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Industrial Stagecraft: Tooling and Cultural Production

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Industrial Stagecraft: Tooling and Cultural Production Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 3-8-2018 2:30 PM Industrial Stagecraft: Tooling and Cultural Production Jennifer A. Hambleton The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Blackmore, Tim The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Media Studies A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Jennifer A. Hambleton 2018 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Other Film and Media Studies Commons, and the Work, Economy and Organizations Commons Recommended Citation Hambleton, Jennifer A., "Industrial Stagecraft: Tooling and Cultural Production" (2018). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 5263. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/5263 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract The tooling of theatrical spectacle requires collaboration between stagecraft technicians and designers in an increasingly globalized and standardized manufacturing process. While hand skills are still used and remain useful, digital fabrication and other tools are now incorporated in labour processes in scenery manufacturing workshops, altering collaborative work in complex ways. This thesis is an inquiry into the epistemological role of software and digital fabrication tools in stagecraft practices and explores how the politics of craft labour intersect with material practices in media production labour. The technical aspects of the fabrication of theatrical spectacles and display environments, the way objects are used to think, and the ways tools mediate practices suggest how tacit knowledge is produced and reproduced in scenery manufacturing workshops that build theatrical sets and corporate display environments. The articles in this thesis draw from case study research of a community of craft technicians who work in the industry of theatrical display in southern Ontario, Canada. Each of the four articles focuses on different facets of this case study. The technician’s work in labour processes in scenery workshops is compared to repair and bricolage. Autonomy or self-determination over tasks in the workshop sites is explored in its material and embodied sense. The collaboration between the designer and scenic artist is mediated with digital media and this complicates established occupational roles. A case of collective organizing exemplifies the individualistic/collective dichotomy of craft labour. Using an inductive approach, the empirical research for this community case study was accomplished with participant observation and semistructured interviewing. My analysis of interview transcripts and interpretation of field data utilizes an autoethnographic methodology to reflect on and draw from my past work experience in theatre production labour as a builder and scenic artist. In this integrated article thesis, I consider how material practices constitute culture in media production labour. Keywords Craft, cultural production, theatre, labour, technology, tacit knowledge, unions i Acknowledgments This research would not have been possible without the cooperation of the people who agreed to be part of this study. I am so grateful to the individuals who participated in the interviews for this study, some of whom spoke with me for over three hours and who generously allowed me to follow up with them to ask more questions. I would like to especially thank scenic artists Richard Mongiat and Anna Treusch who let me include several photographs of their scenic art practices during the process of creating scenic backdrops for the Toronto opera company, Opera Atelier, in both this thesis and a journal article. Many thanks to my supervisor, Tim Blackmore, who taught me to trust my instincts while he shepherded me through the process. Thanks also to my second readers, Bill Turkel, for without his thoughtful advice over the past three years I would not have had the heart to complete this project, and Carole Farber, who has provided staunch support all throughout my graduate studies in FIMS. Thanks most of all to my loves, my husband David, and my son James, who grew eleven-and-a-half inches taller during the time I completed this degree. ii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iii List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vi List of Appendices ............................................................................................................ vii Preface.............................................................................................................................. viii 1 Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Some Definitions .................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Overview of the Articles ....................................................................................... 12 1.3 Research Questions and Methods ......................................................................... 16 1.4 Craft?..................................................................................................................... 26 1.5 Tacit Knowledges ................................................................................................. 33 1.6 Collective Values and Practices ............................................................................ 38 1.7 The Megamusical .................................................................................................. 46 1.8 Megamusical Craft ................................................................................................ 51 1.9 Convergence ......................................................................................................... 56 1.10 Outsourcing Broadway ....................................................................................... 59 1.11 Flexible Specialization ........................................................................................ 63 1.12 Theatre and the Cultural Industries ..................................................................... 65 1.13 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 73 2 Chapter 2: “Everything is paper napkin-y….” Repair, Bricolage, and Industrial Stagecraft ..................................................................................................................... 88 2.1 Bricoleurs .............................................................................................................. 90 2.2 The Scenery Workshop ......................................................................................... 92 iii 2.3 Industrial Stagecraft and Nonsynchronicity.......................................................... 94 2.4 Reskilling .............................................................................................................. 98 2.5 Autonomous Invisible Workshops ........................................................................ 99 2.6 Art(craft)–Commerce Relationship .................................................................... 105 2.7 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 108 3 Chapter 3: Broadway North: Craft in Canadian Cultural Production ........................ 114 3.1 Divided Labour/The Construction of Creativity ................................................. 115 3.2 Broadway North .................................................................................................. 118 3.3 Craft Autonomy and the “Workmanship of Risk” .............................................. 120 3.4 Research Methods ............................................................................................... 123 3.5 Core Workers and the Recruitment of Workers ................................................. 125 3.6 From Stage Carpenters to “Assemblers” ............................................................ 127 3.7 The Autonomy of the Scenic Artist .................................................................... 130 3.8 Intensification and Standardization..................................................................... 135 3.9 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 138 4 Chapter 4: Painting a Backdrop: Scene Painting and Digital Media ......................... 144 4.1 Introduction: “Unruly Moments” ........................................................................ 146 4.2 Contemporary Scenography................................................................................ 148 4.3 Division of Labour .............................................................................................
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