CREATIVITY AND TECHNICAL THEATRE APPROACHES FOR THE ENHANCEMENT OF CREATIVITY IN TEACHING PERFORMANCE TECHNOLOGIES
NICHOLAS DAY
A THESIS IN FULFILLMENT OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY
UNSW
SCHOOL OF ART & DESIGN
SEPTEMBER 2020
1 Thesis/Dissertation Sheet Australia's Global SYDNEY University
Surname/Family Name DAY Given Name/s NICHOLAS Abbreviation for degree as give in the University calendar MPhil Faculty FACULTY OF ART & DESIGN School SCHOOL OF ART DESIGN AND MEDIA APPROACHES TO THE ENHANCEMENT OF CREATIVITY IN TEACHING Thesis Title PERFORMANCE TECHNOLOGIES
Abstract 350 words maximum: (PLEASE TYPE)s Abstract This project investigates the role and enhancement of creativity in the education of technical theatre practitioners, which can include designers, scenic constructors, production and technical managers, costumiers, technical designers and props makers among others. Although these professions are ofteneducated in theatre schools, which emphasise creativity, there is little direct engagement with broad based creativity in the education of these key professionals. To frame the creative attributes referred to in this project I'll use Robert Sternberg's descriptors, '(a) the synthetic ability to see problems in new ways and escape the boundaries of conventional thinking, (b) the analytic ability to know how to recognise which of your ideas are worth pursuing and which are not and (c) the practicaJ-contextualability to know how to persuade others of- to sell other people on- the values of one's ideas.' Practitioners of technical theatre bring a passion for creation and fluency with technologies to the production team, however the creative aspect of their work is oftenunderestimated in both the industry and in education. The project will encompass several activities - (1) A literature review to understand the current thinking regarding creativity and pedagogy. (2) A review of tertiary theatrical training institutions. (3) A survey of tertiary theatrical training institutions to establish how they view their courses engagement with creativity. (4) A survey of industry to establish where it places creativity as a necessary attribute for technical staff. (5) A survey of current students and recent graduates. (6) Focus groups and interviews to add further detail to my understanding of the current situation. We will be referencing the work of Guilford (1950),Csikszentmihalyi (1990), Sternberg (1999), Amabile & Collins (1999), Runco (1999) among others for their psychological insights into the nature of creativity. Using the literature and gathered information I will show that the current dominant curriculum design used to train theatre technicians can be counterproductive in terms of the development of creative practice. I will then go on to create a framework which can be used by educators charged with developing curriculum for technical theatre which will enhance student's understanding of themselves as creative collaborators.
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Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Graham Forsyth for his indispensable assistance in the formation of this research and the tireless good humour throughout as well as Vaughn Rees for his critical eye and guidance. I would also like to thank the respondents to my surveys, focus groups and interviews without whose support this study would have been impossible.
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Table of Contents
LIST OF PLATES ...... 4 LIST OF FIGURES ...... 5 ABBREVIATIONS ...... 5
INTRODUCTION ...... 6
CHAPTER 1 ...... 11
METHODOLOGY ...... 11
...... 17
...... 17
CHAPTER 2 ...... 17
2.1 WHAT IS TECHNICAL THEATRE? ...... 17 2.2 SETTING THE SCENE ...... 23 2.4 HOW DO INDUSTRY DISTINCTIONS OPERATE IN THEATRE EDUCATION? ...... 33
CHAPTER 3 ...... 37
3.1 TYPES OF CREATIVITY ...... 37 3.2 THEORIES OF CREATIVITY ...... 41
CHAPTER 4 ...... 49
4.1 INDUSTRY ATTITUDES TO CREATIVITY IN TECHNICAL THEATRE ...... 49 4.2 ATTITUDES TO CREATIVITY IN TECHNICAL THEATRE EDUCATION ...... 55
CHAPTER 5 ...... 60
5.1 HOW CAN CREATIVITY BE ADDRESSED? ...... 60 5.2 CURRICULUM ...... 62 5.3 LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT ...... 69 5.1.3 ATTITUDES ...... 83
CHAPTER 6 ...... 86
6.1 OVERVIEW ...... 86 6.2 CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDED FURTHER RESEARCH ...... 92 6.3 CONCLUSION ...... 93
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APPENDIX ...... 94
APPENDIX 1: CURRICULUM MODULES: ...... 94 APPENDIX .2: SURVEY RESULTS - EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS ...... 102 APPENDIX .3: SURVEY RESULTS - CURRENT STUDENTS ...... 116 APPENDIX .4: SURVEY RESULTS - RECENT ALUMNI ...... 137 APPENDIX .5: SURVEY RESULTS - INDUSTRY SURVEY RESULTS ...... 160
FOCUS GROUP RESPONSES ...... 180
SURVEY INSTITUTIONS CURRICULUMS / COURSE OUTLINES ...... 189
VICTORIAN COLLEGE OF THE ARTS ...... 189 VCA ELECTIVES - LEVEL 1 SUBJECTS ...... 200 VCA ELECTIVES – LEVEL 2 SUBJECTS ...... 202 VCA ELECTIVES - LEVEL 3 SUBJECTS ...... 205 THE THEATRE SCHOOL – DE PAUL UNIVERSITY ...... 206 LIR DUBLIN ...... 209 ROYAL ACADEMY OF DRAMATIC ART (RADA) ...... 211 ROYAL CONSERVATOIRE OF SCOTLAND ...... 213 CAL ARTS ...... 214 UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL ...... 227 LONDON ACADEMY OF MUSIC AND DRAMATIC ART (LAMDA) ...... 229 YALE ...... 230 CENTRAL SCHOOL OF SPEECH AND DRAMA ...... 239
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS ...... 286
BARRY CONWAY – LIR – DUBLIN - IRELAND ...... 286 CARLY O’NEIL- QUT – BRISBANE - AUSTRALIA ...... 297 DANNY PERSEE - LIR – DUBLIN - IRELAND ...... 306 DENNIS GILL BOOTH- UNC – CHARLOTTE - USA ...... 324 JASON GARABENIS- WAAPA – PERTH - AUSTRALIA ...... 338 NEIL FRASER – RADA – LONDON - UK ...... 349 SHANE KELLY - DE PAUL – CHICAGO USA ...... 358
RESUMÉ ...... 367
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 375
List of Plates PLATE: 1 - EURYDEKIE + ORPHEUS NIDA 2017, PHOTO N.DAY 17 PLATE: 2 - PLY LATHES TO CREATE UNDULATING SURFACE, PHOTO - I TURLAND 20 PLATE: 3 - PALLET RACKING SUB=STRUCTURE WITH PLY FORMERS ABOVE. PHOTO - I TURLAND 20 PLATE: 4 - POOL NOODLES AND MUSLIN TO CREATE THE FINISHED CORRUGATIONS. PHOTO - I TURLAND 21
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PLATE: 5 - ROBERTO ZUCCO NIDA 2019. PHOTO:PATRICK BOLAND 37 PLATE: 6 - OUT OF REACH, NIDA 2009. PHOTO UNKNOWN 49
List of Figures FIGURE 1 CSIKSZENTMIHALYI'S CREATIVE CYCLE ...... 23 FIGURE 2 AMABILE'S CREATIVITY COMPONENTS ...... 45 FIGURE 3 STERNBERG'S CREATIVE ENABLERS ...... 81
Abbreviations NIDA National Institute of Dramatic Art QUT Queensland University of Technology RADA Royal Academy of Dramatic Art UNC University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill WAAPA West Australian Academy of Performing Arts
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INTRODUCTION
In 2011, I started developing a new course dealing with scenery construction and associated technologies for the National Institute of Dramatic Art
(NIDA), Sydney, Australia.
I had joined NIDA in 2006 as Head of Production Crafts and it was clear that, as the skills required by scenic constructors had grown considerably over the last decade, the 2-year Advanced Certificate in Scenery Construction offered at the time should be considerably revised and expanded to a 3-year bachelor degree.
In writing the new course, with the significant change from Australian Qualifications
[AQF] Framework Level 6 to AQF Level 71, I considered my own experiences over the 26 years I’d spent in the industry as a technician, not only in terms of required skills and knowledge, but also the collaborative relationships and work streams within the performing arts. Having entered the industry with an art school background, with experience in collaborative, co-design projects, I thought of my own practice as that of a creative contributor. I was aware, however, that some members of the theatre industry didn’t necessarily see technicians as creative contributors, but as fabricators or facilitators of other people’s ideas.
The common lexicon of the industry voiced this attitude with terms such as
‘technicians’ or even ‘tekkies’ as opposed to ‘creatives’.
My starting point, which I will develop in this thesis, is firstly that this distinction is misleading in relation to the actual roles technical staff perform in theatre
1 AQF (2021) Australian Qualifications Framework, AQF Levels. Available at: https://www.aqf.edu.au/aqf-levels (Accessed: 12 February 2021).
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production, and secondly, that it has a detrimental impact on theatre education, in that it serves to diminish and undermine the opportunity for students of technical theatre to take on roles as creative contributors to performance-based collaborative projects, which is increasingly expected in contemporary theatre. From my experience, practitioners of technical theatre can bring a passion for creation and a fluency with technologies to the production team, even if the creative aspect of their work is often underestimated in both the industry and education.
This thesis reflects my deep concern with both the value that theatre technicians can bring to theatrical production and education for these key roles. I will show that too much of theatre education fails to provide adequate acknowledgement of, or support for, the creative roles assumed by theatre technicians and that there are enormous opportunities to meet the needs for a more agile and innovative workforce through reform of curriculum and culture in theatre schools.
The question this thesis addresses is: how can the education of theatre technicians in theatre schools be reformed to better enhance the capacity of graduates to work as creative problem-solvers, innovators and collaborators?
To answer this question this thesis interrogates what is understood in the theatre and educational sectors as creative problem-solving and innovation in technical theatre, to unpack both an account of what is needed and also the complex and often contradictory attitudes to these professionals. What I will show, through an exploration of attitudes and expectations, is that although there is an understanding of the importance of creative capacity for technicians, it is poorly reflected in educational practice, and also, it is still inflected by older distinctions between
“creative artists” as visionaries and the non-creative agents who merely realise this vision. I unpack these attitudes within the historical context which shows that class-
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based understandings of manual as opposed to mental labour have played a role in determining the standing of technical theatre as craft or skills-based activity as opposed to innovative or creative.
The complexity of attitudes is partly a sign of an industry in transition, as theatre, like many creative industries, responds to financial and other pressures by increasingly expecting all staff to be innovative, agile problem-solvers. What we have seen during the Covid-19 pandemic is the need for technicians to quickly develop
new presentation environments, using technologies designed for corporate communications, messaging and gaming to present interactive storytelling. A key background to this thesis is the awareness that technical theatre graduates, like all graduates in the 21st century increasingly need new skill sets, summed up as “agility, creativity and connectedness. Graduates need to be agile, with the ‘ability to rapidly and thoughtfully respond to changing conditions’2; creative, which involves ‘open- ended interactions with ideas and exploration’3; and connected, with the ability to communicate, lead and work collaboratively online.4
Information on the extent to which theatre technicians play an active creative role in theatre production, and the nature of that role is essential to properly understanding what will be needed from a 21st century theatre education system, as well as
2 Deloitte (2014) Banking industry outlook repositioning for growth (online). Available at :http://www.deloitte.com/assets/DcomUnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents?FSI/us_fsi_DCFS20 14BankingIndustryOutlook_111113.pdf
3 Zehner, R.,Forsyth, G, Musgrave, E, Neal, D., de la Hrpe, B., Frankham, N (2009) Curriculim development in studio teaching. Final Report. Sydney:Australian Learning and Teaching Council (online) Available at: http//online.cofa.unsw.edu.au/studioteaching
4 Chandler & Macleod (2013) Organisational agility – navigating the maze. White Article (online) Available at: http//www.chandlermacleod.com/media/chandler-macleod- 2013/white%20articles/organisational%20agility.pdf
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understanding barriers to its implementation . This understanding will be further broadened by information on the inconsistent nature of how creative input from theatre technicians is understood by both industry and educators. The enhancement of theatre education’s capacity to address creative practice in theatre technicians can only be achieved if there is a clear-sighted understanding of the barriers, which include perceptions and attitudes.
The thesis will then leverage research into creativity in the context of problem-solving and innovation to propose criteria against which theatre schools’ curricula can be assessed. Researchers such as Robert Sternberg, Teresa Amabile, Mihalyi
Csikszentmihalyi, Chris Agyris, Donald Schon, Mark Runco and William Gordon will be addressed. This will enable a considered approach to both the engagement with creativity that already exists in degree programs and the opportunities to enhance these outcomes and overcome barriers.
The thesis will use a detailed exploration of the current educational framework, including curricula, course structure, published outcomes, surveys of leading educational institutions and detailed conversations with key staff, to pinpoint key impediments to educational reform and also opportunities to build on existing good practice. What will be made clear is that attitudes have combined with now outdated work patterns to structure curricula in theatre schools that fail to adequately support technical theatre students in developing these key capacities and skills.
In addition to the literature, survey data and interviews, I will be drawing on my 26 years in the theatre, film and events industries to add autoethnographic5 material to further explain my understanding of the issues at play in the performing arts
5 Bryman, A. (2012) Social Research Methods. 4th edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Pg.431
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production environment. These insights will be from the viewpoint of a practitioner who has worked in many capacities in the stage mechanical, set construction and art department spheres before moving into production management.
I will also be referencing the experience of my 14 years as an educator, reflecting on my own career and professional relationships and experiences, particularly in relation to course design and my own teaching practice.
The thesis will conclude with a summation of the innovative aspects and pivotal considerations of my research, which may provide educators in this area with fresh approaches to curricula design and promote the role of creativity in the education of theatre technicians.
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CHAPTER 1
METHODOLOGY
The substance of my research is predominantly qualitative and brings together three key components: 1. A set of surveys and interviews with a broad range of practitioners in technical
theatre (educators, practitioners and students).
2. A detailed criteria-based analysis of curriculum documentation from key theatre
schools across Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Europe and New Zealand.
3. Analysis of existing research into the different modes, and the nature, of creative
pedagogy, and how it can be implemented in the teaching of theatre technicians.
The surveys and interviews took place over 2016-2019 and allowed me to deepen my understanding of how technical theatre has been taught in major theatre schools across the world and the understanding of creative practice, and attitudes to creative practice in technical theatre. I utilised web-based cross-sectional surveys of students, teachers and theatre practitioners to account for attitudes to creative practice in theatre while the experience of students in educational and professional settings was used to assess expectations of technical theatre students as well as their understandings of the role creativity plays in their education.
A critical component of the research is documentation of the educational practices across prominent theatre schools. The initial design of the research (commencing in
2016) centred around the collection and criteria-based analysis of curriculum documentation from leading institutions6 in the field of teaching technical theatre
6 Reporter, H. (no date) The 25 Best Drama Schools for an Acting Degree, Ranked. Available at: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/25-best-drama-schools-an-acting-degree-ranked- 1112232/item/top-25-schools-2018-yale-1112168 (Accessed: 5 April 2016).
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education. The criteria used included duration of course and award given, the possibility of cross-discipline experiences or electives, the study of creative thinking practice, breadth of the school cohort in terms of theatre disciplines and an in-course connection to industry. The sample group was derived by a web search for the ‘top
25 theatre schools in the world’, with the additional criteria that tuition was in English.
By including the drama schools that NIDA benchmarked against itself from Australia,
New Zealand and overseas, I arrived at a list of 28 prominent institutions which offer technical courses.
The information on degree outcomes, structure, subject areas addressed, assessment structures, as well as enrolment requirements were used to develop criteria for a web-based survey. The survey was then designed and distributed to heads of technical departments at those schools in order to ascertain how they perceived creative collaboration more generally and how the creativity of theatre technicians was supported in their institutions. There was also the opportunity to volunteer for participation in structured web-based focus groups following the survey.
In addition, these heads of department were asked to circulate tailored cross- sectional surveys to their current students and recent alumni. From this process, 15
Educational Institutions, 66 Current Students, 77 Recent Alumni and 4 Industry contacts responded.
These surveys were also designed against the background of a review of contemporary research into the nature of creativity by key contributors to the field.
A critical argument for my thesis is the importance of reframing technical practice away from the purely procedural and technical towards an approach that engages with creativity and problem-solving. Scholarly approaches to creativity in relation to practice in particular, provide a set of working definitions that are used to
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interrogate contemporary practice and support the development of new models of pedagogy that can enhance creative practice in technical theatre.
The literature around creativity is extremely large, and it was important to narrow down the options. I focused on theorists whose concepts of creativity particularly work with key aspects of technical theatre practice. One aspect that I argue is central to the practice and education of theatre technicians is that of creative collaboration.
Creative collaboration is addressed clearly in the work of Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi
(1997). I use Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of a ‘creative cycle’ involving the interaction of the individual and the domain moderated by the gatekeepers (the field), as easily recognised within the structures of creative collaboration in the performing arts. His notion of flow, where ‘the person is not only enjoying the moment, but, is also stretching his or her capabilities with the likelihood of learning new skills and increasing self-esteem and personal complexity’, which I argue is an optimal outcome for curricula to engender.
In addition, time and motivation are central in the context of tight production timelines in both theatre and school. I look to the work of Teresa Amabile (1999) and her discussion of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators to allow a re-consideration of curriculum timing which can enhance rather than diminish motivation and consequent creativity,
I also use the work of Robert Sternberg (1999) and his collaborators in elucidating attributes and behaviors of creativity as a practice to shape an understanding of the creative individual and the environment required to produce creative outcomes.
Other researchers that address specific aspects of creativity as behaviour and creativity in pedagogy are also introduced through the thesis. In that I’m primarily focused on creativity in collaborative practice, I haven’t spent time investigating
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neurological studies of creativity or mechanisms for the fertilization of ideas such as
‘thinking hats’, ‘mind mapping’ or Synectic pinball as put forward by De Bono, Buzan or Roukes for example. These may appear within curriculum topics but wouldn’t steer the design of curriculum.
