Jo Sanburg
Sound Designer — MINDSTORM
Jo Sanburg’s design work has received John T. Spiegel, Ostrander, Southeast Theatre Conference, and University of Memphis Foundation awards. Previous design work includes sound design for The Secret in the Wings, Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party, and Anon(ymous), The Comedy of Errors, Henry V, and The 39 Steps. Other credits include lighting design for Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Oklahoma!, The Servant of Two Masters, Cosi Fan Tutte, The Sparrow and Empires of Eternal Void. She has composed original music for As You Like It, The Merry Wives of Windsor, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, and Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Jo enjoys learning new technology, exploring diverse forms of art, and discovering unique ways in which sound and light are integrated into storytelling. She is currently serving as Instructor of Lighting and Sound at Kansas State University.
Jo is originally from Littleton, CO, and recently received her MFA in Theatre Design and Production from the University of Memphis, and is now based in Manhattan, KS.
MINDSTORM is a self-created aural story designed at University of Memphis in March 2016.
From the inspiration of a single image, the goal was to design an aural narrative that relates a sequence of events. After creating a list of descriptors based on my first impressions of the image, I developed a storyline that guided a listener through an eerie, mysterious, and distorted descent into chaos and insanity. Darkness, isolation, and solitude can be calming, but they can also provoke a heightened, if not distorted or surreal, sensory awareness of surroundings. The audience should experience this young woman’s emotional journey – from the serenity through an unnerving catalyst that changes her peace into fear and madness.
