‘The Lost Command’-- Recording Session Number One.

Late summer morning, 1999.  A sleepy group of about 20 actors, audio technicians, and creative types gathered in the upstairs recording studio of Callaway Hall in LaGrange, Georgia.  Among them: Ron Anderson, Artistic Director of the state theater of Georgia, film and television actress Justine Thielemann, WTVM on-camera personality Chuck Leonard, playwright and Civil War historian Robert Williams and character actor Ray King.  As the performers settled-in, technical arrangements were finalized.  Paul Hammock of Hammock Audio Services ran a mike check; writer-director Lee Davis staged his dogeared, Post-It noted master copy of the script on a free music stand; musical score composer Philip Truitt and associate producer Paul Tate parked themselves in strategic corners of the room so as to view every member of the congregation and take notes.

Scripts had been mailed-out weeks beforehand, and, as the actors were summoned to their standing mikes, several of those scripts showed yellow-highlighted lines and pen scribbles -- evidence of Lee Davis’ request that everyone research the historical individual his or her character was based upon, then tweak their lines to reflect their ‘take’ on the character.

The opening paragraph of the 67-page script described the action of the play:

‘The Lost Command' is historical fiction set against the Battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest single-day battle in American military history. Springboarding off the true fact that a written copy of Robert E. Lee's plans for the battle was discovered in an open field by a Union soldier and passed on to Yankee General George McClellan, our story concerns a group of Confederate prisoners who inadvertently learn of the 'lost command' and scramble to warn Stonewall Jackson that McClellan is planning an ambush.

For the next seven hours, as page after page of their 67-page script was rehearsed, refined, and captured on digital tape, the actors began to feel the souls of their audio alter egos grow to life; the story began to unfold; the suspense began to build. 

By sunset, the final lines were recorded.  Good-byes and hugs all around.  The initial recording was done... time for session two.

Session Number Two -- Adding the color.

They began to arrive earlier than expected.  Lee Johnson, whose Midwestern accent would give life to a character known only as ‘Union Private’; eleven-year-old Alex Davis, hired to voice the part of ‘Drum’, based on a real-life Confederate drummer boy; Don Dunn, a free-lance audio recordist, ready to tackle the role of the longsuffering, hard-hearted ‘Sheriff of Sharpsburg’; Ms. Pat Smith, whose unique voice inspired Lee Davis to create the character of ‘Mrs. O’Neal’, a Washington D.C. wife and mother who leads one life by day, another by night.  One by one, each of these second guard characters was recorded.  One by one, each of these second guard characters supported, strengthened, and colored their featured scenes.  Cast #1 had told the story.  Cast #2 gave it depth and sparkle.

Post production begins -- and a major problem is discovered

That decision made, who should be asked to step blindly into the already-recorded show?  It had to be someone with professional acting experience, someone who understood what we were trying to accomplish with our Civil War tale, and someone who would graciously ‘cooperate’ with our remaining budget.  Atlanta actor Larry Larson, who had appeared in Civil War-related films and TV movies (The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd and “Shadow Waltz”) and himself a writer and audio producer, was contacted and was available.  Known and respected for his commanding voice and presence, Larson arranged an impromptu recording session at a Buckhead radio station and the tracks were brought back to Hammock Audio Services for insertion into The Lost Command. 

Now that the voice tracks were nailed down, the sound effects and music tracks could be put into place.  And new questions could be asked.  Questions such as: where do we find the sound effect of a public lynching?

The re-mix, Foley effects and scoring.

Composer Philip Truitt, whose suspense and horror music cues for the 1998 Sound Mind      Theater production of The Curse of Dracula received rave reviews, wrote his first draft of the complete Lost Command score before the voicetracks were finalized.  Larry Larson’s “take” on his particular character and the lengthening of the chase sequence after the Confederate prisoners escape the gallows demanded that Truitt come back with a new set of cues.

Foley (sound effects) for the show were gathered both by Hammock with his portable DAT (digital audio tape) machine and from various effects recordings, but the important sound of a gallows door dropping open before a crowd of spectators circa 1862 was not available from any immediate source.  Months marched by as Davis and Hammock contacted various audio production houses, Civil War re-enactment groups and theater companies for the effect.  Finally, multi-layering  brief ‘lifts’ from a film soundtrack with homemade wood-against-wood claps and pre-recorded crowd gasps created the proper effect.

Other sound effects had to be generated form scratch: to simulate the a handful of gold coins, a handful of quarters was jingled and the sound played back at half speed to give the noise extra ‘weight’; the explosion at the end of the play was augmented with firecracker noises in order to sharpen its impact; the sound of General McClellan being hit over the head with a baseball bat was simulated by Lee Davis by clunking himself over the head with a real bat.  Hammock recorded the ‘clunk’ successfully in one take, but suggested Davis try a few more times “as a safety”.  And  Davis fell for it.  

The show is finalized; the search for a cover. 

First, the CD production company in charge of packaging was allowed to conceptualize a cover that featured an actual photograph of lead actress Justine Thielemann.  The artist, perhaps more accustomed to designing music CD covers, presented the idea of Justine in a sexy modern, strapless dress standing against a bleached-out photo of a generic Civil War battlefield.  One Sound Mind Theater associate called the ridiculous image “Justine sings the Top Ten Hits of 1862”.

The CD packaging company was given another chance, but the second design was no improvement.  “I’m not communicating to them what the show is about,” Lee Davis lamented, and prevailed upon Paul Tate, web designer and the artist behind the Curse of Dracula CD cover, to sit down and work-out something that would convey the action-oriented spirit of the story in addition to historical elements and a hint of romance.  Three or four complete drafts later, the cover was finalized: it features images of the male and female lead characters, an actual photo of Lee’s Special Order #191, and, along the bottom, an Antietam battle mural. 

After a year’s delay, the time has come. 

Edge of your seat suspense and mile-a minute action explode before your very ears in this non-stop audio drama event! 

The time has come... to experience Antietam: The Lost Command!