Following the surveys, links to an online forum were distributed to educators, current students and recent alumni that offered to participate in the focus groups, to further investigate curriculum and student experience in finer detail. I chose the medium of an online forum as it avoided the difficulties posed by international time zones and offered the commentator time to reflect and frame their response.
In order to trial a model curriculum that would use contemporary models of creativity in education to address issues raised in the surveys and curriculum analysis, I developed a module on Creative Thinking Practice for Technical Theatre that I planned to deliver as part of an exemplifying case study7 group at NIDA. The proposal was that second-year students would be surveyed on their understanding of creativity in their practice prior completing the module online. They would be surveyed again, after having completed a play production season as part of the normal academic calendar, to determine if the module’s focus on raising awareness of creative thinking processes altered the experience of working in a production at
NIDA, and thus help determine the effectiveness of the interventions I am proposing.
Unfortunately, I came up against some obstacles in the execution of some surveys in the form of very poor response rates and the re-structuring of NIDA’s academic staff putting the time frame of my case study out of the question.
In addition, although the number, spread and nationality of respondents in the initial
7 Bryman, A. (2012) Social Research Methods. 4th edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.pp.70
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surveys provided me with an excellent oversight of the sector, with only 3 or 4 respondents in each category volunteering for focus groups and 7 from the case study cohort of 40 wanting to take part, I was forced to re-think the structure of the research to ensure that I was still able to properly address the research question.
The inability to run the trial impacted on the quality of feedback and on the validity of proposals I would make to enhance the education of technical theatre practitioners. I took the decision to replace this aspect with detailed structured interviews with key department heads from major institutions. This allowed me to appropriately test my proposals, to provide further testing of best practice as described by researchers in the area of creative pedagogy such as Jeffrey and Craft8 and Jackson and Oliver9, and test the results of the initial surveys concerning the strengths and limitations of the current dominant pedagogy. I interviewed 6 of heads of department; 2 from the
US, 1 from the UK, 1 from Europe and 2 from Australia, who had already contributed to the research discussing issues around curriculum and student experience and how they saw developments in student’s engagement with creativity developing in their schools. These critical interviews allowed me to confirm and validate my conclusions.
My 26 years in the industry10 brought with it a multitude of professional relationships with allied disciplines and associated hierarchies in film, theatre and events, providing me with a rich and nuanced understanding of many of the cultural attitudes
8 Jeffrey, B. and Craft, A. (2004) ‘Teaching creatively and teaching for creativity: Distinctions and relationships’, Educational Studies, 30(1), pp. 77–87. doi: 10.1080/0305569032000159750.
9 Jackson, N. et al. (2006) Developing Creativity in Higher Education - An Imaginative Curriculum. Routledge Great Britain.
10 Day, N. (2021) Resumé Nicholas Day.Pg.361
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that frame the understanding of disciplinary roles and limits, as well as of the practical and commercial imperatives that impact on these attitudes. My14 years since, as Production Manager/Head of Course, Scenic Construction and
Technologies in Australia’s national theatre school have also provided me with critical experience of the ways in which practice and pedagogy interact and the challenges as well as opportunities in reshaping curricula. Over these years at NIDA
I wrote the new course mentioned in the Introduction where, although needing to fit into the existing four term structure, I was given complete freedom to choose my own advisory panel and develop a unique course in its field, a course that reflected my
‘hands-on’ experience of the need for innovation and ingenuity in technical theatre practice. This personal history provides me with two viewpoints through which to focus on and interrogate the ways in which creative collaboration and pedagogy is addressed in the current educational context. As both a long serving reflective practitioner and as an educator, who benchmarked across NIDA’s closest competitors in the development of a new Scenic Construction & Technologies course. While I do not teach into the areas of stage management or costume for instance, which could be seen as limiting, my position as production manager offers me opportunities to work closely with students from all areas and so goes some way to alleviating this shortcoming.
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1. Plate: 1 - Eurydekie + Orpheus NIDA 2017, Photo N.Day
CHAPTER 2
2.1 What is Technical Theatre?
From the introduction I have shown that the practice of technical theatre can be seen from differing perspectives. People may go to the theatre and witness the technique of the performers, the moulding of space through the lighting, be moved by a soundscape, view projected images or even mediate the performance with our mobile phones - the technical is most apparent through the utilised technology. But there is another more invisible level of technology that is at work during a performance. It’s the techne of the practitioners, the tacit knowledge that is in every stitch in a costume, the fabrication of a prop or the method in the set construction.
It’s in the nuance of the Stage Manger’s show call and in the response of the operators. In talking about the creativity implicit in the work of theatre technicians, it’s
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necessary to consider the choice of technology and the way it is used, like a painter choosing a brush and their attack on the canvas. So, technicians can be seen as artisans manipulating technologies that bring forth a pre-visioned product, a forward- reflective imagining of the performance piece.
There are many different journeys the planning for a production can take, but all processes require a great deal of communication and effort from each individual involved across the collaborative group, so a staged performance is the culmination of dialogue between many players.
The production manager is involved from the beginning of the design process, as they consider logistical and budgetary constraints as well as possible material and technical approaches to the design possibilities suggested by references and sketch models etc. Once the designs, or at least the dramaturgical parameters of the production are established, the rest of the production unit come on-line to commence discussions around the desired aesthetics and materiality of the piece, planning and costing the build and installation of the production into its venue.
The entire production team begins meeting in order to plan how to achieve the designs within the time and resources allocated. The initial production team may consist of the Director, Set and Costume Designer, Lighting Designer, Sound
Designer, Production Manager, Technical Director, the Stage Manager, Construction
Manager, Costume Supervisor, Properties Supervisor, Production Electrician, Sound
Technician and any other workshop heads who may be involved (such as an
Automation Engineer, a Rigger, a Projection Technician, an Audio Engineer, Scenic
Artist). All of these lead technicians are responsible for working out how the structural, mechanical and aesthetic reality of the piece can co-exist with the limitations of money, rehearsal time and scheduling in the theatre, and construction
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areas. Once production meetings start occurring on a regular basis, each of these technical managers, who are artisans themselves, can then begin the task of overseeing the realisation of designs in the various workspaces.
From a scenic construction point of view this process firstly requires reflection backward, searching examples within the domain, discussing options: what approaches may be useful? Which ones are not? Then possibly experimenting with new materials and processes, lighting or projection tests - will it survive the rain in act 2? It then requires forward reflection, the imagining of the materials and processes and the hands manipulating those elements to bring forth the desired outcome, and further on, the hands that will be manipulating its operation and the interaction of the elements with cast. The Head of Set Construction will be a practitioner who has worked on many productions at various levels and are experienced in a broad array of techniques and materials, they will be assisted by a range of artisans who may specialise in other materials and processes, such as carpenters, metalworkers and scenic artists. They too will bring their tacit knowledge to the piece and may have been cherry picked for their particular creative input, and so the finished piece will have the maker’s ‘hand’ evident.
To illustrate this collaborative approach, I’ll draw on personal experience with a production ‘Khandahar Gate’ which was produced at NIDA in 2014. The designer came to me with a proposal to stage the piece on a sand dune in which a shipping container had been buried. The proposed set piece was to be 16 metres wide 10 meters deep and 8 metres high and set on a raked platform of 1:12. The initial conversation between the designer and myself was to do with replicating the undulating, corrugated sand surface of the model and photographic references.
From past practice I suggested using plywood profiles over which we would apply
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lathes of plywood to achieve the undulating curves of the dune, much like an overturned boat.
Plate: 2 - Ply lathes to create undulating surface, Photo - I Turland We needed to create the sand surface without using loose sand, the silica, if becoming airborne, being a repertory irritant for the performers and the enemy of lighting equipment etc. Conversations ensued with the Head of Scenic Art and a process using muslin, PVA adhesive, paint and sand was arrived at through tests and prototyping, eventually incorporating halved pool noodles to create the corrugations.
Plate: 3 - Pallet racking sub-structure with ply formers above. Photo - I Turland
Structurally I decided to incorporate pallet racking components to reduce the amount of built volume in order to achieve the dimensions of the set piece within budget. The
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buried shipping container utilised polycarbonate roofing material that was close to the profile of shipping container exterior to complete the build.
Plate: 4 - Pool noodles and muslin to create the finished corrugations. Photo - I Turland
This process goes on in all departments simultaneously. The Head of Properties and their team’s role is to focus on the smaller, portable aspects of the scenic design such as furnishings and hand props carried by the actors. Although these items may sound ubiquitous enough, they often need to perform functions real-world objects don’t. A chair may need to be sat on one moment and then easily break over someone’s head the next. Again, there is the need to reflect forward, visualise the action and imagine the solution. Like the sets department the props department can also have specialist members who may be brought in for their particular input, such as sculptors, painters, buyers or armourers to name a few.
Like the other heads of department, the Head of Costume needs to project themselves into the world of the play and will lead the decision-making process regarding which costumes will be made, pulled from stock, borrowed, rented or purchased and then guide their department through to opening night. As costume can be central to an actor’s development of a character, members of the costume department can play an integral supporting role in the staging of a work. While the
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Head of Costume will be a very skilled and knowledgeable practitioner in their own right, they will also use a number of specialists, such as cutters & drapers, wig makers, dyers and art finishers, all of whom bring immense creativity through their practice to the table.
As mentioned above, the branches of technical theatre are many and each member of each branch brings with them discipline knowledge and a creative personality which can then influence the field of the production. In the cyclic dynamic of the production process, where ideas are thrown up and tested, kept or discarded, ideas can travel up as well as down, all participants have an opportunity to put their hand on the production.
The lines between departments can easily become blurred, is it scenery or a large prop? a piece of costume or a wearable prop? What started out a lighting idea becomes a projected image which then became part projection, part practical electrics and so on. This fluidity calls for practitioners of each discipline to have a good working knowledge of each other’s capabilities and limitations.
Theatre technicians must collaborate extensively throughout the entire process, which requires excellent communication skills, problem solving abilities, and flexibility. As productions often have short timelines, it is imperative for technicians to be able to draw upon these skills at any given moment through the process. Each individual on the production team contributes their own personality, knowledge, skills and personal experience, and their reflective practice, while staying focused on the one end point, the production. The creative transactions occurring in theatrical productions has strong resonance with Csikszentmihalyi’s systems view of creativity with culture, society and the individual feeding off one another to generate novelty.
Within the collaborative production team there is a constant flow of ideas, supported
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by the accepted culture (procedural and technical knowledge) but looking for variance and novelty when applied by the individual to the field (the production).
Figure 1 Csikszentmihalyi's Creative Cycle
2.2 Setting the Scene In the introduction I presented the idea that there is a disconnection between the creative practice of theatre technicians and attitudes within industry and theatre schools as to the recognition of creativity and the support for the development of creative practices. Here I will set the context for later discussion of creativity in education of theatre technicians and how attitudes within industry and the education environment hinder creative outcomes. I will firstly show that technical theatre requires complex creative blah. Then I will show that attitudes remain tied to earlier models which focus on technical and manual skill sets.
The type of creative processes and collaboration I’m investigating is highly contextualised within the artform of theatre. What the public sees, through the ‘fourth wall’11 of a stage, is the result of processes that incorporate numerous disciplines the
11 Fourth wall (no date). Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wal (Accessed: 10 May 2020).
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public at large have little knowledge of. Therefore, I feel it’s necessary to spend some time unpacking the parts played by these creatively entwined disciplines and their reason for being, in order to clarify the context within which my account of creativity is set.
What I am considering as technical theatre dates from the Ancient Greeks, in the
Western canon, and possibly, in the case of First Nations people, 60,000 years through ritual and ceremony. Prior to the realism of the 20th century, in theatre it was common for the supernatural to intervene in the everyday lives of characters. In
Ancient Greece and Italy, we see the term ‘deus ex machina’ (God from a machine), or ‘le merveilleux’, ( the marvellous) in the French tradition, initially referring to the events that transpired or the characters who magically appeared, but eventually also referring to the inventions that allowed the staging of these marvels.12 The precursor to the American singer Pink flying around arenas was 2500 years earlier, when spectators were astonished by the sight of the goddess Aphrodite soaring up to the top of the skene to open Euripides’ play Hippolytus.13 Theatre has always used science and technology to enhance storytelling. The Colosseum used stage lifts, tracked elements and flying systems to quickly change scenes. Medieval Mystery plays used gunpowder to signal the devil. Edwardian and Victorian theatre used painted flat scenery to frame classical tableaux illuminated by limelight technology and later by electric light controlled by immersion dimmers.
The 20th century’s widespread adoption of computers in theatre (initially used for the control of lighting and sound and as a method of programming stage machinery) has
12 Cuillé, T. B. (2011) ‘Marvelous machines: Revitalizing enlightenment opera’, Opera Quarterly, 27(1), pp. 66–93. doi: 10.1093/oq/kbr008.
13 McKinven, J. (1995) Stage Flying:431BC to Modern Times. David Meyers Magic Books.
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allowed the increased use of projected images, mapped surfaces and virtual spaces, accelerating the impact of innovative technologies. Digital technology has expanded into the theatre environment, allowing the coexistence of live performers and live streamed or pre-recorded digital media in the same unbroken space with a co- present audience, and performances that incorporate both co-present and remote audiences and the blending of the two.14 In the contemporary setting theatre technicians work in the traditional proscenium arch environment as well as the site specific and transmedia environments and any combination of all of these. The rise of film and television through the 20th century has also had a profound effect on the visual expectations of theatre audiences and directors, as Wendall K. Harrington of the Yale School of Drama comments:
“I explain to my classes that every playwright and director alive today grew up in the age of cinema and television,” Harrington says. “There is so much projection because they have been conditioned to think in these terms: Theatre directors want scenes to ‘dissolve’ into each other; they'd like a ‘close up’—these are cinematic and
TV terms. It would be hard now to write a play like Long Days Journey into Night— four hours in one room seems unthinkable.”15
The work required to produce a piece of theatre may start years before the production opens and requires the input of an array of practitioners from many disciplines over thousands of hours to realise the various elements that are brought together at a singular point in time to create a performance. In order to explain the
14 Causey, M. D. (1994) Postorganic Performance (...Only the acidents remain...) The Metempsychosis of performance ontology through the techno-cultural systems of cyberspace. Stanford University.
15 Mandrell, J. (2013) 8 Ways Television is Influencing Theatre. Available at: howlround.com/8-ways- television-influencing-theatre (Accessed: 13 June 2020).
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importance of creative collaboration within the technical disciplines, it’s necessary to outline the production team, their responsibilities and the nature and complexities of their engagement.
Once a script or creative concept is chosen, the Director for that production must consider where they want to take the play stylistically. Some Directors come to the production with very set ideas on the staging of a piece, some like to fill a rehearsal room with objects and let the piece take its own form through workshopping ideas with the company; either way, eventually the design team will render down the aesthetic motifs to support the piece, which in-turn ignites a dialogue with the technical production team.
For the purpose of this thesis the term ‘technician’ includes all those who investigate and implement the technological apparatus of performance: these principally include the staff of design, lighting, sound, video, scenic construction, prop making, costume making, production, technical and stage management departments.
This thesis will consider these disciplines, the ‘techne’ of theatre, through the same lens as Hunt & Melrose, when they,
“seek to promote and to begin to theorise a view of the technician that reconnects the technologies of theatre and the arts of theatre, via the persons of the expert practitioners and their expertise in action- which we are arguing is ill-served by commonsensical uses of the term 'technical' itself’”16.
By studying the attitudes of industry and educational institutions in regard to creative collaborations, this thesis seeks to explore the extent to which Hunt and Melrose’s
16 Hunt, N. and Melrose, S. (2014) ‘Techne , Technology, Technician’, Performance Research, 10(4), pp. 70–82. doi: 10.1080/13528165.2005.10871452.
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argument for a notion of technology that is knowledge and expert-practiced centred, and away from a view of technology as essentially instrumental and procedural is reflected in both theatrical practice and the education of theatre technicians. My argument will be that the imperative is to create an educational environment which acknowledges the qualitative judgments and imaginative role played by theatre technicians. This view is also supported in the wider professional world by Donald
Schön where he argues for a transition from the idea of Technical Rationality to
Reflection in Action17 which recognises the tacit knowledge professionals gather and express though their practice and which is often difficult or impossible to describe.
2.3 History of the role of technical theatre Although, as I have shown, contemporary technical theatre is arguably a practice which relies on innovation, ingenuity and problem solving, this is not consistently recognised, either in practice or in education. And, in understanding the approaches common to the education of theatre technicians, it is important to be able to understand the underpinnings of accounts which stress technical and manual competence over innovation, ingenuity and problem solving.
A key background to these attitudes lies in the development of the various disciplines of technical theatre from earlier applied arts and crafts to distinct technical professions. Theatre in general as an artform hasn’t always enjoyed the high intellectual and social standing it does today. As Bernard Capp comments,
“The rise of the professional theatre from the 1570s, the most spectacular achievement of the English Renaissance, appeared in a much less positive light to
17 Schon, D. (1991) ‘The reflective practitioner’. Aldershot U.K.: Ashgate Publishing Limited, p. 76.
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London's magistrates, preachers and pamphleteers. They viewed plays as a threat to public order and morals, and the playhouses themselves, attracting a huge and raucous assembly of men and women of every degree, as an affront to social hierarchy and decorum.” 18
Some members of society regarded actors as evil due to their distortion of identities and the use of boy actors as women. Although these productions were attended by the aristocracy which afforded them some security, the London authorities regarded actors as vagabonds in a statute of 1572.10
This view of theatre carried through into the Victorian and Edwardian eras where, although houses produced the works of Shakespeare, they predominantly staged
‘toga plays’ and tableaux vivants for the titillation of their audiences. It’s significant that these new forms of entertainment mediated antiquity, not from the archaeological reality of the classical world, but from academic painting. The 19th century brought with it a fresh visual language that altered ways of representation and reception, with illustration, painting, literature, and performance now linked by a common visuality.11 What is interesting about classicising popular theatre is not that it connected two seemingly distant cultural forms, but that its point of connection was antiquity, itself a bastion of educational, cultural, and social prestige. In late-
Victorian London, the assimilation of classics and fine art into the mass- entertainment context of West End popular theatre brought previously unmistakable markers of exclusivity into a much wider arena.12
An important development that came of this period in the creation of classical worlds the higher expectation of awe, or impact on the audience, which meant that theatre
18 Capp, B. (2003) ‘Playgoers, Players and Cross-Dressing in Early Modern London: The Bridewell Evidence’, The Seventeenth Century, 18(2), pp. 159–71.
