Nikku
((Sound))
Sound Design, Engineering
and Equipment Rental
News
- The Wedding at TUTA
- Return to Haifa at Next Theatre
I was named by New City as one of the 50 people who really perform for Chicago theatre. It was more than a little humbling to be included on a list with so many of my mentors and favorite collaborators.
I've got a Blog on topics of web technology, theater infrastructure, and community building, Theater for the Future, mentioned in Time Out Chicago as "one of the smartest voices in the theatrosphere."
I develop web applications for theater, including the Chicago Theater Database and the new BackstageJobs.com engine that has seen nearly 7000 contacts and a growing average of 1000 theater jobs around the country.
Reviews
"Nick Keenan’s the kind of guy you can’t wait to see a few years down the road. You know he is going to be doing something stellar because he is already one of the most exciting artists in town. The young designer’s resume has blown up to include many of Chicago’s major theaters, and he is is a thinker to boot."
- New City, Jan. 13, 2010
"Sound designer Nick Keenan has done his homework. This is the first time where I've nearly crapped my pants due to a theatrical sound effect ... It's a powerful moment that makes you want to start repenting on the spot."
- EDGE, Nov. 6, 2009 - End Days
"[Ron] Parson and his sound designer Nick Keenan crank enough wails, ghostly music and gusts of wind that even Jacob Marley would be impressed."
- Chicago Tribune, May. 18, 2009 - The Piano Lesson
Nick was featured in a Nov. 6, 2008 Chicago Reader article about the intensifying average volume of theatrical performances. Read the full article here.
"Nick Keenan's tremendous AM-radio sound design [helps] to suggest the way a life is remembered in bits and pieces: Memories are triggered by the smell of a blanket or the sound of a Moody Blues song, and can be reassuring and discomfiting at the same time."
- Time Out Chicago, Feb. 14, 2008 - How I Learned to Drive
"New Leaf seems to have selected The Dining Room to showcase its two most rarefied assets: its queerly elegant found space ... and its invaluable resident sound designer. As the cast pantomimes all the props to Nick Keenan's recorded, carefully placed effects of delicate papers being rustled or rattling flatware getting polished, you suspect the designer knows even better than the playwright the sound of a WASP's nest."
- Time Out Chicago, Oct. 18, 2007 - The Dining Room
"... the distant gunshot that echoes throughout [Book of Days] (a masterful, haunting effect by sound designer Nick Keenan) is the stuff of nightmares."
- Windy City Times, May 3, 2006
"... Nick Keenan's performance piece Lexicon ... is ambitious, challenging, and entertaining ..."
- Chicago Reader, May 27, 2005
Sound Rentals
Flexible Rates - call today to find how a sound playback systems
can make your aesthetic dreams come true
Sound Designs
Hip Hop Collages & underscore for Remy Bumppo's American Ethnic [complete show recording]
Nick's Original Audio Performance Piece, Lexicon
Pop Culture-laced Explosion Fest for the Neo-Futurists original, History of Bombing
Ambient Soundscape for A Streetcar Named Desire
Live Vocal Effects for Original Puppet Musical, Archipelago of Delight
Foley Design for Staged Radio Play, War of the Worlds
Composition
A Few Good Men (Raven Theatre) - Main Theme and Curtain Call
Galileo (the side project) - Into Act I
Uncle Vanya (Apple Tree Theatre) - Transitions & Incidentals
Close to Victory, by Idris Goodwin (New Leaf Theatre) - Underscores / Transitions
Girl in Hyacinth Blue (New Leaf Theatre) - Original Composition
Themes from Lexicon (New Leaf Theatre) -
Fire and Water
Curtain Call
Curriculum Vitae
2010 and upcoming
Next Theatre - Return to HaifaTUTA - The Wedding
2009
Next Theatre - End DaysNew Leaf Theatre - The Man Who Was Thursday
Chicago Dramatists - Lucinda's Bed
Court Theatre - The Piano Lesson
New Leaf Theatre - The Long Count
Remy Bumppo Theatre - American Ethnic
Goodman Theatre & Neo-Futurists - Strange Interlude
New Leaf Theatre - Touch
Rivendell Theatre Ensemble - These Shining Lives
2008
New Leaf Theatre - Six YearsChicago Shakespeare - Amadeus (Assisting Michael Bodeen)
A Red Orchid - Not a Game for Boys
New Trier High School - Little Women
Attea Middle School - 30 Reasons Not to Be in a Play
Noble Fool - Oliver!
