Drew Dalzell
Contact Drew
drew@diablosound.com
President/Principal Designer
Drew Dalzell is an award winning sound designer, show control programmer, and theatrical consultant. His experience encompasses theme parks, cruise ships, theatre, television, film, industrials, and installations. Drew’s multidisciplinary skill set—which ranges from lighting, sound, and set design to stage management, direction, and show control programming—uniquely qualifies him to oversee large-scale productions. In themed entertainment, Drew has worked for Universal Studios, Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney Creative Entertainment, Nickelodeon Recreation, and Paramount Parks, among others. He has done extensive sound and show control work for Universal Studios Hollywood, most notably Halloween Horror Nights 2006-2012. For Nickelodeon Resorts, Drew acted as the show control programmer and technical systems consultant for multiple shows at the Nick Hotel. His work on cruise ships includes being Technical Director for the Nickelodeon Family Cruise, Nick @ Sea, and Nick All Access from 2008-2011 and the 2009 R Family Cruise to Alaska.
Drew has designed sound for over 250 theatrical productions. His designs have appeared in venues as varied as Disney Cruise Lines’ Wonder for the world premiere of Toy Story: The Musical to world and West Coast premieres at regional theatres such as South Coast Repertory, The Laguna Playhouse, The Colony, and the Rubicon. As a young designer, he received the 1998 USITT ClearCom Sound Achievement Award. Since then, he has been nominated for Ovation, LA Weekly, Garland, LADCC, and NAACP Awards, winning multiple times. Drew also works with Stage Research as an expert trainer for their SFX Software and has trained students ranging from attendees at LDI to Local 1 members in New York City. Some of Drew’s notable installation work includes working with Utopia Entertainment on a large scale wireless audio speaker system for the City of Beverly Hills holiday season and the San Diego Zoo, and managing show control design and integration for the Porsche Hall at the LA Auto Show. His television work can be heard in the dialog recording and editing for Ruroni Kenshin, Batman Beyond, Detentions, and Justice League.
Drew received his MFA in Theatrical Sound Design from the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, and his subsequent accomplishments and unique skill set have created a demand for him as a lecturer. He teaches specialized classes in sound design at California Institute of the Arts, the University of California Los Angeles, and Santa Monica Community College; he has also lectured at Yale University, University of California Irvine, The University of Missouri Kansas City, North Carolina School for the Arts, Purdue University, Pomona College, and The University of Cincinnati.
Ian Burch
Contact Ian
ian@diablosound.com
Senior Engineer
Growing up in Kansas under the watchful and artistic eyes of his parents – his father was a lighting designer and theatre history professor, his mother was a studio artist and photographer – Ian naturally rebelled and at a young age became a classically trained singer and cellist.
Ian received his BFA in Theatre from Emporia State University. He intended to have a double major of cello performance and theatre arts, but the collaborative aspects of theatre had a stronger allure. There he began his foray into sound; during his time at ESU he began working for the Santa Fe Opera in audio/video, starting as an intern and ending his time there as the head of the department. He continued to work for the Opera for two more years after being accepted at CalArts for graduate school. He graduated from CalArts in 2005, changing his focus from designing to mixing. He was a mixer and A2 on multiple productions, including a South American tour of Scooby Doo Live. His big break was mixing a musical version of Carmen at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2007.
When Ian was looking to get off the road in 2008, he accepted the position of Assistant Technical Director of Sound & Video at REDCAT (Roy & Edna Disney / CalArts Theatre), which is CalArts’ downtown center for the contemporary arts. Six years later, he moved on to South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa where he was responsible for two LORT theatres as the Sound & Video Supervisor.
Ian has happily been with Diablo Sound since the end of 2015. Over the years, Ian has performed work in system engineering and designs, mixing and remixing, live, installation, exhibition, museums, programming, integration, and some content development.
Heather Waters
Contact Heather
heather@diablosound.com
Senior Project Manager
Heather Waters has been working in live theatre for ten years as a sound technician and worked for Diablo Sound for the last four years during Halloween Horror Nights. She joined the Diablo Sound team full-time in 2015. Heather has also worked at The Colony Theatre in Burbank as the main sound technician from 2009-2013. From 2007-2009 she was the lead audio engineer for Pirates Dinner Adventure in Buena Park; she also worked for the Ent. Department at Knotts Berry Farm for two years.
Fernando Vasquez
Contact Fernando
heather@diablosound.com
Senior Programmer
Fernando Vasquez, a SoCal native, joined the Diablo Sound family in 2017 after working alongside Diablo Sound as a freelance sound designer and mix engineer since 2008. Fernando has been on the cutting edge of interactive technology since childhood, building unique and scalable platform solutions for almost two decades. He has designed and mixed shows all over Southern California, from 99-seat theaters to 2000-seat concert venues. He held the Audio Technician position at the South Coast Repertory for the 2009-2010 season, managing audio for two LORT theatre spaces. He has built and collaborated on projects featuring technology in Audio Design, Show Control, Internet of Things, and Social Commerce.
Fernando graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with a BFA in sound design, and is certified on Dante (Levels 1, 2, & 3) as well as on Q-SYS (Levels 1 & 2).
Mark Ostrander
Contact Mark
mark.ostrander@diablosound.com
Lead Entertainment Technician
Mark started his journey toward sound by being in a high school garage band, in his home town of Duluth, Minnesota. He did the sound engineering for the group, figuring out how to use a PA and mixer along the way. Sadly, the band did not stay together.
Mark moved to Los Angeles in 2010 to go to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) for musical theatre. Though he did not ultimately become a performer as he originally planned, he found that he had a passion and inclination towards the technical aspects of theatre. He even took a job at the school theatre which included set construction, lighting, and sound. He graduated from AMDA with a BFA in Musical Theatre.
Thereafter, Mark worked for a school education program called Star Education. He headed up their sound department and supported all the technical aspects of their touring performances. He also explored freelance work in tech and mixing with many companies around Los Angeles, including Diablo Sound.
In 2016, Mark first worked for Diablo Sound with Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights and Unbound Productions’ Wicked Lit. Diablo Sound hired Mark full-time in 2017.
Julien Elstob
Contact Julien
julien@diablosound.com
Control Programmer/Entertainment Systems Designer
Julien (he/him) started his career running a follow-spot for a middle school production of The Wizard of Oz. Ever since, he has been fascinated by how things fit together, what is happening behind the scenes and why each piece of the puzzle is there.
Coming to Diablo Sound with a theatrical lighting background and many years of experience in the corporate entertainment and broadcast television industries, Julien is always excited to meld cutting-edge technologies with old-school stagecraft.
Tina Perrucci
Contact Tina
tina@diablosound.com
Office Manager
Tina R. Perrucci (she/her) is a Stage Manager, Graphic Designer and Freelance Project Manager with over 20 years experience in nearly every aspect of theatre. She has toured the world, stage-managing large-scale musicals and operas as well as managing and/or designing for numerous regional theatres here in the U.S. She has been working with Drew Dalzell and Diablo Sound for more than a decade.