[sound designer, composer, theatre maker]
ABOUT ME...
My name is Tingying Dong (董汀滢), I'm a sound designer, composer, and theatre maker based in London. I trained at the BA(Hons) Production and Technical Arts course at LAMDA.
In 2023 I received The Stage Debut Awards - Best Creative West End Debut, for my sound design work for The Crucible at National Theatre and Gielgud Theatre. And I've been twice nominated for Off West End Theatre Awards for Best Sound Design (Jerker, King's Head Theatre, 2019; The Sun, The Moon, And The Stars, Theatre Royal Stratford East, 2021).
I'm especially interested in contributing to politically/socially focussed work, psychological thrillers, physical theatre, and process-led devising process.
Sound Design / Composing
I have a good understanding in music and movement, having practised piano, singing, and ballet since a young age. I make soundscape and music as part of my design, while on some jobs I solely take on composition. I delve myself into the physical and psychological world within a story, and translate what I harvest into sound and music. My work is often fluid and detailed, with naturalistic and treated sound effects, electronic and acoustic sounding textures and instruments weaved together.
Theatre-Making
I'm on a journey of realising my own and some collective artistic visions. I've been collaborating with directors/writers, designers from different disciplines, puppeteers, and dancers on a few projects. These work tends to land in experimental, multi-disciplinary, and magical realistic forms. The starting points are often our own lived experience, and from there we seek to also find universal connections. I take inspirations from different forms of art work and reflect on them to build my aesthetics and ideas.
Technical Work
I enjoy the feeling of navigating through a busy back stage so I sometimes work as a mic tech. I have depped on large-scale shows including Les Mis (Sondheim Theatre), 9 to 5 (Savoy Theatre) and Stranger Things (Secret Cinema).
My Background
I grew up in Beijing. Before pursuing a career in theatre, I was studying for an MSc in Behavioural Economics in Rotterdam. Intimidated by the thought of working with numbers and equations by an office desk for the rest of my life (now we know it's called 'quarter-life crisis'), I decided to change career and dig into my long-time hobby, theatre-making. I moved to London to train at LAMDA. There I found my interest in sound, and the rest is history.
On my previous work:
“Tingying Dong's beautifully ephemeral sound design creates the sensation of time slipping by”
The Guardian on Dear Octopus (National Theatre)
“Tingying Dong … provides a lyrical, atmospheric soundtrack of tinkling chimes, whisper-soft vocalisations and delicate drones”
The Stage on Lyonesse (Harold Pinter Theatre)
“Tingying Dong's brilliant sound design lurches between off-kilter dance music and electronic shrieks and rumbles”
The Times on Macbeth (Northern Stage/International Tour/ETT)
“Tingying Dong’s suspenseful sound design amplifies the tension as chilling detail creeps in”
The Guardian on Ruckus (Southwark Playhouse)
"A gently vibrating sound design – all credit to designers Tingying Dong and Paul Arditti – quivers ominously as it presages disaster"
iNews on The Crucible (National Theatre)
"The celebrations are lent great energy and atmosphere by composer Tingying Dong"
The Telegraph on A Christmas Carol (Nottingham Playhouse)
"In tandem with the listener’s experiences at the hands of their creativity, Imaginarium relies heavily on Tingying Dong’s sound design and composition, quintessentially the production’s principal strength outside of Dean’s voice-over. Sharp, Dong’s audio tracks and quirks cause the brain to utilise its keen ability to construct a world around it, particularly whenever the production asks us to close our eyes and embrace our less visual senses. From cafes and rustles to sudden storms and bombastic crescendos, Imaginarium’s audio design complements the minimal composition of music it uses to accentuate the listener’s mood, rather than lead."
- The Reviews Hub on Imaginarium
“Tingying Dong’s amazing soundscape, electronics effects and natural ambience leads you into new and fantastic possibilities.”
"Tingying Dong’s sound design is extremely detailed and immersive in a wholly naturalistic way. This works well as a crutch in illustrative support of a complex script that takes its listener’s imagination from space battles to gushing rivers and mountain tops."
- A Younger Theatre on Imaginarium
"... a variety of journeys through time, space and imagination, aided always by confident and apt sound design of Tingying Dong"
- Thespyinthestalls on Imaginarium
"Tingying Dong’s soundscape is laced with the incessant hum of the spacecraft that so annoys its passengers, all of which combines to create the pressure cooker like environment so essential for this production."
"the moments underscored by music (Tingying Dong) are heartfelt and apt"
- Within Her Word on The First
"medical-drama-meets-Royal-Court sound design by sound designer Tingying Dong"
- Within Her Words on Blood Orange
"the sound design is effective in helping to show the passage of time and feelings of change"
- London Pub Theatres Magazine on Jerker
"all set to a pulsating disco beat that adds to the magnificence and urgency of the play"