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managers enlisted the assistance of academy artists to advise on set and costume, carpenters and sailors to realise the classical scenes and manage the transitions as well as more sophisticated lighting through the introduction of electricity to the stage.
These advances in the technology of theatre have played an important role in changed perceptions of theatre technicians. The introduction of highly sophisticated technology and increasing expectations of collaboration and initiative has had some impact on perceptions of the status of theatre technicians as professionals. However, as Neil Fraser (RADA) has commented,
“in the UK, to this day, theatre is the last refuge of the amateur and that it’s held in that place largely by lack of funds, affecting gestation periods and so creative potential”.19
The professionalisation of technical theatre has been a slow process, and even to the present-day technical theatre has strong links with 19th century theatre both in practice and attitudes. When I started working in Opera in 1980, many productions were staged using painted canvas wing flats, cut borders and backcloths to represent foliage and while there exists a passing camaraderie between the cast, orchestra and crew, managements will neglect to invite workshop staff to opening nights or technical crew members to the post-show function.
The social standing of the director and playwright rose in the 1950s in British theatre due to the establishment of the Royal Court and New Wave theatre with its ‘kitchen sink realism’ challenging the campiness and frippery of the West End, significantly shifting power relationships between the various roles within performance and its
19 Day, N. (2018) Interview with Neil Fraser Director of Technical Training & Head of Lighting. RADA.
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production. This tended to reinforce the separation of ‘technical’ and ‘creative’ functions allocated to theatre personnel.20 Even so, we can see from the various technical practices and the views of industry leaders and educationalists in the field reported in this chapter, that theatre technicians are indeed considered creative contributors to the artform.
The cross-discipline nature of technical theatre, (for instance scenery construction is a blend of residential carpentry, cabinet making, rigging, mechanical engineering, structural engineering and electrical engineering) make technical theatre disciplines difficult to define in industrial terms. Anna Farthing states,
“The various roles that make up Technical Theatre Arts demand skills and aptitudes that include sciences and arts, alongside creativity, artistic interpretation, design, engineering, technology, maths, logistics, construction, and an array of communication and ‘people skills”.21
Farthing then goes on to comment on how, in the UK, traditional secondary education points students down the artificially segregated paths of the sciences or the arts and humanities and ignores creative industries such as live performance.
Prior to the inclusion of courses in higher education, training in technical theatre was traditionally by mentorship with novices being taught the ropes by their seniors, which still happens in some circumstances to this day. As Ric Knowles states,
20 Rebellato, D. (1999) 1956 And All That. Routledge Great Britain.71-100
21 Farthing, A. (2012) ‘Mapping Technical Theatre Arts Training’. Available at: http://www- new1.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/disciplines/ddm/HEADDM- Farthing(2012)MappingTechTheatreTraining.pdf (Accessed: 13 April 2014).Pg.6
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“Theatrical practice has always and inevitably dealt with stuff, in all of its messiness. It engages with the "thingness" of the material
world in ways that few other art practices do.” 22
So, learning stagecraft, (the negotiation of all that ‘stuff’) is best done in a supervised work environment (on stage or in workshops). Over the last few decades in Australia and the UK there has been a movement to standardise training standards within the industry, largely for work safety and remuneration reasons, as the only training requirement for working in theatre in major venues in Australia is a Work Health and
Safety General Construction Induction.
Australia takes much of its theatrical framework from the United Kingdom, with drama schools in the U.K. being among the first to offer specialist courses in technical theatre. Although many of these courses were initially set up only to support the acting streams, this is certainly no longer the case, with the technical streams working separately to the acting streams in many cases. Many of these schools in the U.K. and Australia were founded between the late nineteenth century and the mid-twentieth century to train actors for the newly professionalised
‘respectable’ theatre, and from the mid 1950’s, a burgeoning television industry. Prior to this, training in technical theatre was done through an informal apprenticeship model, where people would enter the industry at a low skill-base level and rise through the ranks benefitting from a communities of practice system as described by
Etienne Wenger23, and which still exists to a degree in the industry today.
22 Journal, S. T. and October, M. C. (2019) ‘Editorial Comment : Theatre and Material Culture Author ( s ): Ric Knowles Stable URL : https://www.jstor.org/stable/41679611 Editorial Comment : Theatre and Material Culture’, 64(3).
23 Wenger, E. (2010) ‘http://org.sagepub.com Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems’, Organization, 7(2), pp. 225–246. doi: 10.1177/135050840072002.
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The subsequent technical courses were initially created to support the acting streams by training technical staff who could, stage manage, light and provide audio resources and later to realise sets, props, costume, for the production of plays in these conservatoire-style institutions. The introduction of training for these technical aspects of theatre (as opposed to the actors, directors and playwrights), was conceptualised in terms of a philosophical distinction between those who have creative leadership vs those who merely realised these ideas, this being based on the acceptance at the time of the dominance of ‘episteme’ over ‘techne’, the disciplines closer to the text being seen as dominant over the visual and kinetic. Hunt and Melrose state in their 2014 paper that
“despite the greater pertinence of a pre- Aristotelian entwining of 'techne' and 'episteme' to arts-making practices in the university, what we find emerging from the resilient Aristotelian positioning is that two other terms, 'theory' and 'practice', tend to be reified in everyday usage in the university. On this basis, these two nouns are widely taken to signal ontological difference, hierarchical positioning (the one always first, the other always second) and opposition- a difference and an opposition that we argue here is knowledge- political in implication, and often patronizing (especially when articulated in the vicinity of the professional theatre).”24
Due to this, the dominant lexicon of the theatre industry and theatre schools currently, describes theatre technicians as ‘tekkies’ whose work had no creative
24 Wenger, E. (2010) ‘http://org.sagepub.com Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems’, Organization, 7(2), pp. 225–246. doi: 10.1177/135050840072002.
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impact on the eventual art form.25
Towards the end of the 20th century, as the educational landscape changed, drama schools either merged with universities to secure accreditation and funding, or those who secured public funding while remaining independent adopted the term conservatoire to describe elite training in an HE environment. This, along with the increased specialisation and professionalization in the industry has brought with it a need to re-examination the domain and how technical theatre is taught.
2.4 How do industry distinctions operate in theatre education?
As has been discussed, technical theatre education, like theatre itself, goes back to the ancient Greeks and beyond. From the theatrical competitions of Dionyses in the
5th century BCE, it is plausible to think that participation in such a competition required previous trials and that in such trials, and even earlier, some processes of preparation, training, direction, coordination or conjunction would be established in each group.26 In the same way we could say that the teaching of dances for corrobborees by indigenous Australians is a kind of theatre education involving music, dance, singing, organisation, prop making and costume etc. but as we saw in the previous chapter, it wasn’t until the late 18th C that the technical aspects of performance began to be passed to persons outside the performance troupe.
Within schools of dramatic art, it then wasn’t until the mid-twentieth century that we
25 Day, N. (2018) Interview with - Carly O’Neill MA (Research) QUT, BA (Technical Production Management) QUT Study Area Coordinator (Acting and Technical Production) Lecturer in Stage Management - BFA (Technical Production) School of Creative Practice | Creative Industries.
26 Vieites, M. (2014) ‘Theatre Education: New Trends in History of Education’, Historia de la Educación, 33, pp. 325–350.
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see the teaching of technical theatre as an isolated discipline. In the National
Institute of Dramatic Art’s case, the school commenced in 1958 with an acting stream to which was added a production stream (stage management, lighting and sound) in 1961. A design course was added in 1972 and a production crafts
(properties, scenery and costume) was added in 199027. Prior to this these dates the technical aspects of the play productions, which were at the core of the pedagogy, was taught by industry professionals who were later to become lecturers in their disciplines, so, even though situated in diploma or degree courses, in many ways the education of theatre technicians was a master and apprentice model.
Today the tools available for storytelling and the environments used to stage productions is a constantly expanding and evolving field, which requires the technical practitioner who wishes a sustainable and successful career to constantly re-invent themselves and their networks as well as the constant upgrading of their skill base.
David Saltz of the University of Georgia comments,
“Toward the end of the 1980’s, digital technology began to make significant inroads into mainstream culture. Computers grew in power and acquired the ability to drive and manipulate scenery and visual and sound media, even as they steadily decreased in size and cost. A group of artists emerging from the worlds of electronic music, video art, performance art, and theatre—such as George Coates Performance Works, Troika Ranch, Laurie Anderson, Stelarc, David Rockeby, IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Mu- sique), Robert Lepage’s Ex Machina, Jeffrey Shaw’s ZKM Institute for Visual Media, and Granular Synthesis—began to integrate new digital technologies into live performance. In the period prior to the bursting of the dot-com
27 https://www.nida.edu.au/about-nida/history,accessed 22/04/2019,13:16 AEST
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bubble at the end of 1990s, champions of the new cyber culture greeted digitally enhanced performances with utopic enthusiasm”.28
This convergence of technologies in the live performance area has only become more embedded in the mainstream over the last decade, with the affordability and accessibility of new technologies coming into range of even the most fringe and lowly funded performance groups.
At NIDA we routinely incorporate live and pre-recorded video projection, intelligent lighting and effects, internet and telecommunication technologies; as well as new fabrication technologies such as sublimation printing, 3D printing, CNC routing, PLC controlled actuators and any number of open-source software platforms.
All of these technologies carry with them an implied aesthetic and dramaturgical context, so it’s incumbent on the technician to have a fluid creative relationship and common creative language with producers, directors and designers as well as their fellow technical and management staff in order to choose appropriate technologies.
Geraint D'Arcy argues that theatre technology has an aesthetic quality with its own particular beauty and meaning, distinct in nature and sensibility from other textures of performance. D’Arcy recounts a memoir of Czechoslovakian scenographer, Josef
Svoboda, who in 1958 was asked a question in a survey: 'Does modern technology belong in modern theatre in the same way that an elevator belongs in a modern house?' He recounts his answer in his memoirs:
“I thought the question was posed entirely incorrectly. Whether technology belongs in the theatre isn't an issue at all -- there can be no doubt that it does -- but what function does it have in it, and how
28 Saltz, D. Z. (2013) ‘Media , Technology , and Performance’, Project Muse, Vol. 65,(No.3), pp. 421– 432. doi: 10.1353/tj.2013.0086.
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does it function in the dramatic work? And you can't answer that with a formula”29
We see from this that technology and the technicians who manipulate them play an increasingly important role in contemporary performance arts, but we also see that the pedagogic strategies of educational institutions can be driven by a need to facilitate directorial wants.
Shane Kelly of De Paul comments:
“I think there's a feeling among several folks in the design and tech department that design tech is serving performances needs, often times”30.
So, it’s the case that rather than receiving comprehensive classes or projects across their disciplines, technical student’s training can be driven by the needs of plays, due to the dominance of play production within course structures.31 This then forces those charged with writing course curriculum to stick to pivotal skills and knowledge, not having the time available to spread investigations into the wider domain.
We see from this chapter that technical theatre is a broad domain, encompassing many disciplines who collaborate to create performances and it’s this breadth that is an issue in the teaching of technical theatre. In the next chapter I will survey the types of creativity utilised by theatre technicians in their practice and the creative theory which intersects with that practice.
29 D’Arcy, G. (2011) Towards an aesthetics of theatre technology. University of Glamorgan/Prifysgol Morgannwg.
30 Day, N. (2018) Interview with Shane Kelly, Chair of Design & Technology, Head of Theatre Technology, Head of Projection Design The Theatre School at DePaul University.
31 Day, N. (2016) Educational Institution survey results. Q12.pg12
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Plate: 5 - Roberto Zucco - NIDA 2019. Photo: Patrick Boland
CHAPTER 3
3.1 Types of Creativity
In the preceding chapter the importance of creative collaboration by theatre technicians was established and the attitudinal factors which diminish the image of theatre technicians as creative collaborators were described. In this chapter I’ll interrogate what aspects of creativity are necessary to technical theatre as employed in industry and education. One problem with this is that after 50 years of research into the nature of creativity, researchers are still to agree on a definition of creativity, how to foster it and how to measure it. The differing views of researchers has been
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likened by Wehner, Csikzsentmihalyi and Magyari – Beck to the fable of the blind man and the elephant:
“We touch different parts of the whole beast and derive distorted pictures of the whole from what we know,: “‘the elephant’s a snake’ says the one who holds its tail; ‘The elephant’s like a wall’ says the one who touches its flanks”32.
People have associated creativity with Platonic beliefs such as being visited by ‘the muse’ or divine intervention, with the isolated genius having an ‘Eureka’ moment.
The classic underpinnings of theories of creativity are that of the creative artist, challenging norms, shattering conventions and bringing entirely new forms into being. Such a conception moves us even further away from an understanding of the forms of creativity appropriate for theatre technicans. As Hunt and Melrose33 have argued, we need to move away from seeing the use of technology [by “technicians”] as essentially instrumental and procedural [and thus the opposite of this notion of the creative artist], “towards an understanding of the qualitative judgements and imaginative role of expert theatre-technical practitioners across the board.”
This notion of expert and imaginative qualitative judgements is central to the conception of creativity I will be employing in this thesis. Theatre technicians produce innovative solutions to practical and aesthetic problems and behind all innovations,
32 Wehner, L. Csikszentmihalyi, M. Magyari-Beck, I. (1991) ‘Current approaches used in studying creativity’, Creativity Research Journal, 4(3), pp. 261–271.
33 Hunt, N. and Melrose, S. (2014) ‘Techne , Technology, Technician’, Performance Research, 10(4), pp. 70–82. doi: 10.1080/13528165.2005.10871452.Pg 71
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one finds creativity34, from this the working model of creativity I will default to is innovation through habit, where creative behaviours are promoted, and creative blockers eliminated.
One of the important distinctions between many of the ‘artistic’ notions of creativity, with their assumption of the individuality and uniqueness of the creative individual, and the forms of creativity in technical theatre, is due to the collaborative nature of technical theatre. As has been discussed, technical theatre is one component of a complex web of activities, tasks and expertise. The problem solving and ingenuity required from creative theatre technicians is necessarily collective and responsive to a broader context [scripts, designers, directors, etc].
To address this collaborative aspect of creativity in technical theatre, as a practice and as a pedagogy, I also reference Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi who describes creativity as a social not individual construct with individuals working in and responding to a field, which is itself part of a wider domain. Csikszentmihalyi argues that this social creativity and novel outcomes emerge in the individual interactions with the domain and the field [see the creative cycle described by Fig 1].
Although the individual’s background can include personal traits including creative habits as discussed by Sternberg it also incorporates broader discipline knowledge,
Kaufman35. The field (the gate keepers as described by Csikszentmihalyi) can be the
Director or Production Designer in a performance context, while the domain can be
34 Sternberg, R. J. (2012) ‘The Assessment of Creativity: An Investment-Based Approach’, Creativity Research Journal, 24(1), pp. 3–12. doi: 10.1080/10400419.2012.652925.Pg.3
35 Kaufman, J. C. and Beghetto, R. A. (2009) ‘Beyond Big and Little: The Four C Model of Creativity’, Review of General Psychology, 13(1), pp. 1–12. doi: 10.1037/a0013688.Pg.6
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the Performing Arts generally. This idea is developed further by psychologists such as Robert Sternberg when he argues that creativity is a set of behaviours. This notion provides a pathway to pedagogical approaches to supporting creativity through the learning of creativity-enhancing behaviours and also providing a capacity to better map and respond to the complex field that practitioners work in, which can be either enhanced or blocked is already promoted in varying levels by educators in the form of journaling activities, analysing and reflecting on outcomes, then re- applying the knowledge and skills to different causes.
As will be discussed further in Chapter 4.2, time for this analysis/ reflection/response is not always available to students of technical theatre. The idea of enhancing creativity through practice-based approaches is promoted by researchers such as
Osborne and Michalko who uses brainstorming techniques to solve problems by amassing many possible solutions and Gordon, who attempts to stimulate creative thought by utilizing ‘Synectics’ which primarily uses analogies. While psychologists such as Sternberg reject pragmatic approaches to the study of creativity, seeing them as lacking academic rigour36, I feel students and practitioners should be free to take up whatever behaviors and tools work for them, and so I’ve included comment on them in this study. As earlier chapters have shown, the creativity asked of theatre technicians is first of all a practical one, in the context of complex projects with numerous constraints of material, financial and collaborative natures calling for ingenuity and creative problem solving.
In this chapter, I will investigate the contextual situations and theories of creativity
36 Sternberg, R. J. (1999) Handbook of creativity, Cambridge University Press. doi: http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511763205.Pg.5
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that best intersect with collaborative theatre projects.
3.2 Theories of Creativity
As seen in the previous chapters that creative collaboration is an essential aspect of technical theatre, but what behaviours, personal traits or practices of students of technical theatre do we need to support in order to maximise creative potential?
Here I will investigate what aspects of creative theory are essentially important to the student of technical theatre and set a definition of creativity for the purposes of this thesis.
In the collaborative theatre world, the talent of the technician is measured by their sensitivity to the textural material and the problems thrown up by the project, their fluency with the ideas discovered and discussed by the project, the flexibility of their practice to collaborate with others and the uniqueness of their solutions. From this we can see that for a theatre technician to be successful they need to have expertise in their field, the analytical and synthetic capabilities to connect ideas and draw unique responses to given material, be accepting of complexity and ambiguity, and have the flexibility required to work in collaborative processes.
