current folder:/userfiles/Carolyn DowningCarolyn is a freelance sound designer, working both nationally and internationally. She enjoys working closely with directors, performers and other creative collaborators, from rehearsal room to performance space, to create cohesive and fully integrated designs with the desire to push the boundaries of sound as an artistic medium within theatre. Over the years, Carolyn has built strong and successful relationships with freelance directors and theatre companies alike, including the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court and Frantic Assembly. Carolyn also has a wealth of experience in the creation and leadership of sound design workshops and has worked with establishments such as Central School of Speech and Drama, Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design, Wimbledon College of Art and Mousetrap Theatre Projects. She also has experience working in other media genres, including film, animation and exhibitions (including fashion) and live events - and wishes to continue to flourish in these too.
Awards:
Carolyn was awarded the Tony for Best Sound Design for Life of Pi in 2023, having been nominated for an Olivier Award for the same show in 2022. She also received an Olivier nomination for the Sound Design for Summer and Smoke at The Almeida and Duke of York's Theatre in the West End in 2019 and had previously won the Olivier for her Sound Design for Chimerica at The Almeida (which transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the Wesst End) in 2014.
Future Work:
Includes: Ness (a digital soundscape set at Orford Ness, which has been a miliary testing site and is now an internationally important nature reserve) and an RSC production of Roald Dahl's Big Friendly Giant.
Most Recent Sound Designs:
Richard II (The Bridge); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Almeida); Ben & Imo (RSC transferring to Orange Tree) and The Enfield Haunting (Ambassadors). Life of Pi (Sheffield Crucible, Wyndhams and Broadway - winning Carolyn an Olivier nomination and a Tony Award); Mr Gum and The Dancing Bear and The Welkin (National Theatre); Blank (Donmar Warehouse); Death of a Salesman (Young Vic); All My Sons (Old Vic); Downstate (Steppenwolf Chicago and The National theatre): Fiddler On The Roof (Chichester Festival Theatre); Mother Courage (Royal Exchange Theatre); A Woman of No Importance (Vaudeville); and Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony And Cleopatra, King John (RSC).
Further Designs:
House Of Bernada Alba (Royal Exchange); Les Liaisons Dangereuses(Broadway/Donmar) ; Fathers and Sons, Dimetos, Absurdia (Donmar); As You Like It, Our Country’s Good, The Motherf***er With The Hat, Dara, Protest Song, DoubleFeature (National Theatre); Chimerica (Almeida & SFP, Olivier Award-Best SoundDesign 2014); Carmen Disruption, Blood Wedding, Summer and Smoke (Almeida); The Believers, Beautiful Burnout, Love Song (Frantic Assembly); Hope, The Pass, The Low Road, Choir Boy (Royal Court); The House That Will Not Stand, Handbagged (Tricycle/West End); All My Sons (Schoenfeld Theater, NYC); Angels in America (Headlong); Blue/Orange, Blackta, After Miss Julie (Young Vic); Thérèse Raquin (Theatre RoyalBath); Twelfth Night (Sheffield Crucible); Much Ado About Nothing, To Kill A Mockingbird (Manchester Royal Exchange); Kasimir & Karoline, Fanny och Alexander (Malmö Stadsteater); Tre Kronor (Dramaten, Stockholm).
Theatre (National):
The Pass, Circle Mirror Transformation, The Low Road, Choir Boy, The Witness, Our Private Life, Oxford Street and Alaska (Royal Court); Protest Song, Double Feature (NT); The Believers, Beautiful Burnout, Love Song and Little Dogs (Frantic Assembly); King John, The Gods Weep, The Winter’s Tale, Pericles and Days of Significance (RSC); Lower Ninth, Dimetos, Absurdia (Donmar Warehouse); Angels in America (Headlong); Blackta, After Miss Julie (Young Vic); Much Ado About Nothing, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Country Wife, A Whistle in the Dark, Moonshed (Royal Exchange); Blood Wedding (Almeida); Lulu, The Kreutzer Sonata, Vanya, The Internationalist (Gate Theatre); Andersen’s English, Flight Path (Out of Joint); The Water Engine (Theatre503); Stallerhof (Southwark Playhouse)
Theatre: (International):
All My Sons (Broadway); Fanny och Alexander (Malmö Stadsteater); Amerika, Krieg der Bilder (Staatstheater, Mainz); Tre Kronor -Gustav III (Dramaten, Stockholm) Downstate (Steppenwolf Chicago)
Opera:
How The Whale Became (Royal Opera House); American Lulu (The Opera Group); After Dido (English National Opera)
Exhibitions:
Collider, Constellation, Story Box at The Science Museum; From Street To Trench (Imperial War Museum North); Rolling Stones Exhibition (Saatchi gallery); Louis Vuitton Series 3; Shawn Mendes Illuminate Tour; Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2015/2016 /2017 (Louis Vuitton Foundation and the Paris Louvre); So You Say You Want A Revolution? Records & Rebels 1965-70 (V&A); Hut 11A The Bombe Breakthrough, Bletchley Park: Mary Quant (V&A)
