Sean McGinley: Sound Designer for Theatre and Events
About me
I have loved sound and theatre for as long as I can remember. I started doing theatre when I was 8 and continued to perform until I finished college. I fell in love with sound when I was 13. I used to sit behind the mixer at my church and control the mics and I loved every second of it. I attended York College of Pennsylvania where I studied Music Industry and Recording Technology. After college, I attempted to work in the audio industry with little success and walked away from the field for a brief time. I jumped back into theatre in 2017 at Theatre Workshop of Nantucket, TWN. I was able to get back into sound there, where I mixed their production of Mama Mia. I was also able to discover the world of sound design at TWN. I slowly started to find my passion in the art of sound design.
I have loved designing sounds for anything I can, from plays, podcasts, musicals and major events. I love the realism of sound design and the way it can pull a whole audience into the same world. The best sound designs are the ones that goes totally unnoticed but still gets stuck in your head. I enjoy the art behind building the perfect soundscape during a scene so we can feel the weather in our bones. I feel my best gift in the world of sound design is finding the perfect song for every moment. I try to find a song that perfectly accents a moment no matter how big or small it seems.
Sound design has quickly become my passion and my joy. To date I have had the honor of designing over 20 plays and 25 musicals. When the pandemic happened, like most of our industry, I found myself with more free time than I would have enjoyed. I decided that I would assign myself shows to design and that brought me a lot of peace and joy during a time of stress and unknown. I love bringing a story to life by adding the perfect music and effects to a scene.
Photo By Matthew Schipper
