
Heist
Heist by Arun Lakra (United States Premiere)
Directed by Matt August at Arizona Theatre Company
Original Music & Sound Design: Daniel Perelstein Jaquette
Set Design: James Noone
Costume Design: Kish Finnegan
Lighting Design: Mike Billings
Media Design: Sven Ortel
Production Photos by Tim Fuller except where noted.




“Inspired by caper films like “Ocean’s Eleven”, “The Italian Job”, and “The Sting”, this fast-paced, high-stakes thriller is packed with double crosses, disguises, and daring escapes. When a team of professional thieves assembles to steal the world’s rarest jewels, the plan seems foolproof – until it goes spectacularly wrong. Tensions rise, betrayals mount, and “Heist” becomes a rollercoaster of adrenaline that will keep you guessing far beyond the final curtain.”
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I served as composer and sound designer for this ambitious and inspiring production. Much of the two-hour show was scored musically, with 45 scene changes, underscore for the majority of the scenes, and several special musical gestures to top it off, including an opening credits sequence (as in a film), and an "avatar" for each character (as in a video game). I composed more than 150 pieces of music for this show between the research, rehearsal, and production phases, ranging from 3-second long stings to 12-minute long pieces of underscoring. In addition to the musical composition, Heist is jam-packed with a huge number of sound effects (from gunfire to flying drones to brain scanners).
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Enjoy listening to excerpts from the score of Heist!
Press:
“The set, lighting, and audiovisual components of the show are some of the strongest ATC [Arizona Theatre Company] has ever designed.” — Broadway World​
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"This is arguably the most unique and most ambitious play ATC has put on its stage in recent memory." — Arizona Daily Star (Tucson.com)