About Me

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My name is Dennis Dowding. I am a Theatrical Sound Designer, Engineer, and Composer. I have been working in sound for the past 7 Years. I started in community and high school theater, then onto college productions. During my time at the University of Connecticut I spent my summers working at multiple different Theater Companies along side Broadway level creatives, designers, and performers. Recently I have entered the industry full time, based in the New England Area.

In my career I have designed at the community, college, and most recently regional level. I have a focus on atmospheric sound design. Pushing the medium of sound beyond simple effects and transitions, but instead creating fully realized ambiances and atmospheres in a three dimensional capacity. This focus has given me experience not just in complex content design & creation, but in designing the sound systems needed to facilitate such a design

My work in this area gave me the opportunity to lead a workshop/panel at USITT Seattle in 2024, titled "Storytelling Through Atmospheric Sound Design" In this panel I discussed theories and concepts behind atmospheric sound design and how they can be adapted to theater. I then went through my own process of crafting an atmospheric design, both creative & technical, using a show I had recently designed. 

I also have recently made my regional theater design debut with Bay Street Theater's Production of What I Know Now produced in July 2024.

My work as a Sound Engineer has taken me across all different types of theater, as well as into other area's as well. My first full time technical positions were in the summers, working as an Audio Technician at Weston Theater Company in 2022 and as an Audio-Visual Engineer at Berkshire Theater Group in 2023.

I then spent the summer of 2024 working as an Audio-Visual Supervisor at Bay Street Theater. In my time there I facilitated a sound system infrastructure upgrade, designed, budgeted, and installed a major comm system upgrade to their space, served as a Sound Designer for one of their shows, and worked as the FOH Mixer on their Musical Young Frankenstein.

Outside of theater, I worked as the Live Production Director of WHUS 91.7FM from August of 2023 to May of 2024. In my time there I was responsible for procuring local bands to come into the station and play a set Live on the air which was recorded to be later edited and uploaded to the stations YouTube channel. I was responsible for the setup, load in, and live mixing of the show, as well as mastering the multitrack recording made from the session for the eventual YouTube video. 

Most recently I have been working at TheaterWorks Hartford, as their Lead Audio-Visual Technician.