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Sarah Spencer 
Composer & Sound Designer 




SELECTED WORKS - THEATRE


UPCOMING 2025:
AETHER - TheatreGoose 
FLORENCE - Dir. El Blackwood 
SCATTER - Dir. Patrick Mcphearson 
MUMSPLAINING - Dir. Hannah Harquart 







LOOKING FOR GIANTS Composer & Sound Designer // Thatwhatswild

King’s Head Theatre, 01/2025


Writer and Director - Cesca Eschlin
Lighting Designer - Skylar Turnbull Hurd 
Photography by Giulia Ferrando

‘The play of spotlights... brings its own drama, as does the music (composed by Sarah Spencer).’ - The Guardian

‘Sarah Spencer's sound design is integral to the play's impact. Pacey musical interludes seamlessly transition between timelines, while eerie echoes draw the audience deeper into the protagonist's psyche, heightening suspense in this psychological exploration.’ - The Review’s Hub

‘This effect is heightened by the sound designer Sarah Spencer's
evocative soundscape, which whispers, creaks and scrapes along with the narrator's storyteling before swelling up to a screeching intensity as her fantasies reach fever pitch.’ - London Pub Theatre Magazine

Theatre Weekly *****
Everything Theatre *****
The Scotsman ****
The Stage ****
The LIst ****
The Reviews Hub ****.




TENDING 
Composer & Sound Designer // Anther Theatre

Brixton House Theatre, Riverside Studios, The Northwall, Theatre Royal Bath, Bush Theatre 



Director - John Livesy
Writer - El Blackwood  
Lighting Designer - Ros Chase 
Photography by Giulia Ferrando

‘Effective and subtle use of lighting and contemporary sound by respectively Ros Chase and Sarah Spencer brilliantly convey the emotive, sensory impact on NHS nurses who work crushingly long hours in a system stretched paper-thin’ - The Reviews Hub *****

‘One of the most timely plays of the Fringe’ - The Scotsman ****

Scottish Field Magazine *****
British Theatre Guide *****
The Reviews Hub *****
Artshub *****
British Theatre ****
Sinners Review ****







                                                               

SISTERS THREE 
Composer & Sound Designer // Theatre Goose

Summerhall 08/2024



Director - Emma Howlett
Set Desginer - Eleanor Wintour 
Lighting Designer - Edward Saunder
Photography by Giulia Ferrando

Lustrum Award Winner 2024

‘Striking sound design from Sarah Spencer’ - Fergus Morgan, The Stage ****  

‘Sisters Three is ingenious...it's intelligent stuff and performed with verve.’ - Lyn Gardner, Stagedoor

The List **** Review
North West End ****
Corr Blimey ****




                                                                                                                

 

HER GREEN HELL Composer & Sound Designer // Theatre Goose

Summerhall, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Theatre Royal Bath 



Director - Emma Howlett
Set Desginer - Eleanor Wintour 
Lighting Designer - Edward Saunder
Photography by Giulia Ferrando


‘Spencer’s quiet but constant undercurrent of the sounds of the rainforest, with the low hum of the planes flying overhead...was spinetingling.’   - Lost in Theatreland ****   

The Stage ****
Radio Exe *****
The Scotsman ****
The List ****
Fest Mag ****
British Theatre Guide ****
Everything Theatre ****
 




PROJECT DICTATOR 
Pianist & Composer //  Rhum & Clay

New Diorama Theatre, HOME Manchester, Bristol Old Vic, Norwich Plyhouse, Northern Stage, Light Box Festival (Oslo), Teatru Manoel (Malta)


Co-Directors & Performers // Julian Spooner & Matt Wells
Original Composer & Musician // Khaled Kurbeh
Co-Director // Hamish Macdougall
Set & Costume Designer // Blythe Brett
Lighting Designer // Simeon Miller
Associate Director // Mine Cerci
Producer // Grace Dickson
Photography by Cesare de Giglio

'This is shape-shifting, thought-provoking theatre that interrogates the world we live in, how artists fit into that, and what price we pay for choosing the easier options. It's surprising, disturbing, and, at its conclusion, desperately moving.'
Whats On Stage

The Stage ****
The Scotsman ****
Broadway World ****
British Theatre Guide ****
Everything Theatre ***



 

GROUNDED 
Composer & Sound Designer // The Bridge Theatre  

 Full Circle, Brussels 10/2023




Director - Emma Howlwtt
Set Desginer - Eleanor Wintour 
Lighting Designer - Edward Saunder
Photography by Giulia Ferrando




KAREN 
Sound Designer // Greenlit Productions

The Other Palace, Seven Dials Playhouse, Old Joint Stock 



Directeor - Evie Townsend 
Writor - Sarah Cameron West  
Performer - Sarah Cameron West 
Set Design -  Roisin Jenner 

