The Trail to Oregon!
by Jeff Blim, Matt Lang, and Nick Lang
Blackfriars Drama Society
February 2024
Starkville, MS
Director: Aliyah Necaise
Stage Manager: Samuel Somervell
Scenic Design: Andy Evans
Lighting Design: Corin Davis
Costume Design: Quinta Sig
Sound Design: Kat Trinque
Choreography: Helen Anne Horecky
Design Concept
The Trail to Oregon! is a comedic musical that follows a family’s adventurous—and often absurd—journey westward, paying homage to the classic Oregon Trail video game. This sound design blends the nostalgia of the original game with live theatrical storytelling, using Western-inspired music, playful video game sound effects, and comedic timing to immerse the audience in both the journey and the humor of the show.
To honor the game, iconic digital cues—such as wagon creaks, river crossings, and pixelated “fail” sounds—are integrated and occasionally exaggerated for comedic effect. This sound design seeks to merge nostalgia, humor, and adventure, making the audience feel as though they are part of the Oregon Trail itself—laughing, anticipating, and reacting alongside the characters while traveling through a uniquely stylized audio world that balances game-inspired cues with live musical energy.
Paperwork
Audio Samples
Cue 61 punctuates the moment when the father presents the family with the decrepit “Wago9000!” wagon, emphasizing the absurdity and humor of the scene. The effect was created by layering a whip crack with a tiger roar, edited in Reaper to exaggerate the impact and make it deliberately over-the-top. The resulting sound is playful and cheesy, highlighting the comedic tone of the moment while drawing the audience’s attention to the ridiculousness of the family’s new “wagon.”
This cue accompanies every entrance of McDoon, instantly signaling his arrival with a stereotypical Western flair. It combines a cliché Western-style whistle with an eagle screech—created from a barn owl recording that was pitched down and processed with reverb in Reaper. The layered sound is both grandiose and slightly absurd, perfectly matching McDoon’s over-the-top persona while alerting the audience of his presence.
This cue accompanies character deaths, designed to evoke the classic “video game” aesthetic. Sourced from a Creative Commons recording on FreeSound.org, the sound was edited in Reaper to accentuate a pixelated, digital quality—enhancing its arcade-like feel. The effect is punchy and recognizable, reinforcing the game-inspired and playful tone of the show.
Cue 130 underscores the father’s venom-induced high after saving the mother from a snake bite, capturing the disorienting nature of his experience. The cue begins with a whoosh sound effect that transitions into a sustained, reverberant drone layered with Gregorian chanting sourced from the Creative Commons, creating a hallucinatory and otherworldly atmosphere. This audio gradually fades into the song “Dysentary World,” smoothly bridging the surreal monologue with the next equally ridiculous song in the show.
