Biography
Philip G. Allen is a sound designer, mixer, and audio educator with more than 40 years of professional experience. He has designed permanent 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 feature 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 to 2005 national tour of Jesus Christ Superstar starring Carl Anderson; Into the Woods, Annie, Mamma Mia!, A Chorus Line, Spamalot, Hair, Chicago & The Producers at The Hollywood Bowl; The Ten Commandments starring Val Kilmer at the Dolby Theatre; The Creature From The Black Lagoon at Universal Studios Hollywood; The Secret Garden (Associate Design for Daniel Moses Schreier), Measure forMeasure, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Cinderella at the Ahmanson Theatre; Lackawanna Blues, Valley of the Heart, Zoot Suit, Harps & Angels, Pippin, The House of Blue Leaves, The Talking Cure, Like Jazz, Big River, Flower Drum Song and First Picture Show at the Mark Taper Forum; and all fifteen seasons of the Reprise Theatre Company’s productions at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse.
Other design work includes Paint Your Wagon, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks and Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues at the Geffen Playhouse; Ragtime, Casa Valentina, Smokey Joe’s Café, Under My Skin, Art, Play On, Only a Kingdom, and Blame it on the Movies at the Pasadena Playhouse; Young Frankenstein, 1776 and Empire the Musical at the La Mirada Theatre; Masada at the Shubert Theatre in L.A.; Forever Plaid and Blues in the Night at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami; and the U.S. workshop productions of the musical Zorro with music by John Cameron and the Gipsy Kings.
On Broadway, he assisted Daniel Moses Schreier on his Tony Award nominated sound design of Floyd Collins at Lincoln Center in 2024, as well as assisting 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 Jason Robert Brown’s 13 at the Taper, Thoroughly Modern Millie at La Jolla Playhouse, and was the head of sound for the national tours of Titanic, The Pointer Sisters’ Ain’t Misbehavin’, and Man of La Mancha with Robert Goulet.
He won the 2009 NAACP award for Sound Design for Once On This Island, 2003 NAACP award for Sound Design for Jesus Christ Superstar, the 2001 Ovation Award for Flower Drum Song, and the 1999 LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Cinderella, as well as five LA Dramalogue Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, and eight Ovation Award nominations for Best Sound Design.
Mr. Allen created the BFA Sound Design and Voiceover Acting curricula at the USC School of Dramatic Arts where he serves as a Professor of Theatre Practice and Chair of Design. He has also taught graduate design courses at UCLA and Cal Arts.