By Richard K. Thomas, with foreword by Jonathan Deans.

$35.00
index, illustrations
128 pages
ISBN: 978-1-933348-14-8

Published by
USITT
in cooperation with
Broadway Press
March 2008

Abe Jacob was a pioneer in theatrical sound. The big change he introduced in such hits as Hair, A Chorus Line, Beatlemania, and Evita was big sound—not loud, not distorted, but a powerful aural experience that empowered not just rock and roll theatre on Broadway but also the subsequent eras of the director/choreographer and the megamusical. He got his start as a sound designer and technician in California working with such artists as Jimi Hendrix, the Mamas and the Papas, and Peter, Paul and Mary. Jacob continues to design, consult on audio systems for new theatres and renovations, and pass along his knowledge to young designers in the annual Broadway Sound Master Classes.

THE DESIGNS OF ABE JACOB, published in March 2008, is written by Richard K. Thomas, sound designer, professor of theatre and sound, and head of the design and technology program at Purdue University. Mr. Thomas is a certified sound designer in IATSE Local 1 (New York) and has composed sound scores for over eighty production, including ones for the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, the Dublin Theatre Festival, and ESPN. His outstanding writing ability was recognized in 2002 with USITT’s Herbert D. Greggs Award for his article, “The Function of the Soundscape.”

THE DESIGNS OF ABE JACOB features a complete design chronology of Jacob’s concert credits, his theatre consulting credits, and his production credits. In his foreword to the book, renowned sound designer Jonathan Deans—who first worked with Jacob as the sound mixer on the London production of A Chorus Line in 1976—says, “Mr. Abe Jacob is a theatrical legend with a career that can never be topped or repeated again.”