Tony Award-winning designer, SUNY Oswego alumnus to speak Feb. 17

Brian Ronan, a two-time Tony Award-winning sound designer and 1984 SUNY Oswego alumnus, will lead a free open forum for campus and community members at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17, in the college’s Hewitt ballroom.

Ronan will discuss his path from Oswego to Broadway, and will answer questions from the audience. Anyone with interest in audio and theater is invited to attend. A reception will follow.

Ronan won a Tony Award for his sound design for “The Book of Mormon” in 2011 and for “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” in 2014, the last year the Tony Awards Administration Committee presented the award.

He has worked on more than 25 musicals and was nominated for a Tony five times between 2008 and 2014. He has said the key to being a successful sound designer is trying hard not to be noticed.

“If I’m doing my job, the sound will be appropriate to what’s going on, and the audience will get caught up in the action on stage,” he said to Oswego Alumni Magazine in 2014.

Ronan has credited his education at Oswego for providing him with a successful career path and has said that it was alumni, like fellow Broadway sound designer Tom Morse of SUNY Oswego’s class of 1974, who helped pave the way for him.

“Tom Morse, the reigning sound designer at the time, opened that door for me,” said Ronan, who studied business administration and broadcasting and mass communications at Oswego.

He also said his experience with Campus Lighting, an independent student-run entity that provided lights and sounds for campus events, first introduced him to sound design and setup.

“It gave me a mini company to run and I learned to manage budgets, deal with clients and I discovered sound,” he said. “I was allowed to work on projects in the theater and just told to lock up when I was done.”

Ronan will be on campus to speak with students and faculty in classes through the Oswego Alumni Association’s Alumni-In-Residence program, which is supported in part by the college’s Fund for Oswego. Artswego, the college’s arts presentation organization, is co-sponsoring his visit.

Those without a current SUNY Oswego parking permit can visit oswego.edu/parking for information about obtaining a single-day permit.

For more information on Ronan’s open forum, email Daniel Wood at daniel.wood@oswego.edu.