Biography
Philip G. Allen is a professor of theatre practice at the USC School of Dramatic Arts. He is a sound designer, mixer and audio educator with more than 20 years of professional experience. He has designed sound systems for the Music Center of Los Angeles, the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City and numerous smaller venues. His television credits include sound system design and equalization for the 56th and 59th Golden Globe Awards and the 33rd Academy of Country Music Awards. On film, he contributed the sound design to the film Soultaker.
As a theatrical designer, he has designed more than 100 theatrical shows, including Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks on Broadway; the 2002-2005 national tour of Jesus Christ Superstar; The Ten Commandments, starring Val Kilmer at the Kodak Theatre; Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cinderella at the Ahmanson; The Talking Cure, Like Jazz, Big River, Flower Drum Song and First Picture Show at the Taper; and all 10 seasons of REPRISE! at UCLA. Other theatrical design work includes Paint Your Wagon, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks and It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues at the Geffen Playhouse; Play On, Only a Kingdom and Blame it on the Movies at The Pasadena Playhouse; Masada at the Shubert Theatre in L.A.; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Singing in the Rain for Denver’s Arvada Center for the Arts; Forever Plaid and Blues in the Night at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami; and The King and I, South Pacific and Into the Woods for the Long Beach Civic Light Opera. On Broadway, he assisted long-time design partner Jon Gottlieb on 2001’s If You Ever Leave Me…I’m Coming With You. He served as production sound engineer for at La Jolla Playhouse and was the head soundman for the national tours of Titanic, Man of La Mancha, starring Robert Goulet, and Ain’t Misbehavin’ with the Pointer Sisters.
He won the 2003 NAACP award for Sound Design for Jesus Christ Superstar, the 2001 Ovation Award for Flower Drum Song, and the 1999 L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for Cinderella, as well as five L.A. Drama-Logue Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, and two Ovation Award nominations for Best Sound Design. Allen also teaches at the California Institute of the Arts.