#86 Kai Harada

in 1: the podcast

If you’ve seen ‘The Band’s Visit’ you know how exquisite that show sounds, but while we couldn’t get the entire band to visit us at in1, we have the man who makes that music shimmer, it’s Tony Award winning Sound Designer Kai Harada! Kai drops by to discuss his design for that show and the challenges he faced with roving musicians, additional musicians under the stage, an incredibly nuanced score and often very subtle performances from it’s stars. Speaking of subtle, he also let’s us in on secrets from his intimate design in the round for ‘Fun Home’ and discusses how he made the Hudson theatre rock for ‘Head Over Heels.’ Cory and Kai also chat about his musical background, where he thinks the worst seats are in a theatre for sound, why sound designers end up designing mainly plays or musical but rarely both, and how young sound designers can market themselves for what is essentially an invisible art. Put on your best pair of headphones and spend the next 2 hours listening to the wisdom of one of the best!

Kai Harada has created sound design for the Broadway productions of The Band’s Visit (Tony and Drama Desk Award), Amélie, Sunday in the Park with George, Allegiance, Gigi, Fun Home, On the Town, First Date, Follies (Tony and Drama Desk nominations) and Million Dollar Quartet. Off-Broadway designs include Brooklynite (Vineyard), Love Love Love (Roundabout) Rope & Under the Bridge (Zipper Theatre). Regional designs include A Legendary Romance, Poster Boy (Williamstown), The Honeymooners (Papermill), Benny and Joon (Old Globe), Beaches (Drury Lane), Little Dancer and First You Dream (Kennedy Center), Zorro (Moscow; Atlanta), Hinterm Horizont (Berlin), Sweeney Todd and Man of La Mancha (Portland Opera) and She Loves Me (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). He was the audio consultant for the recent Broadway revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Kai studied at Yale University.

harada-sound.com