Robert Sternberg’s descriptors of creative skills work well in the collaborative theatrical context, he lists them as…
‘(a) the synthetic ability to see problems in new ways and escape the boundaries of conventional thinking, (b) the analytic ability to know how to recognise which of your ideas are worth pursuing and which are not and (c) the practical-contextual ability to know how to
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persuade others of – to sell other people on – the values of one’s ideas 37
The ‘Investment Theory’ of creativity proposed by Sternberg and his collaborators fits well with the practice of technical theatre. Sternberg says that creative people are the ones who are willing and able to metaphorically buy low and sell high in the realm of ideas.38 By ‘buying low’ Sternberg means the pursuing of ideas that are unknown or out of favour but have growth potential. In solving technical problems in live performance, makers often utilise materials and processes that may not present themselves as the obvious choice, but with vision and promotion can offer unique solutions. For instance, in the stage mechanical area the base technologies were used by the Ancient Greeks and Romans, however the application of modern materials, actuation and control technologies to those problems has and will continue to offer a wealth of growth in this field. This process does require some time for experimentation and then incubation, so from a pedagogical point of view, time needs to be available for play, reflection and analysis.
Teresa Amabile’s diagram of creative components Fig 2 combines Sternberg’s personal attributes and knowledge of the domain with a concept of correct motivation.
37 Sternberg, R. J. (1999) Handbook of creativity, Cambridge University Press. doi: http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511763205.
38 Sternberg, R. J. (2012) ‘The Assessment of Creativity: An Investment-Based Approach’, Creativity Research Journal, 24(1), pp. 3–12. doi: 10.1080/10400419.2012.652925.
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Following research that suggested that extrinsic motivations can in some instances be a positive force in creative outcomes,39 Amabile revised her view to accept two types of extrinsic motivators; synergistic extrinsic motivators which provide information that can be used in collaboration with intrinsic motivation and non– synergistic, or controlling, extrinsic motivators that are incompatible with intrinsic motivation. Amabile found that informational or enabling extrinsic motivators can be conducive, particularly if initial levels of intrinsic motivation are high.40 In the process of creating performances, early in the imagining of technical approaches, high levels of intrinsic motivation can increase unique outcomes, however, later in the process, contextual realities such as budget, usage and structural requirements (extrinsic motivators) can help fashion those outcomes into more useful or appropriate offerings. We can see this working in the instance of Roberto Zucco.plate 5 Designer
Camille Ostrowsky deconstructed a three storey New York tenement that revolved to reveal aspects of Zucco’s life. Through the design process, the lines of torque developed by the sets revolve accelerating and decelerating helped inform the alignment of walls to resist it toppling, this could be seen as an external motivation to the designer, while being intrinsic to the construction manager’s process but synergistic to both. Here again, from a pedagogical viewpoint, we see adequate time is necessary for the cycle of design / analysis / feedback/ re-design and so on. In this example the process lacked appropriate time for analysis from a technical design viewpoint which resulted in system failures (thankfully not catastphic) which then
39 Chen, C., Kasof, J., Himsel, A., Dmietrieva, J., Dong, Q & Xue, G. (2005) ‘Effects of Explicit Instruction to “Be Creative” Across Domains and Cultures.’, Journal of Creative Behavior, (39), pp. pp89-110.
40 Collins,M.A & Amabille. T.M,(1999) Motivation & Creativity, found in Sternberg, R J, Handbook of Creativity, Cambridge University Press, Pg. 304
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caused loss of stage time for other departments. So, impacting on creative outcomes across the production.
Chris Argyris and Donald Schon’s work on organisational learning (double loop learning) supports the creative practice of the three R’s, research, reflect, reincorporate. For Argyris and Schön, learning involves the detection and correction of error. Where something goes wrong, they suggested, a starting point for many people is to look for another strategy that will address and work within the governing variables. In other words, given or chosen goals, values, plans and rules are operationalized rather than questioned. According to Argyris and Schön (1974), this is single-loop learning. An alternative response is to question to governing variables themselves, to subject them to critical scrutiny. This they describe as double-loop learning. Such learning may then lead to an alteration in the governing variables and, thus, a shift in the way in which strategies and consequences are framed41. It’s often the case that the solution to production problems, are found in the re-defining of the parameters. An idea or perspective comes in and modifies the field, breaking a deadlock and allowing innovative solutions to be found, this may be in the form of knowledge, a revision of the end product or a change in creative process. The defining of the problem can sometimes be the lengthiest part of the process but can also be the most fertile when it comes to gathering unique perspectives. This is where both knowledge of the field and an understanding of the varieties of creative processes comes into play, as was alluded to by Brecht who stated:
41 Smith, M. K. (2001) Donald Schon (schön): learning, reflection and change, Practice.http://www.infed.org/thinkers/etschon.htm
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“A person with one theory is lost. We need several of them - or lots.
We should stuff them in our pockets like newspaper.”42
We see that ‘Expertise’ and ‘Creative Thinking Skills’ are two of the three creative enablers suggested by AmabileFig 2.
The successful theatre technician should develop a diverse a palette of methodological approaches, and be able to utilise creative practice to synthesise unique outcomes from it.
Figure 2 Amabile's Creativity Components We see in current teaching models the use of the production process as a framework on which to hang learning outcomes. Often, within the educational context, the timeline of a production is set to mirror industry in order to assimilate students to the stresses of the outside world, so it is a time-pressured situation the students find themselves in, with all the associated professional and personal pressures of an opening night. Lack of time is one of the extraneous motivations Amabile suggests is
42 Pope 2005, p. 90, cited in Saebø, AB, McCammon, LA & O'Farrell, L 2007, ‘Creative teaching- teaching creativity’, Caribbean Quarterly: The Idieri Papers: The Fifth International Drama in Education Research Institute. Guest Editor Brian Heap, vol. 53, no. 1-2, pp. 205–215. DOI:
10.1080/00086495.2007.11672318.
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most disruptive to creative activity43.
Figure 2 illustrates the importance of creative skills, if students are able to also understand where they stand psychologically in the creative spectrum, they would be more able to utilise their given creative skills. In Developing Creativity in Higher
Education, Martin Oliver, after running studies between 2002 and 2004, concluded that:
‘Student’s experiences of creativity in the curriculum are complex and often confused. Participants typically drew on diverse, even inconsistent ideas about creativity to discuss their experiences, in some cases moving between incompatible positions in the same sentence. This suggests that creativity is something that students are not used to discussing and quite possibly lack a shared common
frame of reference to interpret.’44
This idea that students need to be conscious of a creative framework in order to maximise their creative potential is also mirrored by Willian JJ Gordon.
Gordon’s hypotheses states three main points in his book Synectics45
(1) Creative input increases when people become aware of the psychological processes that control their behaviour;
(2) the emotional component of creative behaviour is more important than the intellectual component;
(3) the emotional and irrational components need to be understood and used as
43 Amabile, T. M. et al. (2002) ‘Time Pressure and Creativity in Organizations: A Longitudinal Field Study.’, (02–073).
44 Jackson, N. et al. (2006) Developing Creativity in Higher Education - An Imaginative Curriculum. Routledge Great Britain.
45 Gordon, W. (1961) Synectics, the development of creative capacity. 1st ed. Harper N.Y.
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‘precision tools’ in order to increase creative output.46
Mainemelis & Ronson talk of play being a patterned behavioural orientation which consists of a number of elements,47 and that play is increasingly being considered as a valuable creative tool even within corporate organisations. The elements
Mainemelis & Ronson talk of are (1) a threshold experience; (2) boundaries in time and space; (3) uncertainty-freedom-constraint; (4) loose and flexible association between means and ends; and (5) positive affect. The threshold experience is closely associated with technical theatre in that technicians frequently stand in the space between concept and reality, trying to reconcile an imagined world with a temporal one. The ability to break boundaries in time and space, or move between work and play is also seen as a valuable creative attribute by Csikszentmihalyi &
LeFevre.48 This calls for the student to have the time to stop activities directly connected with an assigned project and play with ideas arising from it. Uncertainty, freedom and constraint in play activities can vary; for example, theatre ranges from the highly scripted to the purely experimental49. However, even with tightly scripted plays there is always uncertainty of outcome, freedom to adopt many different approaches and resources and physical constraints to deal with. Technical theatre practitioners need a loose and flexible association between means and ends, in that sometimes the ends aren’t clear until very late in the piece, so the technician needs
46 Jackson, N. et al. (2006) Developing Creativity in Higher Education - An Imaginative Curriculum. Routledge Great Britain.
47 Vieites, M. (2014) ‘Theatre Education: New Trends in History of Education’, Historia de la Educación, 33, pp. 325–350.
48 Csikszentmihalyi, M. and Judith, L. (1989) ‘Optimal experience in work and leisure.’, 56(5), p. 815. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.56.5.815.
49 Turner, V.1982. From ritual to theatre: the seriousness of play. New York:PAJ
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a multitude of means to float between, much like the pockets full of plans alluded to by Brecht. The positive affect Mainemelis & Ronson discuss can be achieved simply by involvement in a task which elicits, surprise, uncertainty, and out-of-the-ordinary experience, it requires the rules of the domain to frame it.
From Csikszentmihalyi’s work we see the socialisation of the incoming students into the domain of performing arts is important in their understanding of creativity as a social event and the acceptance of play within the domain is important, as diversionary play provides periods of mental breaks, which are important for incubation, the stage of the creative process that involves much unconscious processing and free association of ideas.50
In this thesis and the model curriculum to be included in the Appendix,
I will be using a model of creativity that embraces giving the students time to reflect and analyse and also champions experimentation, ambiguity and the license to make mistakes It will encourage socialization and the development of creative community and collaboration through an understanding of the social nature of creativity and of their fellow collaborators practice. It will also promote an understanding of creative thinking practice. With this understanding of creative enablers in mind we will now look at the attitudes to creativity in the context of technical theatre in industry and education and perceptions of its need amongst educators and students
50 Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1999) ‘Implications to a Systems Perspective for the Study of Creativity’, in Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge University Press, p. 490.
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Plate: 6 - Out of Reach, NIDA 2009. Photo Unknown
CHAPTER 4
4.1 Industry Attitudes to Creativity in Technical Theatre
In previous chapters I’ve described technical theatre and discussed the importance of creative collaboration in its practice. We’ve also seen which aspects of creative theory are most relevant to students and practitioners of technical theatre. In this chapter I will be exploring attitudes and practices within industry and education that supports or blocks creative endeavour and perceptions of the need for creativity amongst educators and students.
From my experience within the Australian theatrical world, producers, directors and designers are often referred to as ‘the creatives’ with the non-acting disciplines collectively labelled ‘technicians’, which can be seen to imply that
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technicians have no creative input. We’ve seen earlier in this thesis that this distinction is not well founded and that technicians indeed do and should play a creative role in theatrical productions; creative roles that are described in earlier chapters. I am certainly not the only theatre practitioner to recognise this incongruity with many prominent commentators having remarked on this misleading characterisation of theatre technicians and managers as playing “non-creative” roles.
For example, when asked to comment on creativity and technical staff in 2014, esteemed Australian director Aubrey Mellor OAM observed that:
“There remains an ignorant and misinformed mind-set that fails to recognise theatre technicians and managers as impressively artistic and inspirational……… And it is to the backstage artists that we all give credit and thanks, even though to the public they remain
invisible”.51
Or, Dr Renee Newman-Storen from the Western Australian Academy of Performing
Arts, Edith Cowan University:
“Technical practitioners’ contributions are perceived as technical implementations of ‘someone else’s vision’. Such perceptions seem to dismiss the creative thinking required which operates often invisibly in the development and orchestration of the production,
denying the complexity inherent in anything ‘technical”.52
And Anna Farthing, acclaimed director and Visiting Fellow at the University of
Bristol:
51 A. Mellor, OAM (personal communication, May 19, 2014 at 10:48 PM)
52 Newman-storen, R. and Phillips, Maggi, WAAPA, E. C. U. (2011) ‘“ You are no longer creative when you give up ”: technical theatre ’ s creative sleight of hand .’, pp. 1–13.
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“Technical…is often used as a “catch all” term to cover design, craft, technology and management aspects of roles that often include elements of several or all of these things. Lumping it all under the heading 'technical' hides the complexity and specificity of the work we are talking about and undermines the progress that has been made in professionalising our part of the industry over the last half century. Senior managers, directors, producers and others tend to use the term 'technical' to avoid having to deal with the particularities
of what we do, and to reinforce old prejudices and hierarchies.”53
In his blog, Tony Tambasco, educator and stage director in the USA, reiterates this point in his post ‘Two Words to Stop Using’.
“There are two words that have entered common usage in theatre, and the performing arts more generally, that I implore you not to use. "Techie(s)" and "creative(s)," when used as nouns, unnecessarily create a caste system within a company and reinforce hierarchical stereotypes born from the worst kinds of amateur theatres.”54
We see from these commentators that technical theatre technician’s creative input is underestimated and from the job descriptions of theatre technicians described earlier, that creative collaboration is required to fulfil their positions, and that the level to which they generate creative outcomes will have an impact on their success in the field. From industry practitioners we hear…
“I feel that in sound and video we get to have a strong creative relationship with the shows we work on. Especially when we assist with the system design and delivery of concepts and ideas
53 Newman-storen, R. and Phillips, Maggi, WAAPA, E. C. U. (2011) ‘“ You are no longer creative when you give up ”: technical theatre ’ s creative sleight of hand .’, pp. 1–13.
54 Tambasco, T. (no date) Two Words to Stop Using There. Available at: https://modernphilologist.blogspot.com/2017/10/two-words-to-stop-using.html.
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presented to us from white card all the way through to opening night. When I am searching for staff, I often need people who have their own creative works happening whether it be music they write, bands they perform in or installations that they have done. A lot of the time the sound operators are given creative license to realise a design night after night adapting to various performances. The designer or director needs to trust that the sound operator can respond to those varying performances and not just mix by numbers. Similarly, with the adaptation of more live video in shows, I find myself needing to interview my staff along with the director, so they almost become a cast member onstage”. (Ben Lightowlers, Sound & Video Manager, Sydney Theatre Company. Pers. Comm., 09/03/2020
Shane Dunn of the Melbourne Theatre Company comments: “After 30 years of working as a Head Scenic Artist I believe productions benefit best when a shared collaborative process is followed by designers and production depts.. A top down approach leads to a sense of disengagement and a lack of “ownership” of the craftsperson’s work. Most production staff whether props makers, scenic artists, set builders or wardrobe tailors/cutters consider themselves as artisans in one way or another and that is why most have sought employment in this industry.
When a collaborative and collegiate approach is in full flight, ideas, suggestions and a sharing of common goals will, without doubt, produce the best results and a harmonious workplace.
But just as importantly the craftsperson must not alter or overtake the design with their own agendas, but, respect the original concept and use their ideas to deliver the best possible outcome for the show. Equally designers and directors should not treat the departments anonymous to the creative process”. Shane Dunn, Head Scenic Artist, Melbourne Theatre Company. Pers. Comm., 21/04/2020
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An example of creative collaboration from my own practice is illustrated in Plate: 6 where the designer came to me with an idea to have clouds that could change form and be backlit and into which a performer could disappear. After some conversation I thought of the phenomenon at the time where people would put polystyrene cups in cyclone wire fences to create text or pictures, and having a picture in my head of seeing some backlit by the sun, suggested we use paper espresso cups to a similar effect. The designer went away and drew up a number of fields of cups tied together by small cable ties, we could then ‘puppeteer’ these with the fly system and make it breathe. Of course, the cup idea was just one of many that came together to create the moment pictured, they’re an example of synectic associations and reflection in action as espoused by Gordon55 and Schön56 respectively. The ‘puppeteering’ of the clouds in performance again utilises Schön’s reflection in action on the part of the flying personnel. In his 2018 thesis Fishing for Phronesis, Daniel Persse describes his experience working as a flyman* during performances:
“Flying is a tacit skill, “tacit knowing because it is embodied in […] knacks, sensitive touches, etc.” (Van Manen, 2008, p. 17). During performance heavy masses of scenery are moved in an artistic and controlled way requiring flying technicians to use their hands and body with a sensitive awareness of the artistic process.” 57 The understanding of creativity within the theatrical domain is further complicated by the diverse fields within which practitioners work, which in turn can hamper the perception of creative input from practitioners from other disciplines, a production
55 Gordon, W. (1961) Synectics, the development of creative capacity. 1st ed. Harper N.Y.
56 Schon, D. (1991) ‘The reflective practitioner’. Aldershot U.K.: Ashgate Publishing Limited, p. 49.
57 Persse, D. J. (2018) ‘Fishing for Phronesis: A Search for Tacit Knowledge in Technical Theatre Education’, (September).
*Flyman, a person charged with performing scenic transitions utilising both manual and mechanised lifting (flying) systems.
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electrician may have difficulty imagining the creative flow of a costume cutter for instance, highlighting the need for socialisation of technical theatre students into the performance domain through mixed discipline cohorts involved in storytelling workshops and projects with varying materiality and processes.
The perception of technical theatre’s creative input in industry and education is unclear, with educational institutions and employer portraying contradictory attitudes seemingly coming from different understandings of technical theatre. Belvoir St
Theatre (Sydney), originally set up as an egalitarian, equal pay for all company58 refer to everyone except the cast as ‘The Crew’. In their 2018 season brochure; Sydney Theatre Company on the other hand uses the demarcation
‘Creatives’ in their season brochure referring to the Director, Set Designer, Costume
Designer, Lighting Designer, Composer & Sound Designer and Assistant
Director, with the other twenty or so collaborators under the heading ‘Technical
Production’. In the 2018 Directors and Designers Graduating Season at NIDA the delineation in the brochure is ‘Artistic’ and ‘Production Team’. The Melbourne
Theatre Company in their 2019 program for Photograph 51 credit the actors as
‘cast’, the ‘creative team’ of 11, which includes Stage Management and management interns while the set, scenic art, prop and costume managers and makers are lost in a list of 125 MTC employees.59
58 Tulloch, J. (2005) Shakespeare and Chekhov in Production and Reception. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. Pg.159
59 Company, M. T. (2019) ‘P h o t o g r a p h 51 Program’.
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4.2 Attitudes to creativity in Technical Theatre Education
Dennis Gill Booth of the University of North Carolina comments, they as a school view everybody as an artist and go to great lengths to ensure the lexicon of the school reflects this, he goes on to say he goes to industry fairs and talks to employers and he can tell from their language where they stand.
