VIEW PROJECT
Broadway / Eugene O’Neill Theatre
FELA!
Associate Sound Design for a rhythm-driven musical that moved from workshop to Broadway, tour, Europe, and Lagos.
Broadway 2009; return engagement 2012
— FELA! was a formative project for Jessica: a workshop-to-Broadway arc that grew into a Tony-winning production, a return engagement, touring life, Europe, and Lagos.
METHOD
Associate Sound Design; production execution; tour and international support
Rhythm, Concert, Audience
Help carry a live, rhythm-driven musical world with clarity, power, and cultural specificity.
Jessica worked as Associate Sound Designer with Robert Kaplowitz on FELA!, helping carry the design from its early workshop life through the 2009 Broadway production and beyond.
The project demanded stamina, rhythm, and cultural responsibility: a sound world built around band energy, bodies in motion, and political force.
Pre-Production
Concert staging, band energy, movement, and audience response
The sound world of FELA! asks the design to honor rhythm, audience energy, and cultural context. It is not just volume; it is presence, pulse, and room behavior.
Jessica’s later execution of the design for Lagos gave the project a rare production arc: the work returned to the cultural ground at the center of the story.
From Workshop to Broadway
The process stretched across workshop, Broadway, return engagement, touring, Europe, and Lagos. Each room required translation without losing the force of the original design.
Associate Design that shows long-form collaboration, technical stamina, and cultural responsibility working together.
Every voice and instrument the design supports should be not just heard, but honored with nuance and cultural awareness.
Pulse and Participation
A concert-scale theatrical system where sound, rhythm, movement, vocal force, and audience participation behave as one live event.
FELA! represents a foundational chapter in Jessica’s practice: rigorous, collaborative, musical, international, and alive to context.
Project Images
The work of amplification is also the work of honoring what a room already carries.
Recognition
Awash with sound, rhythm, movement, vibrant colour, and audience participation.
Stage Whispers Review — FELA! The Concert / Adelaide Theater Festival 2015
FELA! won the Tony Award for Best Sound Design of a Musical. Jessica’s work on the production spanned workshop, Broadway, tour, and international execution.
A concert-scale project where sound helps carry the pulse of the room: rhythm, movement, vocal force, and audience participation working as one live event.