New Leaf Theatre - Girl in the Goldfish Bowl
Metropolis - Sylvia
Goodman Theatre - The Trip to Bountiful (Assisting Brett Jarvis)
Backstage Theatre Company - How I Learned to Drive
The Neo-Futurists - Contraption
Goodman Theatre - Shining City (Assisting Obadiah Eaves)
2007
The Side Project - Butt NekkidThe Side Project - Smart
New Leaf Theatre - The Dining Room
Collaboraction - Siddhartha Project
Metropolis - High School Musical
Greasy Joan & Co. - Wake Up, Apocalypse (Awake!)
Goodman Theatre - Mirror of the Invisible World (Assisting Michael Bodeen)
Goodman Theatre - Oedipus Complex (Assisting Todd Barton)
Greasy Joan & Co. - Sueno
Dog & Pony - Mr. Marmalade
New Leaf - Vox Pandora
Metropolis - A Streetcar Named Desire
White Horse Theater - The Wiz
the side project - Katzelmacher
the side project - Thief River
New Leaf - The Permanent Way
Neo-Futurists - You Asked For It!
2006
Greasy Joan & Co. - WoyzeckDog & Pony - Dead City
Raven - American Buffalo (JEFF CITATION NOMINATION)
Metropolis - I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change
New Leaf Theatre - The Master Builder
Serendipity / Live Bait - Vegas Baby, by Gerrit O'Neill
Prop Thtr / Curious Theater Branch - Choice, by Courtney Berne
Metropolis Performing Arts Center - The Nerd
Raven - Book of Days
New Leaf Theatre - Accelerando
Steep Theater - Of Mice and Men
Neo-Futurists - A Child's History of Bombing
2005
The Side Project - Crave
Raven Theatre - A Few Good Men
New Leaf Theatre - Limbo Tales
Metropolis Performing Arts Center - War of the Worlds
The Side Project - Galileo
The Free Associates - Improvisation with the Vampire
Apple Tree Theatre - Uncle Vanya
New Leaf Theatre - Lexicon (In the Spotlight 2005)
Bailiwick Repertory - Planet of the Bisexuals
Apple Tree Theatre - Hello Again
Raven Theatre - Dancing at Lughnasa
Metropolis Performing Arts Center - The Odd Couple
2004
Visions & Voices - Arrangement for Two Violas
Raven Theatre - A Streetcar Named Desire
New Leaf Theatre - Brilliant Traces
Visions & Voices - [the] Violent Sex
Apple Tree Theatre - A Man of No Importance
New Leaf Theatre - Girl in Hyacinth Blue
Raven Theatre - The Man Who Had All the Luck
Resume
Nikku
Graphics
Graphics and Web Design
for the Performing Arts
The Chicago Theater Database - chicagotheaterdb.com
A powerful user-generated database - built in Ruby on Rails - of current and historical productions. The relational database allows complex aggregation and cross-linking to be possible, so that users can find rich, granular data and context about their favorite artists, plays, productions, and theater companies, as well as general trends in the theater industry. Project in Development
BackstageJobs.com - www.backstagejobs.com
Using a combination of PHP, MySQL, and CSS programming, this design is built to automate posting and editing job and contacts listings for one of the most visited theater jobs sites in the country. Features include searching, user registration & account validation, and automated email blasting of recent postings based on user preferences.
The Side Project Theater Company - www.thesideproject.net
Using a combination of PHP, MySQL, and CSS programming, this design is built to maximize simplicity and automation for a busy theater space with over 20 productions a season. Features include automatic updating and formatting of current show, season, visiting artist shows and past productions from a centralized database, and a MySQL-based menu that allows for the addition of temporary menu options throughout the site with the push of a button.
Graphic Samples
Contact