“They use words like fabricator instead of artist or artisan” he says.60
Neil Fraser of RADA thinks technicians are generally thought of as facilitators, that there’s a certain lip service paid to the idea that everyone is creative, but when it comes to the limitations of time and money it’s less commonly observed, pointing to the reality that time and money is the ultimate arbiter of creative scope. Given more time and money (and time is bought with money in the professional sense) productions can harvest creative input from the entire company. Neil Fraser comments that in a production process where you have directors, designers and writers calling themselves creatives and separating themselves from the people they obviously think are not creative in their eyes, RADA needs to create opportunities for their students to put down those labels.61
Surveyed educational institutions identified creativity as either essential or highly recommended as a graduate attribute for technicians and 92%62 answered that the complexities and creativity of technical theatre was often not recognised, however
60 Day, N. (2018) Interview with Prof. Dennis Gill Booth, Scenic Technology Director of Graduate Studies UNC.
61 Day, N. (2018) Interview with Neil Fraser Director of Technical Training & Head of Lighting. RADA.
62 Day, N. (2016) Educational Institution survey results.Q25
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none of the institutions explicitly dealt with creativity, or creative thinking practices as a topic within their courses. 83%63 of institutions responded that support for creativity was either good or great! While the majority also reported that there wasn’t ample time for reflection and analysis within their courses,64 suggesting that perhaps support of creative practice was in some ways lacking.
Shane Kelly from De Paul Chicago said that sometimes his students “start to feel like they’re part of a production machine” and that they’re currently searching for new ways to include feedback and reflection within the play production program.65
So, we see a contradiction in educational institutions spending most of their time producing plays which they see as essential in the creation of industry ready graduates,66 but accept that it has its challenges as far as reflection, analysis and time for experimentation is concerned. The tightly framed and time addressing outcomes sought by productions can also work as a creativity blocker according to researchers such as Karlyn Adams67and Amabile68, stating that more loosely defined problem-based projects are more likely to produce unique outcomes as does less stressful timeframes.
63 Day, N. (2016) Educational Institution survey results.Q22
64 Day, N. (2016) Educational Institution survey results.Q24
65 Day, N. (2018) Interview with Shane Kelly, Chair of Design & Technology, Head of Theatre Technology, Head of Projection Design The Theatre School at DePaul University.23:57mins
66 Day, N. (2018) Interview with Shane Kelly, Chair of Design & Technology, Head of Theatre Technology, Head of Projection Design The Theatre School at DePaul University.
67 Adams, K. (2005) ‘The Sources of Innovation and Creativity’, Education, (September 2005), pp. 1– 59. doi: 10.1007/978-3-8349-9320-5.
68 https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/time-pressure-and-creativity-why-time-is-not-on-your-side. Accessed 8/8/20. 15:59
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Respondents expressed the idea that the way the school articulates the roles of the students has an effect on the student’s sense of creative self and therefore on creative outcomes, Carly O’Neil comments,
“I absolutely believe that the work of technicians and stage managers is inherently creative and often not acknowledged as such. So, I guess, we talk to our students about technology as a tool for the technician, a creative tool. So, technology is to the technician what the body is to the dancer or the voice is to the actor or the instrument is to the musician, so that it's not technology for technology's sake. It's a creative tool that they are skilled in and
educated in, and it's the way that they express their creativity.” 69
Barry Conway articulates the disconnection between the high-level outward view of creativity in theatre education and the internal reality of students and their learning…
“the term creative is somewhat overused and possibly misused because to call the director and the design team, the creative team seems to eliminate anybody else in that process, where of course actors are inputting with the director in terms of how a piece is created, and indeed the technicians and stage managers they're inputting creatively, in terms of how set is delivered, how a lighting design is put together. So, I think that it is misleading, and I think the designer directs the creativity and the directors direct the creativity, but I think it's fair to say the actual creative input is a much broader,
a much broader input.” 70
69 Day, N. (2018) Interview with - Carly O’Neill MA (Research) QUT, BA (Technical Production Management) QUT Study Area Coordinator (Acting and Technical Production) Lecturer in Stage Management - BFA (Technical Production) School of Creative Practice | Creative Industries. 04:53min
70 Day, N. (2018) Interview with Barry Conway, Director of Technical Training The LIR National Academy of Dramatic Art at Trinity College 03/10/2018. 03:27min
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Dennis Gill Booth of North Carolina University talks of changing the nomenclature of the school, ‘calling technical engineering, technical design so that it puts a connotation of creativity right into the category of work that they’re doing’. Referring to scenic technicians as scenic artists and property technicians as a, ‘property artisan’ helps create a way of thinking about being a part of the collaborative team in a creative way, regardless of if you're doing a technical skill or a visual design skill.
Dennis noted a change of perspective within his students when the school adopted the tag
“We Create Here” 71
Although there was a small response group to the Industry survey (4 of 19) it showed a divide in its understanding of the creativity of theatre technicians and also in its expectations of those technicians. Industry respondents were unanimous in wanting technicians to have more input into productions, and in stating that this input should be across all disciplines, not just their own. Industry also responded that they encourage research and development by their technical staff, with respondents commenting that this was necessary to contain costs associated with incorporation of new technologies.
Three of the four respondents however, also suggested that theatrical companies run better when staff stick to their own areas of expertise. So, while these employers of theatre technicians seem to want staff who could work creatively problem-solving in their own area, they were undecided as to whether they thought technical theatre was a creative area in the sense that they understood acting and directing to be
71 Day, N. (2018) Interview with Prof. Dennis Gill Booth, Scenic Technology Director of Graduate Studies UNC. 18:15min
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creative. In their 2020 brochure the Sydney Theatre Company still uses the
‘Creatives’ banner.
When asked, ‘Would you say that the statement 'technical theatre is the implementation of someone else's vision', is true, 2 said ‘Yes’ and 2 said ‘No’, pointing to an acceptance in the industry of the divide between the ‘creatives’ and the technicians. While it’s acknowledged by survey respondents that technicians are creative people and creativity is desired in the execution of their business, they still aren’t considered as ‘creatives’. Overall, it can be said that the industry is looking for technicians who are able to interpret the Director and Designer’s vision and input creatively into productions in a broad sense while keeping aware of their primary responsibilities, however these technicians should also have the ability to think laterally and discover approaches outside commercially available technologies and methods72.
We’ve seen in this chapter that industry and educators alike consider technical theatre to be a highly creative area of practice within the live performance domain, however we’ve also seen that the appreciation of these creative offerings fluctuate from a quiet acceptance to a dismissal they exist. In the next chapter we will look at these incongruities along with the creative framework set out in Chapter 3 and look at how these might be responded to in the development of curriculum.
72 Day, N. (2016) Industry Survey - All responses. Sydney. Q20
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CHAPTER 5
5.1 How can Creativity be Addressed?
In Chapter 3 the insights of a number of researchers are used to create a working set of definitions of creativity, largely as a psychological and social construct. I will now take those definitions and apply them to the creation of pedagogy that supports the enhancement of creativity. For example, I will use Sternberg’s understanding of creative enablersFig3 as a feedback loop between encouragement, opportunity and reward in the context of pedagogy to address feedback (encouragement), curriculum (opportunity) and assessment (reward).
The problem of creativity in technical theatre education is that it is both highly valued and yet also not structured into the curriculum or supported.
The survey of educational institutions shows that nine of the twelve respondents saw creativity as an essential graduate attribute and the remaining three thought it highly recommended. The surveys and interviews also evidenced that industry wants an industry-ready practitioner who is acclimatised to the rigors of the workplace. While these two attributes would seem logical for any occupation, the thesis has shown that in the education of technical theatre they can sometimes be at odds. From the surveys it can be seen that the design of technical courses is predominantly problem- centred with play production programs and skill refinement exercises dominating the available time, and a number of subject-centred curricula providing the associated knowledge base to guide these explorations. Because of smaller cohort numbers it’s
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possible (and in some cases reported)73 that students are able to negotiate curriculum.
Due to the variety of possible professional outcomes, even within a single technical discipline, for instance a student of technical production may specialise in lighting, or sound or video etc., it’s quite normal for students to negotiate areas of interest and specialisation.
In this chapter I will provide a set of strategies that support creativity as an outcome, look at the issues identified by the literature, surveys and interviews mentioned in the preceding chapters, and leverage those insights to re-think a best-practice scaffolding that supports the development of graduate creativity for those charged with the task of developing and writing new curricula for the training of theatrical, or more broadly, performance-based technicians. In the preceding chapters I have made reference to components of creativity that need to be in place in order to encourage creative outcomes, these also need to be present in curricula and can be divided into three broad-based areas:
1. Curriculum:
2. Teaching and Learning & Assessment
3. Attitudes and Outcomes:
73 Day, N. (2018) Interview with Prof. Dennis Gill Booth, Scenic Technology Director of Graduate Studies UNC.45.58min
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5.2 Curriculum
The thesis has shown from the surveys that the majority of time in most institutions is spent in production exercises, both in relation to the amount of time any individual production takes, and the number of productions in the academic year. The work of
Amabile on extrinsic motivation is useful here in better understanding the impact of this focus on the development of creativity in students. For Amabile motivators coming from external sources (extrinsic) can generally be seen as creative blockers while motivations generated internally (intrinsic) enhance creative output.
In the educational context, the focus on working in productions can be seen as reducing creativity through providing extrinsic motivation, with the need to respond to the design or dramaturgical contexts, students can be loaded with extrinsic motivators that are not synergistic and therefore hinder the development of creative outcomes. In Chapter 3.2 it was shown how informational (synergistic) extrinsic motivators can have a positive effect on creativity while non-synergistic extrinsic motivators, such as time pressure, can block creative outcomes. The previous chapters have shown that employers and educational institutions consider creative thinking as an essential attribute. They also show how the dominant pedagogy involves the repetition of highly structured production events, which limit the opportunities for reflection, play, experimentation and other practices elemental to creative outcomes.
Of all the curricular design elements that surveyed and interviewed educators found challenging, the lack of time was a common challenge. We see from
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Amabile74,Mainemelis, Ronson75 and Fasko76, that, allowing time for creative thinking, incorporating play and experimentation, is integral to the enhancement of creative outcomes. The degree at NIDA timetables 40Hrs per week involved in knowledge and skills development and contextual studies, all of which can rise to 72hrs during play production exercises. At NIDA these exercises run for 21 weeks or more depending on the cohort. As stated earlier, due to excellent student teacher ratios, it’s possible to offer students the opportunity to shape their curriculum in order to specialize in various aspects of their discipline. This offer of increased agency can have a positive effect on creative outcomes, however the time addressing and tightly focused nature of production work can be seen as an extrinsic motivator stripping away opportunity for creative enhancement. This sees us giving with one hand and taking away with the other. The inevitable conclusion is that in order to allow time for play the weekly workload would need to be reduced to allow for self-directed sessions that were of a length where students could make meaningful investigations in appropriately resourced environments77.
There is also a time issue around the incubation of ideas and time for reflection and
74 Amabile, T. M. et al. (2002) ‘Time Pressure and Creativity in Organizations: A Longitudinal Field Study.’, (02–073).
75 Mainemelis, C. and Ronson, S. (2006) ‘Ideas are Born in Fields of Play: Towards a Theory of Play and Creativity in Organizational Settings’, Research in Organizational Behavior, 27(06), pp. 81–131. doi: 10.1016/S0191-3085(06)27003-5.
76 Fasko, D. (2010) ‘Models of the creative process: Past, present and future’, Creativity Research Journal, 13(3–4), pp. 295–308. doi: 10.1207/S15326934CRJ1334.
77 Teaching environments resourced appropriately for the discipline i.e. a lighting studio for a lighting technician
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analysis. The Educational Institutions Survey illustrated that 8.3% brought their technical streams into the production at white card78, 16.7% at final design and 25% at the commencement of the build period.79 Educators try to address these challenges but as Neil Fraser of RADA states,
“It’s always a huge pressure to pack more into the course, which
means you’ve got less time to think about what you're doing.80” and Dennis Gill Booth comments; “One of the things we’re always looking for is how do we create that little bubble of time, reflective time, a post-mortem opportunity to talk
about how a production process went81”
Time for this process of reflection is challenged by the intensity of most technical theatre courses and interviewees were unanimous in their frustration at the lack of opportunities for students to reflect and analyse. More self-directed time would go some way to addressing this, as would scheduled peer critique and production circuits such as medical students often undertake. Students can become siloed in their respective performance spaces and only see the end results of their fellow colleagues’ productions in performance, remaining largely unaware of problems encountered in the making of them and their solutions. This calls for opportunities for review and analysis to be
78 White card – a preliminary set model (unpainted) presentation also usually accompanied by preliminary costume design to signal the scope and direction of the production to the technical departments.
79 Day, N. (2016) Educational Institutions Survey - All Responses. Sydney. Q21
80 Day, N. (2018) Interview with Neil Fraser Director of Technical Training & Head of Lighting. RADA.
81 Day, N. (2018) Interview with Prof. Dennis Gill Booth, Scenic Technology Director of Graduate Studies UNC.
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timetabled into production activities to ensure they are not sidelined by old habits and tight schedules. To fully avail themselves of the potential of this time, students will benefit from the study of creative thinking practice in order to develop positive creative practices and behaviours such as listed by Sternberg and Williams (1966) below.
25 Ways to Develop Creativity
The Prerequisites 1. Modelling Creativity 2. Building Self-Efficacy Basic Techniques 3. Questioning Assumptions 4. Defining and Re-Defining Problems 5. Encouraging Idea Generation 6. Cross Fertilising Ideas Tips For Teaching 7. Allowing Time for Creative Thinking 8. Instructing and Assessing Creativity 9. Rewarding Creative Ideas and Products Avoid Roadblocks 10. Encouraging Sensible Risks 11. Tolerating Ambiguity 12. Allowing Mistakes 13. Identifying and Surmounting Obstacles Add Complex Techniques 14. Teaching Self-Responsibility
15. Promoting Self -Regulation 16. Delaying Gratification Use Role Models 17. Using Profiles of Creative People 18. Encouraging Creative Collaboration 19. Imagining Other Viewpoints Explore the Environment 20. Recognising Environmental Fit
21. Finding Excitement 22. Seeking Stimulating Environments 23. Playing to Strengths
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Long Term Perspective 24. Growing Creativity
25. Proselytising for Creativity
The standard model for a theatrical curriculum within three-year undergraduate degree courses involves a year of baseline skills combined with some contextual studies, history, script analysis etc. and production work. The level of responsibility within the production framework increases until the third year where the student is taking on leading roles for a number of productions. The second and third years may also include advanced skill- based classes, industry placements and capstone professional practice studies. The vast majority of the learning is focused on industry entry-level skill sets and little or none on developing the students understanding of their position as creative artists in a collaborative practice.
Institutional time is probably the most difficult area to negotiate with play production taking up at least 50% of most courses. There is comment from Carly O’Neil of QUT and Dennis Gill Booth of UNC where they have reduced the amount of time spent on production82 and focused on learning outcomes for their own cohorts over the demands of the school as a whole. Carly O’Neil describes how QUT production took back some time,
82 Day, N. (2018) Interview with - Carly O’Neill MA (Research) QUT, BA (Technical Production Management) QUT Study Area Coordinator (Acting and Technical Production) Lecturer in Stage Management - BFA (Technical Production) School of Creative Practice | Creative Industries. 23:07min
Day, N. (2018) Interview with Prof. Dennis Gill Booth, Scenic Technology Director of Graduate Studies UNC. 44:46min
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“I mean, we run a production program from mid-January through to December. There was no week in the year where we weren't in some form of production and so it was just, it was just crisis management. From January to December, it was just myself and my colleagues just felt like all we did was just walk around putting out fires constantly. So, we had an opportunity to get a lot more agency within the university than what the program used to have. I guess it was very much sort of
seen in a position of servitude by them.”83
In addition to the issue of time available for learning outside the production process, there are two other consequences of the high priority placed in many institutions on production on opportunities for engaging with creativity. This is the relative lack of opportunity for these students to engage in a more open and unstructured learning, and the other is a limited range of production experiences, and as I’ve discussed earlier, students only get to work with the concepts and environments propagated by the production program, and these may not always seem appropriate from a pedagogical standpoint. Dennis Gill Booth talks of deciding against supporting some school production projects and finding his students more appropriate productions in the local or regional theatre scene84.
Taking these considerations into account and accepting that the processes practiced in play production exercises continue to predicate the foundations of performance making, there needs to be a balance whereby there’s adequate time for reflection during and after productions. Institutions should also accept that the pedagogical needs of technical
83 Day, N. (2018) Interview with - Carly O’Neill MA (Research) QUT, BA (Technical Production Management) QUT Study Area Coordinator (Acting and Technical Production) Lecturer in Stage Management - BFA (Technical Production) School of Creative Practice | Creative Industries. 23:07 min 84 Day, N. (2018) Interview with Prof. Dennis Gill Booth, Scenic Technology Director of Graduate Studies UNC. 44:46 min
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theatre courses aren’t necessarily met by productions alone, or by particular types of performance, whether they be dancer, actor or musician driven, so the reliance on technical theatre students to present other disciplines work needs to be negotiated. In the University of North Carolina where the undergraduate course duration is four years and students are applying out of well-equipped secondary drama programs, educators still felt stretched to cover what they felt were basic industry skills and contextual knowledge, as well as trying to remediate a cultural disconnection with craft. It was felt that work was needed to evolve curriculum to enthuse an understanding of what happens between pushing the button and what happens at the other end85. All this, and an ever-expanding suite of technologies to become fluent with, makes a four-year undergraduate course the minimum time required to train a theatre technician.
