
Math Out Loud
Written and directed by Mackenzie Gray
with additional material by Roger Kemp
Producers Dale Hartleben and Roger Kemp
Choreography Joel Sturrock
Music by Mackenzie Gray, Joe Docherty, Sayer Roberts.
Frederick Wood Theatre, UBC
Dec 14, 2011
Vancouver, BC. Lining the wall alongside the staircase in the house where my kids grew up were prints by M. C. Escher, a Dutch graphic artist whose drawings of infinite staircases, morphing shapes and distorted geometry are instantly recognizable.
One such print, entitled Relativity depicts faceless, identically dressed robot-like figures ascending staircases that appear to link different dimensions in an impossible reality. So when six of these figures appeared on the stage of the Frederick Wood theatre at UBC, as Relativity was projected onto the two huge screens behind them, I figured I was going to be in for a mind-blowing treat.
Math out Loud is theatrical production directed at high school students, with the intent to integrate art, music, dance and humour in a one hour play, to engage the interest of students in mathematics. It tells of the adventures of high school students, the artistic Kelly (Meggie McKinnon) and the musical Damon (Sayer Roberts) as they travel through time to meet various characters who make complex mathematical principles relevant and readily understandable. An ensemble (Paige McCulloch, Ashley Siddals, Holly Pillsbury and Jennifer Sutts) played multiple parts ranging from the Escher automatons to Cleopatra’s Asp girls.
This project grew out of the educational outreach program of Mitacs, a national not-for-profit organization involved in creating and supporting research and training programs in science and technology. I was lucky enough to see the world premiere of Math Out Loud, together with senior high school students from five schools.
As we were introduced to characters such as Greek mathematician Eratosthenes (Cathy Chuchro), Christopher Columbus, M.C. Escher and The Wizard of Odds (!!!) (Brandyn Eddy), so various mathematical terms were introduced. I found it educational as well as very entertaining. While I am comfortable with probability, I had no idea what terms like tesselation (repeated tilings) or recursion(the process of repeating items in a self-similar way, like seeing oneself repeated to infinity in two mirrors with surfaces exactly parallel with each other) meant. Now I do !
The show was bright, colourful, fast moving with lots of music – as appealing to a generation that has grown up with music videos and electronic games, as it was me who did not. The show seemed to go down very well with the students sitting near me, judging by their comments and applause.
There are plans to tour the show round BC and hopefully on a national tour. Teachers who would like their students to see Math Out Loud should contact Mitacs at www.mathoutloud.ca.
Hello ,well protools 9 is fanatanstic , so much faster , stable , so i’m going to try import it in to my mouth and hit download, then i’ll be faster and more stable , ya , but really there is so much to this update which will help composers for film and songwriters or any one that likes to record . They have a new book for the program called pro tools 101 by avid with a dvd , very easy to follow, its 4000 pages, wow thats huge , so look for my new recordings in a few years . A few other books on composing for film that i really like are Complete guide to Film Scoring by Richard Davis and one more called From Score to Screen by sonny Kompanek , great books to get a understanding to the difference between being a good or great writer to being a good to great composer for film. There’s a huge difference from writing to scoring , feeling the scene , building , when to come in , and when to be silent. But scoring has really changed over the years from the music having spaces to now some movie’s have music when someone is eating , using to washroom , flossing their teeth , i think you get me point , to much music . Without the spaces then the music has less impact when it does come in , and isn’t that the point behind all forms of music , to have this feeling of dynamics , intense to calm , like Jimmy Page always said in his tiny English voice Led Zeppelin is about the light and shade , like one seconds were heavy and the next were light , its about the light and dark , and you can’t argue with that . thanks for reading , i’m Joe Docherty Composer Songwriter. To hear my stuff http://www.joedocherty.com/
anyone that is into scoring for films,or any media would really enjoy lalo schifrin , he’s been my fav for 14 years thats when i noticed the composer on dirty harry , i thought he’s one of those guys that plays jazz and does a movie where and there. well man i wrong ,what a genius , 130 movies , wrote jazz for dizzy 40 or more of his own albums and has worked with some of the all time greats in all fields of music . i so recommend Cool Hand Luke , dirty harry the fox , the eagles have landed , thx 1138 ,and of course Bullitt one the the coolest soundtracks that fit so well with the film. Bullitt in on line in two forms , the re-recorded 2000 , good but way too much bass , i guess the bass player mixed it , or the new release of the original , that has 31 songs and wow , what writing and the instruments that are so wildly different on most songs , it’s from 1968 way before software and the sounds they get are really amazing for the times .
enjoy , joe docherty , composer
Hello, I’m Joe Docherty.
Musician and composer.
I work on films, docs, commercials.
Here is some of the music from those projects.
Some music is coming up soon.
Feel free to email me if you find something you like.
If you are involved in film – either a director, writer, or sound design, I would love to hear from you.
Joe.