Chris Webb is a 2008/2009 Ovation Nominee for Sound Design - Large Theatre for his work on LYDIA at Center Theatre Group: Mark Taper Forum.

If you’d like to add a congratulatory message for Chris (or any other Nominee or Nominated Company), to the Ovation Awards commemorative poster (distributed to all nominees and all attendees at the Ceremony), click here!

Unfortunately, Chris passed away during work on the production of LYDIA, for which he is nominated.  His family answered the following questions, and gave the following message, to LA STAGE for posting in his nominee profile:

What was the moment that first inspired Chris to pursue working in the theatre?

One fall day at Sonoma State University, Chris Webb was playing guitar and singing in his “Tom Waits” like voice when David Molina heard him walking by the class room he was in.  They instantly connected musically.  David Molina was asked to compose music to Migdalia Cruz’s “Fur”. He thought it was a perfect opportunity for Chris and he to collaborate on the play’s twisted, side show, carnival score. They went on to write and perform live the music for many Soap Stone Theatre Company productions in bay area jails and theatres. Those plays were co-written and performed by survivors and ex-offendors of violent crime.  It was theatre with a social justice theme, or deeper humanistic message that truly inspired him to do theatre.  In 1998 It was Magic Theatre’s production of “Eyes For Consuela” (director Juliette Carillo) which served as a true artistic and professional mile stone for Chris and David to continue working in theatre.

What do you feel made the production Chris was nominated for particularly successful, either overall or for him specifically?

Chris had a deep connection with Latin American Culture, music and Art.  He loved speaking Spanish.  He also loved Octavio’s words and language.

What project or projects was Chris working on?

Chris was in the process writing and recording this dark, moody, raw  blues album under the guise of  Zombie Club.  His tunes were also performed live in NYC with The Red Haired Strangers. in fall of 2007 Chris and David Molina went into a burned down yellow cab shop and recorded source material for a sound art/remix project called Junk Yard Dogs.  He played guitar in Ghosts and Strings when ever they performed in NYC.

What was Chris’ dream project?

Chris always dreamed of scoring an artistic major motion picture, owning and running a professional recording studio, and touring his music with Zombie Club.

Juliette Carillo’s words on Chris Webb:

I first met Chris Webb and David Molina in San Francisco while working on Sam Shepard’s Eyes for Consuela at the Magic Theater.  Who are these guys?, I thought, when the Artistic Director introduced me. They were very young, not even out of college yet, and had this laid-back-musician-y  attitude. David looked a little punkish and Chris had a stoner rock-and-roll look to him.  Hmmm…can they handle creating a score for a potentially very sound-dependent play? Are these guys theater-folk? But after I listened to a tape they gave me, I knew I had to give them a shot.  It was an incredible process.  They took the work very, very seriously.  They came to rehearsal almost daily and watched my work with the actors with great intensity.  They spent day and night doing research, creating instruments out of found objects, trying out this or that sound under the actor’s words. I’d never experienced anything like it.  The score was magnificent.  It made the play and my work a thousand times better.  I was blown away.

For the next ten years, Chris and David were my go-to guys for sound in theater and film.  As David was focusing on his music with his band, I ended up working primarily with Chris.  He became my number one artistic collaborator.  Wherever I went, Chris went.  It was a very powerful partnership. We got to the point where we didn’t need to talk about the work, we just intuited it.  Chris did the remarkable score for the world premiere of LYDIA, which opened at the Denver Theater Center in 2008, and was in the process of revising that score for the February, 2009 production of LYDIA when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.  He was 35.

Needless to say, his death on December 15, 2008, was absolutely devastating. Here is an excerpt from my memorial speech:

“Chris was one of those rare musicians that loved telling a good story.  He had great humility and really understood how to take a step back and let the story do it’s thing.  He wasn’t going around waving his arms saying look at me, aren’t I special?  It was always pointing to the story—moving the energy forward for the audience..

He understood that it took true collaboration in order to make a moment work—between and among the artists on stage and with the audience.  He loved the collaborative nature of theater and how it was our work, all of our work that created the magic. He was respectful of my process and was careful not to impede, but at the same time, understood the value of his work and had great pride in what he was bringing to the big picture.

It was an honor to watch his process, how he molded and shaped and caressed a piece so that it fit just perfectly with the instruments of the actors, with the rhythms of my staging, with the tone of the play.  He created a kind of dance between the physical world and the emotional and spiritual world.  And he did it beautifully because he was an exquisite listener.  I am realizing this now, that true collaboration is in the listening.  And he was a master at it.”

Chris worked on LYDIA up until the day before he died.  He was scribbling notes in his notebooks in his hospital whenever he had energy.  It was those notebooks that would prove to be enormously helpful in taking the next steps.  David Molina and I used these books to try to piece together Chris’ intentions for the development of the score.  And then, late into the night, David would interpret these ideas through his own brilliant creative aesthetic.  He made the music even more rich and more full, keeping the integrity of Chris’ work but highlighting it with his own music.  It was magic.

I am incredibly grateful to both of these men for their enormous contribution to the production of LYDIA and to my life.

Juliette Carrillo

Biography: CHRIS WEBB  was a composer and sound designer based in Brooklyn, NY.  He most recently composed the score for the World Premiere of Octavio Solis’ Lydia at Denver Center Theatre Company, directed by Juliette Carrillo.  His original scores and designs for theater include the West Coast Premieres of The Cook at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Sonia Flew at the Laguna Beach Playhouse, Anna In The Tropics, Nostalgia, The Countess, and Art at South Coast Repertory, Cornerstone Theater’s As Vishnu Dreams, and Sam Shepard’s Eyes For Consuela at the Magic Theater.  He has also designed for Intersection for the Arts, the Yerba Buena Performing Arts Center, Exit Theater, Currican Theater, and the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab.  His original scores for film, television and multimedia include a New York Times online feature on Fidel Castro, A Litter-a-tion (best film, 48 Hour Film Festival, Honolulu), Africa@Play for the National Geographic Channel (best short film, Resfest), the Gen Art Film Festival trailer, and Spiral, a film by Juliette Carrillo. He performed in many bands, music projects, and theatre productions along side David Molina.

For a full list of Ovation nominees, or for information about the Ovation Awards Ceremony on January 11th, click here!