While the intense nature of production scheduling gives students a first-hand experience of the rigors of industry, it also needs careful planning within an educational framework that values the development of creative behaviours. The problem-centred curriculum needs to be balanced by learner-centred activities in order to make space for reflection.
With an increasing number of students coming straight out of a secondary education system, the pressures of industry timelines can be overwhelming. In a four-year course where students worked across disciplines and were gradually exposed to the intensity that is a professional production week, resilience could be built alongside an understanding of the necessity for the long hours and the development of reflective and
85 Day, N. (2018) Interview with Prof. Dennis Gill Booth, Scenic Technology Director of Graduate Studies UNC. 26:37min
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creative practices.
5.3 Learning and Assessment
The survey of educational institutions found that the teacher to student ratios were quite excellent with 70% of schools having less than 60 pupils in their technical cohort with roughly a six to one student / teacher ratio. This allows the ability to tailor a student’s education to their strong points and vocational focus. The large majority (92%) of students were coming to technical theatre courses straight from high school, in some cases, performing arts high schools.
Across the surveyed institutions teaching takes place predominantly in studios, workshops and performance spaces, so the teaching environments are very similar.
These environments are also predominantly course specific, with only 7.5% of respondents sharing all their facilities with other courses.
Students in many ways echo the ambiguities that staff and employers expressed in relation to creativity. That is, both valuing it, and also unable to place it in reality of their education training. Students don’t receive specific teaching in creativity in any of the surveyed courses, but 83% of institutions reported that the support for creativity was good or great.86 The majority of current students thought that play production was a good outlet for their creativity, although 80% of them didn’t think their creative input was recognised87. When asked about how creativity was addressed within their course, the common theme was voiced by this student respondent in a focus group.
86 Day, N. (2016) Educational Institution survey results.
87 Day, N. (2016) Current Students Survey results. Q33
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“I would say that creativity was dealt with adequately in our course in many different ways. However most prominently through the use of problem solving. To put it simply, everyday one learns a technical skill. After you hone that technical skill, the real challenge is to creatively mould it to fit somewhere else, somewhere totally unconventional but effective, practical, economic or otherwise. Creativity was not delivered as a subject, but it was inherently a part of every subject.”88
When given the statement, ‘I have classes dealing specifically with creativity and creative thinking’, 80% of respondents answered ‘true’, even though none of their courses mention this in their course material and interviewees and focus group respondents remarked they didn’t run classes specifically in creative thinking.
While the responses above paint a fractured picture as regards student understanding of creativity, there were reports of initiatives by respondents that are very promising.
Ros Madden from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland commented:
“To be honest – I think one of the best initiatives in this area that we have introduced in recent years is our ‘Bridge week’ which ironically is extra-curricular and unassessed! Students simply pitch for resources (money, venues, staff support) and then produce their own work. The key thing is that there doesn’t have to be a performative outcome – you can simply use the resource to experiment with equipment or explore
ideas in a workshop setting89.”
RADA also has a similar program that’s open ended and importantly unassessed they call, ‘Cross Course Portfolio Events’. In this variation the school mixes students across
88 Day, N. (2016) Focus Group Recent Graduates.
89 Day, N. (2016) Teaching Institution Focus Group, Motivation - Ros Madden, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
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disciplines and breaks them into groups of twelve. These groups are then brought together four times over the year and handed a portfolio, the portfolio contains a stimulus which may be a piece of text, images, objects etc. The students are then challenged to produce an event based on the stimulus, which may take any form. Neil
Fraser, the Director of Technical Training at RADA says they ask the students to leave labels at the door, and purely to play to their own strengths.
NIDA also has a student led program which is currently under review as there is varying levels of student buy-in reported through student feedback. Within the second year course ‘Student Led’ the students are free to form their own groups of no more than seven, and design and stage their own projects which could take any form, however it is assessed, which brings with it various problems of equity, as most of the work happens in situations which can’t be observed, making it impossible for staff to gauge individual student involvement, and the individual motivations of group members can range from strongly implicit creative drives to explicit notions such as ‘I just need to pass this’ and move on. The assessment outlines for technical students at NIDA in play production projects, (interdisciplinary collaboration) does not mention creativity as a criteria until 3rd year. It should be the case that we are teaching and assessing creativity from 1st year onwards.
Theatre school curriculums are typically very dense, at NIDA students attend for 40hrs per week base, and this can increase to 84 hrs during the play production program. So again, the amount of material needed to impart and the time available to do it are at odds when it comes to providing creatively fertile cross-discipline learning experiences.
The other opportunity for creative investigation identified was within discipline specific
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skills classes and projects. Barry Conway, Director of Technical Training, The LIR,
Dublin talks of conversations between tutors and students in professional practice lectures around the interpersonal dynamics of the industry, which most schools do in one way or another, but which he confesses:
‘I don't think we currently address students as creatives in a very direct
and purposeful way’90.
Barry Conway then goes on to talk in interview about embedding discussion about creativity throughout the program, as opposed to a discrete subject. I think this is a fabulous idea, but again needs to have time put aside to ensure it does not fall away due the pressures of productions. As with the Student Led projects at NIDA, the embedded discussion of creativity needs to be in tandem with encouragement and reward. Rubrics that contain creativity criteria also need to be threaded though the assessment framework.
The creative take-aways from production exercises can vary across technical disciplines. For instance, in play production the student stage managers benefit greatly from experiencing managing rehearsal rooms and the generation of a prompt copy,91 which can be easily transferred to the working environment, as the process and outcomes are similar regardless of the aesthetic drivers of the piece. Whereas, the
90 Day, N. (2018) Interview with Barry Conway, Director of Technical Training The LIR National Academy of Dramatic Art at Trinity College 03/10/2018. 10:55min
91Promt copy, the master copy of the script or score, containing all the actor moves and technical cues, and is used by the deputy stage manager to run rehearsals and later, control the performance. It’s sometimes known as the ‘book’
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learning opportunities for a scenic construction student will vary depending on decisions made by the director and set designer and the time available to produce the requested set elements. It follows that a scenic construction student can spend an entire production season creating unchallenging elements many times over (if that happens to be the want of the Director and Designer) and so not being challenged and getting little benefit educationally. This dependency is common to all ‘making’ disciplines and it is not unusual for Heads of Discipline to negotiate ‘makes’ as opposed to ‘buys’ with designers in order to give their students adequate learning opportunities in the workshop. At NIDA the Properties and Objects Course Leader, Marcelo Zavala Baeza has totally removed any physical outcomes from the assessable criteria of interdisciplinary collaborative productions, as the requirements can be so random, and the available budget forces a particular level of resolution. Properties students at NIDA are graded on management and collaborative engagement criteria alone with design and making skill assessment reserved for in-discipline projects which can be carefully designed and assessed.
The style and breadth of learning is highly dependent on the structure and resources of the teaching institution. As described earlier, time is important, so course duration has to come into play, as does the situation of the teaching geographically in terms of its access to other faculties and areas of specialisation. As outlined in Ch.2.1 the teaching of technical subjects is very hands on so inter-faculty collaboration can’t always be serviced by online resources.
The surveys defined three different types of schools:
The US university four-year, liberal arts type degree. This included a generalist
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foundation year and a selection of electives, including from other faculties, which I feel gives the student a broader knowledge base from which to launch creative practice. The inclusion of a foundation year has an advantage over the three-year degree, in that students are brought to a base level of understanding within the domain and prior to their engaging in more advanced analytical and practical work. The familiarity with the domain in a broad sense can support the students to collaborate and reach creative outcomes. This, together with the ability to pick up fringe contextual knowledge and still being able to practice production processes within a safe environment, enhances the possibility of creative thinking, although the lack of instruction in creative thinking processes and the time addressing nature of production work is still a barrier to optimised creative careers. Carnegie Mellon with its Playground program and subjects investigating creative thinking processes does address these issues to some degree.
The conservatoire style school offering a three-year degree or a two-year foundation degree with a one-year BA (Hons). The three-year degree also necessitates high face to face hours leading to the situation where students don’t have enough time to analyse and reflect, as seen in the surveys. The time addressing nature of production work, which constitutes the majority of this style of training, leads to a number of creativity inhibitors such as, racing for ‘the right answer’, ‘logical approaches’, ‘following rules’,
‘being practical’, ‘avoiding ambiguity’, ‘being afraid of making mistakes’ and ‘avoiding risk taking’.
The third style is a hybrid of 1 & 2 such as the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) in
Melbourne Australia where they began as conservatoire schools and became part of the University of Melbourne. These schools kept the vocational, practice-based
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structure of the conservatoires and so have a lot in common with them in course delivery, but have some additional electives afforded them by the university. In the case of the VCA the electives available are acting focused and few to choose from92.
The survey results of Current Students, Recent Alumni and Educational Institutions showed curricula of a similar design across all fifteen surveyed institutions, a predominance of performance making supported by discipline specific skills classes and cross discipline contextual academic work to do with script analysis and the historical and philosophical underpinnings of dramatic art.
Although the production work is given the most time, institutions felt that contextual and reflective study and production work was of equal importance, whereas, the students thought productions were more important. There was a comment from Ros Maddison of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland:
“In terms of reflective practice, we have embedded it throughout the journey but again many students tend to see any work in this area as a necessary evil to get their degree rather than the development of
themselves as effective practitioners.”93
You could forgive the students for taking this line given the time allocated and the fact the majority of institutions felt there was insufficient time allotted to reflection and analysis.
92 https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/2020/courses/b-faprod/course-structure. Accessed 30/08/2020.Pg 184
93 Day, N. (2016) Teaching Institution Focus Group, Motivation - Ros Madden, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
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From Ros Madden we also hear, “We don’t deliver ‘creativity’ as a discrete subject. It is embedded in practical skills delivery and in written reflective work. We have a very vocational delivery pattern in that nearly all learning happens in practical allocations on shows or project-based simulations rather than in formal taught classroom scenarios. Hence ‘creativity’ is nurtured rather than taught. We do try and instil the identity of a creative practitioner in all production students but some associate with it better than others.”94
This reminds me of Martin Oliver’s observation ‘that creativity is something that students are not used to discussing and quite possibly lack a shared common frame of reference to interpret.95 If this is true it seems we’ve given the students some pencils and some paper and expect them to come up with something creative, which they may do, but it’s more their ability to interpret their creative style and how it interconnects with their collaborators that is of value, so that it is more implicit than explicit.
The issue of motivation and acceptance of ambiguity within the teaching is problematic across the courses. Only a small percentage (30%) of the students’ work could be open ended or lacking a definite outcome. This of course follows the necessity for production tasks to culminate in a workable solution on a particular day and time, that in some cases may have the physical safety of self or others in consideration, so time addressed and high stakes in the majority of cases.
94 Day, N. (2016) Teaching Institution Focus Group, Creative Thinking Practice - Ros Madden, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
95 Oliver, M. et al. (2006) ‘Students’ experiences of creativity’, Developing Creativity in Higher Education: An Imaginative Curriculum, pp. 43–58. doi: 10.4324/9780203016503. Pg 57
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“The demands of the production throughput while creation(sic) an excellent ‘industry-style’ experience, does also limit the amount of
space available in the curriculum for pure experimentation and ‘play’.”96
Interestingly, the educators thought the students more motivated by well-defined problems where the students themselves thought a situation with a range of possibilities needing resolution was more interesting, so had a leaning toward more ambiguous open-ended spaces.
As educational institutions design courses that enable their graduates to be industry leaders and innovators it’s incumbent on them to train graduates that are not only technically proficient but who are able to engage with the production process on a higher creative level.
Although educational institutions, the students who attend them, and their graduates report a satisfactory support of creativity within their courses, it’s also evident that due to the amount of time spent in production work, in which institutions admit there isn’t adequate time for reflection or analysis, and in which the short lead times encourage convergent practice and falling back on practical approaches, they appear to be downplaying creativity in favour of practicalities.
The cross disciplinary nature of the conservatoire approach has good intentions in the desire to produce an industry-like work environment, but in the reality of an educational production period, students make pressured responses within their discipline while trying to negotiate a collaborative process with similarly pressured students from other
96 Day, N. (2016) Teaching Institution Focus Group, Motivation - Ros Madden, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
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disciplines, which doesn’t make for an ideal creative environment. This situation could be improved by a curriculum which borrows from the four -year US liberal arts model, the cross disciplinary foundation year supported by métier elective subjects which equip the students with a language and broader experience that will inform and enhance creative engagements with other disciplines prior to the pressured production environment and expedite resolutions under pressure.
Looking at the requirements of the industry, it’s clear that they are asking for technical staff who, while acknowledging the various specialisations, are able and eager to engage in creative development across all disciplines. However, the financial realities of commercial theatre force them to follow the short lead-times the schools emulate, and in many cases the technical crew are hired on and off for short periods, so the conservatoire model maps the worst-case scenario in industry.
When asked whether the training graduates brought to the workplace was adequate,
75% responded ‘sometimes’. When asked what qualities they thought technical theatre graduates were missing, one respondent who runs an international production group said:
‘Multi-disciplinary cutting-edge technologies and a lateral perspective
(in an industry increasingly growing into specialisation).’
While another said: ‘a comprehensive guide, a defined list of needs. But both are a massive task.’ It can be accepted that professional tertiary educated technicians should be able to upskill themselves as far as advances in technologies are concerned but I contend that educators should be equipping students with the broad foundations and creative thinking skills as an industry entry attribute. The Current Students surveys support the
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notion that students are unsure as to the creative standing of technical theatre, with
80% thinking creativity in technical theatre was under-recognised while at the same time
80% thought it was well supported within the school. The feedback from the survey supports Martin Oliver’s observation that,
“Student’s experiences of creativity in the curriculum are complex and often confused’ and that ‘This suggests that creativity is something that students are not used to discussing and quite possibly lack a shared
common frame of reference to interpret.”97
In the desire to satisfy all of industry’s requirements, schools have seemingly gone about stuffing content into curricula which might have been adequate a decade or more ago but which, in a lot of cases, need redesigning from the ground up. With the majority of educators in agreeance that technical theatre is more than the facilitation of someone else’s vision, eliciting comments which acknowledge the historical position but also state:
“Primarily, in the traditional sense, however technical theatre also encompasses technical design and, on truly collaborative projects the technical team are creators as much as facilitators. Even in a 'technical
response' role there is a big element of creative thinking.”
We can see a desire and acceptance of a need to respond to creative challenges.
In order to affect change in this paradigm schools need to develop one discipline’s respect for and knowledge of the other. The inclusion of a cross disciplinary foundation year could go some way to satisfying the industry’s need for graduates with a ‘lateral
97 Jackson, N. et al. (2006) Developing Creativity in Higher Education - An Imaginative Curriculum. Routledge Great Britain.p.57
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perspective’
In Australia this is especially true in an environment where once applicants were coming to theatre following an arts or fine arts degree to specialise in theatre crafts but are now made up of an increasing number of school-leavers.
The thesis has outlined earlier a confluence and rapid integration of technologies into the performing arts area, particularly over the last decade and a half. This has both put pressure on courses in how to incorporate additional, broadening experiences in these new developments, and on schools to afford these sometimes very expensive technologies. Issues stem from finding the space in the course, finding the expertise to teach it and finding the resources. Shane Kelly from De Paul University Chicago remarks,
‘But I do think it's important for technicians especially, and really for everybody in the industry to keep up with what's out there for technology, what’s possible. Now I think it's a shame, I cannot right now find the money to deal with drones or virtual reality equipment or any of that sort of stuff, and that's what is cutting edge right now and we just
can't find our way to that cutting edge.98’
Given that funding in education is a challenge, the ability for students to experiment with cutting edge technology is dependent on the generosity of suppliers to the industry, and industry secondments and internships.
While technology suppliers supporting schools through in-kind donations and discounted hire rates helps school’s production programs remain relevant, secondments
98 Jackson, N. et al. (2006) Developing Creativity in Higher Education - An Imaginative Curriculum. Routledge Great Britain.
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or internships can take up a sizable chunk of time in an already packed curriculum.
Educators in my 2016 surveys and forum99 referred to creativity being implicit in skill- based projects, indeed all these courses responded that creativity was either a highly recommended or essential attribute of a technician, but none dealt with creativity explicitly as a stand-alone module or topic within their courses. Sternberg talks of creativity being a habit100, in that it is an acquired behaviour pattern that is followed until it has become almost involuntary. If we accept this to be the case, it seems then paradoxical that a creative ‘novel’ response, is a habit, a routine response, and like any habit, creativity can be either encourage or discouraged. Sternberg describes a triangle of enablers, pictured below, to promote the creative habit.
Figure 3 Sternberg's Creative Enablers
Opportunities to engage in creativity, encouragement when people engage in these opportunities and rewards when people respond to such encouragement and think and
99 Day, N. (2016) Educational Institution survey results. Q27
100 Sternberg, R. J. (2012) ‘The Assessment of Creativity: An Investment-Based Approach’, Creativity Research Journal, 24(1), pp. 3–12. doi: 10.1080/10400419.2012.652925. p. 3-12
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behave creatively foster an environment where creative habits are formed.
If any one of these is missing, then so will the desire to be creative. In the higher educational domain, we work with students who have been practicing small ‘C’ creativity from the day they were born but in a lot of cases this natural creative ‘habit’ is repressed by standardised curriculum and testing in earlier years. Cropley explains:
‘Conventional education systems often hinder the development of, attitudes and motives necessary for production of novelty. Among other things, they frequently perpetuate the idea that there is always a single best answer to every problem and that this can be readily be ascertained by correct application of set techniques and conventional logic that need to be learnt and then reapplied over and over again.’101
In a higher education sense, Sternberg and William’s prerequisites enable the student to achieve ownership through self- awareness, control through knowledge of the field and innovation through practice of techniques. In terms of technical theatre students, on the whole, they enter the higher education space highly engaged and thirsty to taste what their school has to offer. All the schools surveyed used projects, portfolios and interviews in their admissions process102, so we can assume the students showed potential in their selected disciplines and an aptitude for learning and creative thinking.
