Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Production (nom.), Skeleton Crew

Interfaith Award for A Place to Breathe at the St. Louis International Film Festival

Designing the sound for mentalist Vinny DePonto’s Mindplay (in collaboration with associate sound designer Stephanie Yackovetsky and Geffen sound supervisor James Grabowski) at the Geffen Playhouse was a blast. The sound design has been described as “wickedly sensorial” (Stage & Cinema), “exemplary” (Ticket Holders LA), “sumptuous” (Broadway World), “complimentary, outrageous, and over the top” (Theaterly), and “mood altering” (LA Art Party). Culver City News though it added “a great aura of mystery and surprise to each sensory-catching moment,” and LA Theatrix felt that it “added atmosphere and distracted when necessary.”

A few other complimentary words about productions I’ve been involved in:

The Flats “Under Josh Costello’s direction, the acting is so precise, and Elton Bradman’s sound design so detailed and specific (at first, I thought the continual surveillance helicopters were flying over my house; no aural detail, such as banging screen doors or passing traffic or twittering birds is too small to register) that after you listen to all three episodes, you might very well have the strange sensation that you’ve actually seen the actors rather than just heard them.” [sfexaminer.com]

Skeleton Crew “Sound designer Elton Bradman has composed what Shanita calls the music of the machines at work… It is a soothing sound, the melody of a city at work.” [dcmetrotheaterarts.com]

Black Eagles “Sound designer Everett Elton Bradman uses music creatively in the vigorous dance formation scene in the barracks, the transcendent voices of Lena Horne and Bessie Smith on the record player and the pilots’ melancholic rendition of ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ after the group has been punished for being unwilling to go along with a racist regulation.” [48hills.org]

How I Learned What I Learned “The vignettes are announced using typewritten subtitles with excellent use of vintage jazz and African-American chants by sound designer Everett Elton Bradman.” [broadwayworld.com]

How To Transcend a Happy Marriage “Everett Elton Bradman’s sound design provides well-timed cues and a set of kid’s karaoke tunes that turn bawdy in spite of the designer’s well-played, kid-oriented score.” [theatreeddys.com]

Winter’s Tale “E.E. Bradman’s eclectic musical settings — from hip-hop to folk ballad and blues — and buoyant movement passages by Paloma McGregor (the director’s sister) help make things light.” [sfgate.com]

Cloud 9 “Everett Elton Bradman’s sound design is appropriately unobtrusive, as is the effective lighting design of Emma Satchell.” [theatrestorm.com]

As You Like It “An eclectic selection of pop music pops up in the show, performed by the cast in intriguing arrangements by music director Everett Elton Bradman.” [mercurynews.com]

Kill Move Paradise “The production is also greatly enhanced by the set by Celeste Martore, lighting by Stephanie Johnson, sound by Elton Bradman, and video design by Theodore J.H. Hulsker.” [berkeleyside.com]

Where the Boys Are “Notably, the music in Where the Boys Are is universally excellent and used to great effect. Beginning with the pre-show soundtrack, [sound designer Elton Bradman] establishes a palette of doo-wop, soul, and barbershop, and he and director [Kieran] Beccia weave this continuously throughout the production from wire to wire, on many occasions through the explicit, diegetic performances of the actors themselves. Renditions of songs like ‘I Will Survive’ and ‘Come Go with Me’ meld in and out of scenes, sometimes emanating from brave solo voices and other times in four-part acappella harmonization.” [somewheresf.com]