Sound Design & Live Sound Effects

Custom soundscapes and spot effects that create an immersive, imaginative world for your story – sound that brings your unique world to life.

Professional sound design can help you make the leap from an okay production to an outstanding one.

Our carefully crafted audio won’t sound like an mp3 pulled off the web. A storm can include lions roaring, demolition and a falcon’s cry. A person’s soul can be layers of human and animal elements traveling around the theatre. A play about women pilots in the 1940s can include real WWII propaganda films and period planes, mixed with women’s voices on ground to air radio.

Along with hand-crafted digital design, Foley artist Matt Cowley creates perfectly timed, engaging and visually entertaining sound effects for live performance with an array of household objects and devices – as a mainstay of the long-running and crowd-pleasing Radio Theatre Project at downtown St. Pete’s The Studio@620.

Selected Stage Sound Design
by Matt Cowley

audio samples available on Soundcloud

King Lear Tampa Repertory Theatre, February 2022. Dir. Connie Frankel.

Dinner With Friends Tampa Repertory Theatre, September 2019. Dir. Robin Gordon.

Stupid F**cking Bird Tampa Repertory Theatre, June 2019. Dir. David and Connie Frankel

Stop Kiss Period 1980s New York soundscapes and timeshift transitions. USF, April 2019. Dir. Dora Arreola

Doors Impressionistic abstract soundscapes mixed with sounds created by a metal sculpture by Mark Aeling. Beacon Dance Concert, April 2019. Dir. Sheila Cowley

Copenhagen Tampa Repertory Theatre, January 2019. Dir.Emilia Sargent

Heisenberg Tampa Repertory Theatre, September 2018. Dir. Jim Sorensen

A View From The Bridge Tampa Repertory Theatre, June 2018. Dir. C. David Frankel

Gnit Tampa Repertory Theatre, Tampa, January 2018. Dir. C. David Frankel

Flying WWII propaganda films mixed with airplanes, ground to air radio transmissions and impressionistic small-town soundscapes. Tampa Repertory Theatre, September-October 2017. Dir. Robin Gordon.

Machinal Mechanical sounds and Expressionist soundscape. University of South Florida, September 2017.  Dir. Dora Arreola.

The Other Place Interpretive soundscapes of memory loss. Tampa Repertory Theatre, June 2017. Dir. C. David Frankel. Winner, Best of the Bay Award, Best Sound Design.

The Azure Sky in Oz  Wizard of Oz-inspired setting. Production of The Heather at the Straz/Shimberg Theatre, April 2017. Dir. Padriac Lillis.

Grounded immersive flight and battle soundscapes. Tampa Repertory Theatre, January 2017. Dir. C. David Frankel.

The Mathematics of Love time-shifting soundscapes, Southeastern premiere. University of South Florida, September 2016. Dir. Dora Arreola.

St Pete Synesthesia soundscape for devised dance performance. The Studio@620, March 2016.

Fantastic Ekphrastic soundscapes and spot effects for live performances of poetry, prose and theatre inspired by visual art. Soft Water Studios, St. Petersburg, February 2016.

Inherit The Wind  1940s town. Stageworks Theatre, Tampa, March 2016. Dir. C. David Frankel.

In The Blood  Impressionistic urban soundscape including location recordings. Stageworks Theatre, Tampa, February 2016. Dir. Fanni Green.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Modern club soundscape. University of South Florida, February 2016. Guest Director Richard Beecham, UK.

9 Parts of Desire  Baghdad soundscapes in surround sound, battle scenes. University of South Florida School of Theatre and Dance, November 2015. Dir. Andrea Assad.

Pantomime  Rural Caribbean soundscapes. University of South Florida School of Theatre and Dance, October 2015. Dir. Henry Muttoo.

Betrayal  Urban locations. Tampa Repertory Theatre, May 2015. Dir. C. David Frankel.

A Tale of Two Cities  Period soundscapes and custom destruction, tailored to Movement Design by Jonnie Riordan of Frantic Assembly. Guest Director Eduard Lewis, UK. University of South Florida School of Theatre and Dance, February 2015.

The Road Weeps, The Well Runs Dry  Continuous surround soundscape of 19th-century rural Oklahoma, custom death knells based on Native mythology. Lark Play Development Center NY’s Rolling World Premiere. Dir. Fanni Green. University of South Florida School of Theatre and Dance, April 2014.

A Question of Words  Realistic apartment and elevator. Studio@620, March 2014. Dir. Bob Devin Jones.

The Rocks Are Gonna Cry Out  19th-century Oklahoma soundscape for radio. Advance for Lark Play Development Center Rolling World Premiere, April 2013. Dir. Fanni Green.

The Butter Battle Book Detailed soundscape derived from mechanical sounds, radio adaptation of Dr. Seuss for Read Across America Day, broadcast on WMNF Tampa.

The Lorax  Detailed soundscape derived from natural sounds, radio adaptation of Dr. Seuss for Read Across America Day, broadcast on WMNF Tampa.

Live Foley Performance

The Radio Theatre Project  Foley performance and sound design for new works of audio theatre performed for a live audience. The Studio@620, St. Petersburg FL. 2009-present.

The War of the Worlds Various venues, Tampa Bay, 2014. Dir. James Rayfield.