The Reviews Hub *****
Operation Live Theatre *****
A Youngish Perspective *****
The Stage ****
Theatre Weekly ****
Broadway Baby ****


Edinburgh News Top Ten Shows 2023



MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS 
Composer & Sound Designer // Freight Theatre

Summerhall


Directeor - Luke Wintour 
Writor - Alex Rugman 
Performers -AK Golding and Julia Pilkington 
Set Design -  
Lighting Design - Jonathon Chan 
Video Design - Dan Light 
Photo - Gavin Smart

‘A company to watch’  The Stage
‘Precient’  The Observer








LOVESONG / Composer, Sound Designer & Pianist // Freight Theatre 


Co-Directors - Luke Wintour and Alex Rugman 
Writor - Abi Morgan
Performers - Adam Goodbody & Miranda Collins 
Poster design - Kate Weir  


‘For me, the highlight of the show lay in the musical interludes composed by Sarah Spencer, which were wistful and gorgeous, complemented by the sounds of starlings.'
- Oxford Opening Night


'Sound-tracked by an astonishing score composed in its entirety by Sarah Spencer, action feels perpetually on the edge of breakdown.'
- Cherwell


SELECTED WORKS - FILM & TV
















HOUSTON’S WHITE BEAM (2024)
Composer and Sound Designer 


DOC NYC
American Documentary and Animation Film Festival
 Kendal Mountain Festival
London Mountain Film Festival
DCEFF (Honourable Mention) 

Botanist/poet Libby Houston meditates on her work exploring and cataloging a unique ecosystem in the Avon Gorge.

Directed - Al Darby and Jake Morris 
Produced - Al Darby and Jake Morris 
Edited - Ben Collier 
Colour Grade - Aiden Tobin 







REBEL GIRLS 
Composer // Makematic 

Discovery Education









Stories about the lives of extraordinary women from the past and present, celebrating their impact on the world. Based on the New York Times best-selling book series 'Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls'. Season of 25 episodes. 


















   


THE TUNNEL // Assistant Composer // Dir. Pål Øie, 2019

Nordisk Film






Norwegian Thriller. When a truck crashes inside a tunnel, people on their way home for Christmas are brutally trapped in a deadly fire. With a blizzard raging outside, and the first responders struggling to get to the accident, it's every man for himself.



The Kanon Awards, Audience Award Winner 
The Kanon Awards, Best Sound Design (Nomination)
The Kanon Awards, Best Producer (Nomination) 

Writers - Pal Oie, Kjersti Rasmussen 
Executive Producers - Aage Aaberge, Live Bonnevie, Sveinung Golimo, Sigurd Mikal Karoliussen, Henrik Zein
Producer - John Einar Hagen, Einar Loftesnes
Editing - Sjur Aarthun 
Composers - Ingo Frenzel, Lars Lohn, Martin Todsharow






HAUTE MESS  
Co-Director & Composer (Currently in Post Production) // Documentary


Oxford is a university defined by the world’s top thinkers and archaic traditions. Re’em and Marcus, two young queer students, felt alienated by its stifling conventions and dreamed of something different. The result was Oxford’s first drag performance night, Haute Mess.

Not content with having created the cult queer night of Oxford University, our protagonists throw themselves into new and increasingly dangerous situations as they seek to expand. In the Alps, they perform to 3000 Oxbridge students, where they are confronted with drunken, debauched crowds.

The film centres on the troupe’s sole drag king: Nicole. As an outsider, she is keen to prove her worth to a scene in which she feels invisible. She is a king in a queen’s world, and the film follows how intimidating and brutal this reality can be.

Haute Mess is an intimate, queer coming-of-age story about three young people stumbling towards adulthood, and fighting to build a community where many thought it impossible.



Co-Director - Luke Wintour 
Executive Producer - Ryan Murphy
Editors - Sarah Spencer,  Luke Wintour, Amy Pettipher 



             

RAT KING // Composer, Sound & Foley Designer 

ICA & BBC ARTS


A lone musician plays a tune on a tuba. Two characters are transfixed by a maypole and the distant sound of Jerusalem. As they become entangled in its ribbons, they grapple with each other on a journey to England’s edges.

In a distant retelling of folk tales and the urban legend of the ‘Rat King’, the film explores the myths and stories which create English nationalism. On their journey through ‘Englishness’, the characters are faced with two conflicting desires: community and exclusion.


Director/Producer - Luke Wintour
Cinematographer/Producer - Emma Langguth
Choreography/Dancer - Stephanie Burrell
Writer/Dancer - Donna Marcus
Executive Producers - Shane O'Sullivan (Kingston School of Art) and Nikta Mohammadi









 



SORGENFRESSER / Music Editor & Assistant Composer

Nickelodeon Deutschland







SELECTED WORKS PERFORMANCE /  INSTALLATION