To achieve the maximun potential from these students, institutions need to provide ducation in creative thinking practice and assessment and reward structures that recognise its presence. Students need to be socialised into the performance domain so
101 Cropley, A. J. (2001) Creativity in Education and Learning: A Guide for Teachers and Educators. Kogan Page; London.
102 Day, N. (2016) Educational Institution survey results. Q4
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they clearly see their own discipline’s function and its interdependencies with other disciplines. The pedagogy of courses needs to support ambiguity and risk taking as well as the linear aspects of production work.
5.1.3 Attitudes
Chapter 2 has shown that historically technical theatre has been subject to intellectual and social classist attitudes with regard to its importance within collaborative creative groups. We’ve also seen from the surveys and interviews in Chapter 3 that there is still perceptions amongst educators and students of technical theatre that they are often regarded as ‘facilitators’. From interviews with educators it has emerged that there is a need to, and in many cases a process of, changing the language around technical theatre and creativity. Heads of technical departments are challenging the use of terms like ‘creatives’ and ‘artistics’ used to separate directors and designers from their ‘tekky’ collaborators. There has been a recognition of the need to embrace collective terms such as ‘company’ and ‘ensemble’ to better describe the collaborative and comprehensively creative nature of the production team, but in a 2019 NIDA working group paper on Strategic Initiatives there is a directive to:
‘● Utilise and embed industry creatives into our courses. ‘ and in the 2018 Graduating Designers and Directors brochure the credits are - Cast,
Artistic and Production Team, which dodges the ‘creative’ word but infers some are
‘artistic’ and some act and then there’s a group who produce things.
Students of technical theatre should view technology as a dramaturgical tool that needs to be wielded with creative insight, not just functional appropriateness, so the language
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of the institution needs to nurture student’s self-image as creative collaborators.
This change of language has also been accompanied by a shift in perspective amongst some educators by a desire to provide more focused learning outcomes. This
challenges the need to perform production roles, redirecting the time being saved to projects steered more toward individual creative development such as the RADA portfolio program, which acknowledges that these courses are vocationally focused, that the ability to move seamlessly into the industry is at the top of the graduate attribute list and that involvement in production exercises will continue to be at the core of technical theatre training, at least while theatre-based performance is seen as the main employer of graduates. RADA’s example where budget and time has been kept aside in order to offer students the opportunity to say, ‘I want to step away from the production program and spend time developing my own practice’, and so recognises the student as an independent artist who has the ability to carve their own space in the field.
For technical theatre students to step away from play production tasks to concentrate on their practice as an artform in itself, the school as a whole may be required to rethink any historical and/or hierarchical structures that exist.
Interviewed educators acknowledged a requirement or at least implied suggestion for technical students to service productions for the acting, dance or music streams. It was acknowledged that students sometimes felt like they were part of a play factory103, merely a cog in the machine.
In an attempt to satisfy the notion that students need a fluency with their domain in order to think creatively it’s necessary to involve them in broad based cross discipline
103 Day, N. (2018) Interview with Shane Kelly, Chair of Design & Technology, Head of Theatre Technology, Head of Projection Design The Theatre School at DePaul University. 25:27min
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experiences early in their education. Before they are involved in production exercises, they should be introduced to the structures that underpin the production team and the workflows that produce dramatic works. At NIDA this is dealt with by the presentation of a matrix which counts down the production process from initial concept to opening night, the week before pre-production work starts. While this introduction to the production timeline may expose them to the extrinsic structure, what’s already happened and what needs to be done, it doesn’t engage or motivate on a personal level. Lectures involving key practitioners from invited companies discussing particular productions processes and outcomes where students can question approaches relevant to their selected discipline would engender more ownership of processes.
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CHAPTER 6
6.1 Overview
In the introduction to this thesis, I asked the question, how can the education of theatre technicians in theatre schools be reformed to better enhance the capacity of graduates to work as creative problem-solvers, innovators and collaborators?
The initial task in addressing this was to better understand the field of technical theatre, its complex relations to other aspects of theatrical production, with its overlap between technical support and creative collaboration. In addition, I provided a detailed discussion of how technical theatre has been addressed in tertiary education, since it became a distinct study area in the mid-twentieth century.
According to my gathered research data, tertiary educators in particular, highly value the creativity of theatre technicians, and it was seen that many are actively working to enhance the opportunities for technical theatre students to be creative collaborators.
The surveys and interviews revealed, however, that this was often less successful than was hoped, because of a variety of institutional, attitudinal and practical considerations.
The major task of this thesis was to unpack these blockers, and to chart a way forward.
Theatre schools’ production program pedagogy is largely based around the play production process as used by professional theatre companies. That is, the artistic director chooses a repertoire, the productions are then fashioned by the Directors assisted by the design teams, and then the resultant dramaturgical ideas are then realised by the acting and technical departments.
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In Ch.5.1 the thesis discussed approaches to resolving the tensions caused by the present structures under three headings,1. Curriculum, 2. Teaching, Learning and
Assessment and 3. Attitudes and Outcomes.
As discussed in Chapters 3 and 5, the dominance of production work in school pedagogy can have a detrimental outcome in terms of enhancement of creativity for technical students particularly through restrictions on time (particularly for developmental processes) and agency (with technical students often receiving quite defined briefs). Yet not only are staff often sympathetic to the need for technical students to have creative input, but project-based learning, (which production work is an instance of), seems ideally suited to provide opportunities for ‘thinking outside the box’.
Production work is, however, tightly defined in scope and time, so we are left with a complex and ambiguous situation both regarding learning outcomes and how they are met, and the needs of the school as a whole. It is clear that the ability to make fundamental curriculum change in this area requires a clearer appreciation of the impact on technical students of standard pedagogical models, and buy-in across all disciplines on the need to change.
Examples, such as at UNC where a change in the lexicon has created space for a re- think of the kind of support technical strands need to supply to the school and also at
RADA where Neil Fraser talks of programs that release students from their speciality roles, show that incremental changes in this area are occurring.
In Ch.5.3 the thesis looks at learning and assessment and how, although the surveys reported support for creativity, there was no specific training in creativity or creative
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thinking practice in any of the surveyed schools, with interviewees and forum respondents commenting that creativity is instead, inherent across all school activities.
We have seen that this more general, unsystematic idea of creativity as common to everyone in the theatre fails to understand the specific issues faced by technical students in particular. My research also used research such as that carried out by
Martin Oliver(2006) which showed that ‘students are not used to discussing and quite possibly lack a shared common frame of reference to interpret.’(creativity). Gordon(1961) also suggests that creative input increases when people become aware of the psychological processes that control their behaviour. My argument is that the journey from ‘little c’ creativity to ‘pro-c’ creativity described by Kaufman (2009) through the uptake of discipline knowledge and craft can only be amplified by the self-knowledge afforded by explicit tuition in creative thinking practice as suggested in the model curriculum
(Appendix Pg98).
It was intended to test this aspect of the model curriculum through a case study as described in Ch.1. The study of creative thinking theory would also background the students in the various creative behaviours championed by Sternberg and Fasko (2010) and in the social nature of creativity described by Csikszentmihalyi (1966), much of which the students would recognise within their present practice to varying degrees, but which would hopefully become explicit in their everyday use. Although the detailed interviews provided in the appendix did provide much additional data on opportunities for transformation of the curriculum for technical theatre students, it is worth noting that this thesis has not been able to firmly establish the impact of creative thinking or practice style courses in a revised curriculum and further work will need to be undertakes.
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Although the thesis has discussed the inherent problems associated with in-curriculum play production programs, it remains a reality that all the disciplines require experiences working with each other in an ‘as close to reality’ environment as possible, so play production should continue to be part of the curriculum picture. This highlights one of the significant challenges that lie at the heart of the project of this thesis. As discussed, play production as pedagogy seems to provide ideal conditions for student flexibility and creative engagement, yet in real world contexts of tight timelines, restricted budgets and busy curricula, technical students in particular, have reduced, not expanded opportunities for experimentation, play and self-management. What this shows is that possibly solutions may well need to go deeper into the structure of theatre education than this thesis has been able to do. Deep seated structural, resource and cultural limitations may undermine the effectiveness of changes to curriculum.
When I talk about creating time for creativity, it may need to be recognised this will eventually run into limitations due to resources and interdependencies, so as I stated earlier, the issues are complex and will require understanding of the needs of all disciplines across theatre schools to satisfy the individual learning outcomes of disciplines as well as the holistic benefits of interdisciplinary collaborations. The thesis has also discussed moves to introduce program structures that offer students more opportunities for open-ended explorations, allowing students play and experimentation, some unassessed, removing both the threat of failure and the student’s possible leaning to go the safer, well-trodden path in the search of good grades.
As depicted in Sternberg’s ‘Creative Triangle’ there is a need for 1. Opportunity, 2.
Encouragement and 3. Reward in order to foster creativity. It’s shown above that by
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prioritizing learning outcomes in the design of whole school pedagogy space could be made for opportunity. I don’t think, due to the excellent student / teacher ratios reported by survey institutions, approximately 6/1, that there is a lack of encouragement, so that leads to the remaining issue of reward. Reward is tied to assessment within the theatre school environment and the thesis has shown that assessment of creativity needs to be more explicitly about the acknowledgement of creative practice and outcomes. If we commence training with an acknowledgement of creative practice across all disciplines, as would be achieved through the discussion of techniques of creative thinking, then tutors can continue to observe and assess the use of those tools and their outcomes form early in the student’s progress
When attitudes and outcomes were discussed in Ch.5.3 I expressed a need identified by both the surveys and the interviews for a change in lexicon used to describe theatre technicians and their practice. It was also identified that this change could be driven by the increased understanding of other centres of practice by all students.
The early cross disciplinary workshops suggested in the model curriculum, are designed to help the various cross-disciplinary cohorts understand the creative practice employed by their collaborators and aid in the socialisation of the whole-school cohort. Commentators have spoken of a supportive language with the use of terms such as ‘company’ or ‘team’ to describe the whole production unit, to promote an inclusiveness and acknowledgement of creative input as put forward by Dennis Gill
Booth at UNC.2 This change is fundamental to the acceptance of theater technicians as creative collaborators. Although in Ch.4.1 it was shown that many theatre companies divide their staff into ‘Creatives’ and ‘Technical Production’, another example was shown
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of a smaller parity theatre company using the inclusive terms ‘The Crew’ to include, director, designers, and technicians. Neil Fraser of RADA talks of ‘lip service paid to the idea that we’re all creative but when it comes to the limitations of time and money, it’s less commonly observed’. He states it’s necessary to dig your heels in to maintain your objectives, even in a progressive school such as RADA, or as Dennis Gill-Booth of UNC comments on influencing the instances where technical pedagogy is being driven by other areas of the school, ‘it’s a tough nut, that’s the end of that story’.
The creative thinking and educational theories and practice that is discussed in this thesis are not controversial and are widely supported in contemporary teaching and learning theory, however as demonstrated though out this thesis, they are not generally observed in current educational practice. The creative enablers suggested in Chapter 5 need to be woven into current teaching programs on a broader scale and more explicitly in order to effect a change of perception in the performing arts domain and so cement an acknowledged need and response to the addressing of creativity and its enhancement within technical theatre education. In the Appendix I have proposed some cross-discipline opportunities for students to engage with creative thinking techniques and socialization with other cohorts. These projects should be unassessed to limit any perceived extrinsic motivators. They will deal initially with performance making on a very reduced scale, defining space and character using simple materials. The addition of simple lighting and sound could the add further dimension to these cross-discipline interactions, but as with RADA’s Portfolio exercises, students should leave their specialization at the door.
There possibly will always be variance in people’s perception of what creative thinking is
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and what if any form it takes in particular areas of technical theatre, however higher education institutions training technicians should be equipping their undergraduate cohorts to excel creatively and add value to the existing field and further develop their domain through the development and proselytising of creative practice.
6.2 Challenges and Recommended Further Research
The research proposition initially included a case study with a 2nd year cohort of NIDA technical students taking part in two surveys separated by the delivery of a module on
Creative Thinking Practice and a Play Production season in order to try and evaluate if student’s experience and reflection on creative endeavours was enhanced relative to a control cohort. Due to changes in staff and common subject design I was unable to run this study which was a major set-back for the project and remains a major limitation to this research. Although the literature suggests that knowledge of creative thinking practice can benefit creative outcomes, I am unable to fully validate this in the context of technical theatre training. The loss of the case study prompted the instigation of a number of one-on-one interviews with key educationalists in the field of technical theatre from the United States of America, United Kingdom and Australia. This change of design proved to be useful to the thesis with the recording of much more nuanced comment on the survey material as well as personal ethnographic insights and anecdote greatly enriching the knowledge status of the study. Future research could include re-connection with what was a highly interested interview group and their colleagues to create a broader research and advisory base to benchmark more broadly and harvest fine detail from a wider array of technical theatre curriculum. Future
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research could include re-connection with what was a highly interested interview group and their colleagues to create a broader research and advisory base to benchmark more broadly and harvest fine detail from a wider array of technical theatre curriculum, hopefully including non-english speaking nations to provide a more inclusive and culturally rich view. Future research would also benefit from a wider connection with industry. As the requirements of industry on technical theatre graduates varies greatly from large scale musicals to low budget fringe productions, a more demarcated study of prospective collaborators could tease out any variances in perception of required creative attributes. The comments from interviewees in this thesis are couched in the context of traditional theatre production, however graduates of technical theatre can move away from drama, musical and dance-based works. Future research can look at these new and peripheral areas of creative collaboration such as installation and interactive transmedia events to inform continued development of pedagogy.
6.3 Conclusion In the process of collecting data for this study I have been buoyed by the hundreds of technical theatre students and dozens of teachers of technical theatre from many schools internationally, all of whom considered creativity to be an important aspect of their practice. In spite of the limitations of the study mentioned above, I believe that through the commitment of these emerging and practicing artists and technicians and passion of theatre educators, the industry will continue to re-new itself in socially relevant ways and that live performance will continue to be an important part of our culture. Because of this I hope my efforts to outline ways to better enhance the capacity of graduates to work as creative problem-solvers, innovators and collaborators, will be of help to educators in the area for years to come.
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APPENDIX
Appendix 1: Curriculum Modules:
YEAR 1 Foundation Year - General experience across all technical fields
Semester 1 Session 1 - 9 weeks
Mixed Workshop & In this module students can be introduced Cohorts Theatre to the practice of all the technical Orientation disciplines. The students would be divided into small cross cohort groups. (approx.10) 4 weeks Each group would rotate through Non-assessed exercises in Design, Management, Lighting, Sound, Sets, Properties, Costume and Scenic art, with the intended outcome to be the ability to operate safely and with a degree of autonomy in each area. Ideally the groups could be shuffled during the period to allow the students to get to know one and other and commence the creation of a community of practice. • This module provides two factors relevant to the student’s creative development,
the commencement of the socialisation into the theatrical domain and a level of
self-regulation in studio activities. Students will be made self-reliant by equipping
them with a base level of stage and workshop skills that will enable them to access
and be productive in these spaces. In this period the various discipline cohorts may
be mixed so there is no perception of disadvantage, and there may be transferal of
knowledge at a peer level within groups adding to the efficacy of the socialisation
process
Students, again in small mixed cohort groups will extend their understanding of Mixed Cohort Interpreting and the skills and tools needed to deconstruct Devising performance elements, text, objects and Performance environments. Students will create performance elements and reflect on their
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Non-assessed practice to illustrate their understanding of the material.
Here students are able to work across disciplines, utilising simple materials and technologies as afforded by the orientation program. Without fear of failure students are able to freely explore and negotiate outcomes with their fellow collaborators. Students begin to develop a community of practice that will build through their student and professional life. Students begin to develop a common creative vocabulary and approach.
Contextual These classes introduce students to the subjects: performing arts domain, historical and
contemporary relationships and the Self and peer Mixed Cohort development of the various disciplines, assessed creative theory and creative thinking problem-based practice as well as the collaborative activities environment including professional ethics and personal skills such as conflict resolution.
This module can incorporate sessions on the creative industries landscape, finance, both personal and industry, sustainability as well as script analysis and presentation skills, further informing and enabling student’s settling into the domain. These sessions would also include lectures and workshops on creative thinking practice. This could commence with talks on history of creative thinking incorporating memory, civilisation, key people, key periods, definitions of creativity and discussion on how we think and create.
Session 2 - 9 weeks
Performance These workshops could use an impetus making whereby groups randomly select a box
workshops: mixed containing materials, images, text or Mixed Cohort cohort. objects with which to define space and create narratives. Peer Assessed
This module asks students to utilise creative thinking methodologies as discussed in session one. Students will be asked to outline their creative process during peer presentations.
Specialisation Discipline specific For these classes, students will work in skill/knowledge their discipline specific classrooms and tuition: workspaces learning skills and knowledge particular to their elected specialisations.
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Apart from métier knowledge, the use of problem-based learning in the planning of projects can give the students the opportunity to engage with complexity and ambiguity in the solving of technical scenarios.
Contextual Continuation from Session 1 - These subjects: classes introduce students to the
performing arts domain, historical and contemporary relationships and the Mixed Cohort development of the various disciplines, creative theory and creative thinking practice. These sessions should extend into methodologies of creative thinking practice and discussion of creative enablers and blocks.
This module continues from session 1 with sessions on the creative industries landscape, finance, both personal and industry, sustainability as well as script analysis and presentation skills. It would also include more advanced creative thinking concepts and practice.
Semester 2 Session 1 - 9 weeks
Discipline specific For these classes, students will work in skill/knowledge their discipline specific classrooms and
tuition workspaces learning skills and knowledge Specialisation particular to their elected specialisations.
Where possible these classes should promote risk taking and the assessment of them should centre on process-based criteria. Students should be encouraged to use choice- based problem-solving models rather than the define/explore/anticipate/look back (DEAL) method in order to promote creative thinking practices.
