sound designer

animation - video games - immersive environments - live theater - film - audio dramas

Letters from home (2023)
Written by Kalean Ung
Produced by the Merrimack Repertory Theater
Directed by and Developed with Marina MccLure
Sound designer - Chris Porter (with Music by Chinary Ung)

2023 ELLIOT NORTON AWARD NOMINEE - Outstanding Sound Design, Large Theater

In 2016, interdisciplinary artist Kalean Ung learned of a drawer in her father’s study, filled with letters from family and friends living in desperate circumstances in refugee camps detailing their lives during the genocide that befell Cambodia with the rise of the Khmer Rouge. LETTERS FROM HOME examines her own life through the stories her father (acclaimed composer Chinary Ung) told her of arriving in America in the 1960’s as a young music student and his subsequent quest to rescue family members. Through song, storytelling, and the text of the letters, she navigates the boundary between her family’s history and her own experience as a bi-racial, first generation American.

The sound was designed to not only serve as a portal for the audience into Kalean’s world and family history, but also to teach the audience how to listen to and understand Chinary Ung’s musical voice.

”The heartbeat of the show […] is the sound that provides rhythm and movement to the text.”
-Terry Byrne, Boston Globe

DQWORLD.net (2017)
Produced by DQWORLD.net
voice director, sound designer, composer - Chris Porter

DQWORLD.NET is a program based in Singapore created to teach children about safe internet habits. The program was an online educational game where each level of advancement would unlock another episode of an ongoing tie-in animation and comic book.

As the protagonist, JJ, gets thrown into a strange new world called Midnunvora, he encounters strange monsters, helpful knights, and some new friends on his quest to become the next DQHero!

Chris not only did the voice directing, sound design, and composition for the film, but provided original sound effects and music loops for the online game.

Machinal (2017)
Produced by university theater at cal state long beach
Sound designer - Chris Porter

The 1928 Sophie Treadwell play is an episodic narrative following one woman as society continually forces her into the life she ‘should’ want.

To create the claustrophobic feeling of unspoken societal demands over her life, the sound was nearly continuous throughout the show—only ever stopping for a few moments when she finds some fleeting happiness…

“Every sound, every song in the play is also mechanized. The show opens with the sound of whirring machinery. The music just outside of the two lovers’ room is a mechanical hand organ. The sound of telegraph instruments and typewriters remains omnipresent even long after the first scene which takes place in the office. Helen is constantly reminded that she is supposed to follow commands, like a robot.”
-Lilly Nguyen, D49er

Othello (2016)
Produced by Independent Shakespeare Comapny
Sound designer and composer - chris porter

Shakespeare’s classic tale of otherness and murder was deftly re-imagined in Independent Shakespeare, Co.’s production featuring a cast of only eight actors. In an effort to portray the machinations of the cruel Iago, the music and sound were designed to be waltz-like—at times imitating clocks. In fact, as the show progressed, ticking sounds began to underscore several scenes, until Iago’s deadly plan comes to fruition and Emilia shouts in alarm, ‘Murder!’

“Chris Porter's sound and original compositions subtly swing the mood from the buoyant to the menacing.”
-F. Kathleen Foley, Los Angeles Times