Session 2 - 9 weeks
Cross- Junior production 1st year students work alongside senior discipline role students in junior roles on fully resourced collaboration productions. Students will engage in daily
morning tutorials to discuss emerging concerns and solutions, visiting other productions if more than one concurrent production.
While the 1st year student’s input into productions will be more faciliatory rather than creative, it is Important that adequate time is put aside for reflection and analysis where they can write up issues and consider the complexities and ambiguities of the production process.
YEAR Elected skill development and production experience. 2
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Semester 3 Session 1 - 9 weeks
Advanced métier As directed by heads of discipline. skills & knowledge development
Where possible these classes should promote risk taking and the assessment of them should centre on process-based criteria. Students should be encouraged to use choice- based problem-solving models rather than the define/explore/anticipate/look back (DEAL) method. Ideally students should also be encouraged to use divergent thinking practices as studied in Semester 2. Creative practice should be tracked, and feedback given.
Session 2 - 9 weeks
Cross- Production work - Students are attached to productions as discipline full time assistants to fourth year students and collaboration overseen by tutors in their selected discipline. Daily toolbox talk. Timetabled review sessions are observed and Weekly Group where schools work on more than one review sessions production concurrently, provision will be Weekly individual made for visits to other production spaces for tutorials – investigation and discussion. diarised
Second year production work can involve more responsibility and so more opportunities for creative input. Students should be allowed to follow the development conversation during the early pre-production phase in order to have a deeper understanding of the final dramaturgic and design outcomes. Opportunities should be given for Q&I sessions with the directors and designers. The keeping of detailed diaries should be encouraged. Creative practice should be tracked, and feedback given.
Semester 4 Session 1 - 9 weeks
Advanced As directed by heads of discipline. These elective skills & projects can be further investigations of knowledge aesthetic or methodologies raised through the development structured production in Session 2.
Where possible these classes should promote risk taking and the assessment of them should centre on process-based criteria. Students should be encouraged to use choice- based problem-solving models rather than the define/explore/anticipate/look back (DEAL) method. Ideally students should also be encouraged to use divergent thinking practices as studied in Semester 2. Creative practice should be tracked, and feedback given in order to encourage and praise the use of creative practices.
Semester 4 Session 2 - 9 weeks
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Cross- Production work - Students are attached to productions as discipline full time assistants to fourth year students and collaboration overseen by tutors in their selected discipline. Daily toolbox talk. Timetabled review sessions are observed and Weekly Group where schools work on more than one review sessions production concurrently, provision will be Weekly individual made for visits to other production spaces for tutorials – investigation and discussion. diarised
Second year production work can involve more responsibility and so more opportunities for creative input. Students should be allowed to follow the development conversation during the early pre-production phase in order to have a deeper understanding of the final dramaturgic and design outcomes. Opportunities should be given for Q&I sessions with the directors and designers. The keeping of detailed diaries should be encouraged and alternate possibilities explored theoretically.
YEAR 3 Studio Year
Semester 5 Session 1 - 9 weeks
Focused open- Student led investigations into areas of interest ended that are relevant to the student’s area of exploration specialisation. Students should be free to (elected experiment and push boundaries. discipline)
This year is intended to be largely a studio-based research and practice year, giving the students time to investigate materials, methods and collaborative practice. For these studio subjects it may be useful to separate out assessment of creative practice and more concrete practical or physical outcomes. Marks associated with creative practice may exist as criteria within a personal practice subject. Creative practice should be tracked, and feedback given.
Session 2 - 9 weeks
Focused open- Student led investigations into areas of interest ended that are relevant to the student’s area of exploration specialisation. Students should be free to (elected experiment and push boundaries. discipline)
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For these studio subjects it may be useful to separate out assessment of creative practice and more concrete practical or physical outcomes. Marks associated with creative practice may exist as criteria within a personal practice subject. Creative practice should be tracked, and feedback given.
Semester 6 Session 1 - 9 weeks
Focused open- Student led investigations into areas of interest ended that are relevant to the student’s area of exploration specialisation. Students should be free to (elected experiment and push boundaries. discipline)
Assessment criteria of this module should allow the student to not reach a working or totally resolved outcome, latitude should be given for the student to try novel approaches that may not go anywhere.
Semester 6 Session 2 - 9 weeks
Cross- Senior Students are attached to productions in lead discipline production role roles overseen by mentors in their selected collaboration - These discipline. sessions will incorporate rounds as above.
Timetabled review sessions are observed and where schools work on more than one production concurrently, provision will be made for visits to other production spaces for investigation and discussion. Students have the opportunity to discuss their process with their peers and receive feedback and new perspectives from the same.
YEAR 4 Advanced Production and Internship/ Secondment
Semester 7 Session 1 - 9 weeks
Cross- Industry discipline internship / collaboration Secondment
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& Masterwork specialisation Research & Development
The industry internship further immerses the student in the community of practice that is the domain of performing arts, giving the student opportunities to both bring their creative techniques to the professional arena and observe practicing professionals creative process. Masterwork Research & Development is an opportunity for students to practice the theoretical aspects of their creative practice
Session 2 - 9 weeks
Cross- Senior Students fulfil a lead role in a production discipline production role within their area of specialisation. collaboration & specialisation
Production projects give students the opportunity to exercise all the creative skills and techniques and contribute to the creative input of their fellow student collaborators. These projects should include scheduled rounds (in much the same way as intern surgeons do rounds) or group tutorials to discuss production progress on an ongoing basis with peers and mentors.
Semester 8 Session 1 - 9 weeks
Cross- Graduation pre- discipline production collaboration Masterwork & Realisation specialisation
The masterwork realisation can take different shapes for different specialisations but will always exercise and exhibit tacit creativity.
Session 2 - 9 weeks
Cross- Graduation discipline Production, collaboration Masterwork & presentation specialisation
Production projects give students the opportunity to exercise all the creative skills and techniques and contribute to the creative input of their fellow student collaborators. These
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projects should include scheduled rounds (in much the same way as intern surgeons do rounds) or group tutorials to discuss production progress on an ongoing basis with peers and mentors. The masterwork presentation can incorporate a performative aspect giving the student an opportunity to create a multi-disciplinary presentation harking back to their first semester in year 1.
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Appendix .2: SURVEY RESULTS - Educational Institutions
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Appendix .3: SURVEY RESULTS - CURRENT STUDENTS
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Appendix .4: SURVEY RESULTS - RECENT ALUMNI
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Appendix .5: SURVEY RESULTS - INDUSTRY SURVEY RESULTS
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FOCUS GROUP RESPONSES Skip to content
Creativity and Technical Theatre
A look at theatre education
Creative thinking practice
Thank you for selecting to be part of a focus group on creativity and technical theatre education. › Forums › Private: Teaching Institutions › Creative thinking practice
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• September 4, 2016 at 12:09 am #46 Edit | Close | Stick (to front) | Merge | Trash | Spam | Reply
Keymaster
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60% – 80% of respondents replied that ‘creativity’ was dealt with adequately in their courses. When I look through online literature I haven’t found reference to ‘creativity’ being delivered as a subject.
I’m wondering if you could tell me how ‘creativity’ is dealt with in your course, i.e. is it part of another subject? Is it delivered by specialist tutors? Is it studied in groups or as individuals, online, face to face, blended?
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Thanks for your replies in advance,
Nick
September 27, 2016 at 8:30 am #102 Edit | Move | Split | Trash | Spam | Reply
Ros Maddison
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Hi Nick, We don’t deliver ‘creativity’ as a discrete subject. It is embedded in practical skills delivery and in written reflective work. We have a very vocational delivery pattern in that nearly all learning happens in practical allocations on shows or project-based simulations rather than in formal taught classroom scenarios. Hence ‘creativity’ is nurtured rather than taught. We do try and instill the identity of a creative practitioner in all production students but some associate with it better than others. Hope that helps! Ros
September 28, 2016 at 12:06 pm #106 Edit | Move | Split | Trash | Spam | Reply
Keymaster
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Hi Ros, It sounds like yours is a similar style of school to ours. There’s a couple of ideas I’m playing with, with regard to this. One is the notion that folk find themselves in the creative industries often feel like they don’t fit in more empirically based careers. So while they’re training their looking to find themselves to some extent. William Gordon in his book Synectics suggests that people’s creativity can be markedly increased through their understanding of the psychological processes by which their creativity operates. So, I’m wondering if some investigation into this area would be supportive for students, not only from a creative point of view but also from a resilience point of view.
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October 11, 2016 at 5:16 pm #122 Edit | Move | Split | Trash | Spam | Reply
Barry Conway
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Hi Nick,
I would echo Ros in how creativity is taught at undergraduate level in the Lir. We may differ in that we don’t offer any design roles to undergrads on productions. We do a certain amount of design training in class room format I guess we deliver a course that believes all backstage work requires an amount of creative thinking but wouldn’t be defined as ‘creative’ training in comparison with director and designer training.
Barry
October 16, 2016 at 7:45 am #124 Edit | Move | Split | Trash | Spam | Reply
Keymaster
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Hi Barry, Your second point is where I’m coming from, I’m taking the stance that given a brief, a room full of resources, some time and performing arts practitioner, be they designers or technicians, creative outcomes will flourish. It’s the manner in which those creative connections take place between collaborators that I’m interested in, and whether training in creative thinking methodologies, or coming to understand their own creative type (personality) would be of assistance to them in their careers. Nick
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Creativity and Technical Theatre
A look at theatre education
Motivation, how we spend our time.
Thank you for selecting to be part of a focus group on creativity and technical theatre education. › Forums › Private: Teaching Institutions › Motivation, how we spend our time.
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Keymaster
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From the survey,the majority of schools spend the majority of their time making plays, and by far the most prominent motivator was problem solving and the resolution of open possibilities. However the majority of respondents also felt there wasn’t ample time for reflection and critical analysis during production periods. I know we talk a lot about the balance of production work and open-ended creative exploration among my colleagues. I’m interested in hearing about any insights you may have in this area, any samples of curriculum you think have been successful at getting the most unique approaches from students.
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Ros Maddison
Participant
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To be honest – I think one of the best initiatives in this area that we have introduced in recent years is our ‘Bridge week’ which ironically is extra curricular and unassessed!
Students simply pitch for resources (money, venues, staff support) and then produce their own work. The key thing is that there doesn’t have to be a performative outcome – you can simply use the resource to experiment with equipment or explore ideas in a workshop setting.
The demands of the production throughput while creation an excellent ‘industry-style’ experience, does also limit the amount of space available in the curriculum for pure experimentation and ‘play’.
In terms of reflective practice we have embedded it throughout the journey but again many students tend to see any work in this area as a necessary evil to get their degree rather than the development of themselves as effective practitioners.
September 28, 2016 at 11:47 am #105 Edit | Move | Split | Trash | Spam | Reply
Keymaster
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Thanks Ros, Although extra curricula and unassessed, is it compulsory for students to take part? We have a ‘Student Led’ subject where the students are able to form cross disciplinary groups and create their own work, but it’s compulsory and assessed, and there are difficulties with engagement and students feeling they’re carrying other students. My thinking is to remove the assessment in order to remove that extrinsic motivator, but I’m wondering if it would effect the take-up. What’s your experience?
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Creativity and Technical Theatre
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Motivations
Thank you for selecting to be part of a focus group on creativity and technical theatre education. › Forums › Private: Recent graduates › Motivations
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Test Teaching Institutions
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Researchers in creativity point out that intrinsic motivators are much more likely to result in creative outcomes than extrinsic motivators. As it seems the majority of students spend the majority of their time engaged in production work, which is often time addressing and under the looming shadow of an opening night, do you feel there’s sufficient time to freely experiment within your discipline’s domain? Do you think technical courses would benefit from free studio time for self devised experimentation? Does your course already contain ample free access to equipment and studio space.
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October 5, 2016 at 7:11 pm #118 Edit | Move | Split | Trash | Spam | Reply
Ashleigh Kennedy
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Individual studio time, in the same sense as yoga and meditation, may also be beneficial to students. It is important for students to work on themselves as an individuals, this may also help them to work well in a team. By cultivating intrinsic motivators within these allocated free studio periods students have the opportunity to develop their individual work practice as independent from a production and can therefore experience the important challenge of working as an individual practitioner. For a prop maker it is essential to develop an individual work practice so as to widen the scope of work in the world outside of university.
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Keymaster
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Thanks Ashley, By ‘individual studio time’ are you talking about time in addition to the studio time used learning techniques? So explorations with no particular outcome? Nick
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Creativity and Technical Theatre
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Creative thinking practice
Thank you for selecting to be part of a focus group on creativity and technical theatre education. › Forums › Private: Recent graduates › Creative thinking practice
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• September 4, 2016 at 12:18 am #54 Edit | Close | Stick (to front) | Merge | Trash | Spam | Reply
Keymaster
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60% – 80% of respondents replied that ‘creativity’ was dealt with adequately in their courses. When I look through online literature I haven’t found reference to ‘creativity’ being delivered as a subject.
I’m wondering if you could tell me how ‘creativity’ was dealt with in your course, i.e. was it part of another subject? Was it delivered by specialist tutors? Was it studied in groups or as individuals, online, face to face, blended?
Thanks for your replies in advance,
Nick
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October 5, 2016 at 6:12 pm #116 Edit | Move | Split | Trash | Spam | Reply
Ashleigh Kennedy
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I would say that creativity was dealt with adequately in our course in many different ways. However most prominently through the use of problem solving. To put it simply, everyday one learns a technical skill. After you hone that technical skill, the real challenge is to creatively mould it to fit somewhere else, somewhere totally unconventional but effective, practical, economic or otherwise. Creativity was not delivered as a subject but it was inherently a part of every subject.
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Keymaster
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As folk who work in a creative industry it’s true that inherently there’s a creative aspect to everything we do, however within the collaborative landscape of theatre, film etc. and even in artists personal practice whether there’s room for contemplation on creative thought methodologies and personality types as a tool to think around blockages and new approaches to relating to collaborators. Nick
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SURVEY INSTITUTIONS CURRICULUMS / COURSE OUTLINES VICTORIAN COLLEGE OF THE ARTS
Year 1 – Semester 1 – Both Majors Core subject Through 12 x 1½ hr lectures and 12 x 1½ hr tutorials, this subject will introduce students to significant objects, performances, ideas and artefacts in the history of world art, design and performance leading up to and including modernism. Each week in the lectures, one of these objects, performances, ideas or artefacts will be examined in detail both in its original context and within the context of the contemporary world. In the tutorials, Artefacts and students will be challenged to develop critical and Performance 1 analytical skills both individually and in groups through the examination of further examples through presentations and submitted papers This subject includes an embedded program in academic literacy skills of analysis, discussion, essay writing, research and information retrieval. Intended learning outcomes Demonstrate analytical skills This subject provides an introduction to key principles and skills in the core areas of Design and Production: Lighting, Costume, Sound, Set/Props, Stage Management and Design. Through studio-based classes students will learn about the basic principles of each area, discover common equipment, materials and approaches, as well as learn some of the basic techniques for employing these in the Foundations of Design context of live performance. Safe work and best and Production 1 practices will be covered and incorporated into each module. In addition, students will be introduced to manual 2D and 3D visual representation techniques commonly used to communicate design ideas. Students will complete all of the following modules: Safe work and Best Practice Essentials Introduction to Stage Management Introduction to Light
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Introduction to Sound Introduction to Set/Props Introduction to Costume Introduction to Design Introduction to 2D and 3D Representation Intended learning outcomes On completion of this subject students should be able to: demonstrate an understanding of essential safe work and best practices in technical theatre; demonstrate an understanding of and utilise basic techniques in stage management, costume, lighting, sound, set and props for live performance; undertake a basic design process to develop sound, light, set and costume ideas; demonstrate an understanding of and utilise basic drawing and scale model making techniques to represent set, costume and lighting.
In this subject first year students gain an understanding of the process of creating a live performance across major technical and design roles and how they interrelate. It will cover the production process from concept to creation, looking at each different area – Costume, Stage Management, Lighting, Design, Sound and Scenery/Props. Students will apply this knowledge along with the skills they have gained in other subjects on one or more VCA productions by undertaking crew roles. Production Practice 1 Intended learning outcomes On completion of this subject students should be able to: Recognise and understand key theatrical terminology Demonstrate an understanding of the roles and responsibilities in multiple areas within technical theatre Understand and articulate a standard production process in the performing arts Apply an understanding of the technical process of theatre making in a production context
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Year 1 – Semester 2 – Both Majors Core subjects Building on the material from Artefact and Performance 1, through a series of lectures and tutorials, this subject will introduce students to key performance texts and related artefacts, objects or artworks starting at the beginning of the twentieth century and leading to the present day. Each week in the lectures, the central themes of a performance text and one or more artefacts will be examined in detail - both in their original contexts and within the context of the contemporary world. In the Artefacts and tutorials, students will be challenged to develop critical Performance 2 and analytical skills both individually and in groups through the examination of further examples. Intended learning outcomes On completion of this subject, students should be able to: apply research to gain understanding; analyse a performance text or brief; position an object, artefact or artwork within the context of a performance text; critically appraise art or design objects and performance texts. In this subject, students select four of the available modules that enable them to continue to develop their understanding of key principles and skills in the core areas of Design and Production and begin to focus on Foundations of Design the specialist area of their choice. Each module and Production 2 includes lectures and in class activities where students are supported in applying theory into practice. These practical exercises provides students with the knowledge and hands on experience to prepare them
53 https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/2019/subjects/thtr10022/assessment, accessed 10/0619
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for specialist production roles. All students must undertake the 2D and 3D Visual Representation module and then select 3 of the following: Stage Management; Lighting technology and operation; Sound technology and operation; Set and Props construction; Costume construction; Design Studio: Lighting, Sound, Set and Costume * * Design students must undertake the Design Studio module. Intended learning outcomes On successful completion of this subject students should be able to: demonstrate an understanding of processes and principles in four of the following areas: stage management, costume construction, lighting technology, sound technology, set/props construction, design, design visualisation; identify common equipment and materials employed in four of the following areas: stage management, costume construction, lighting technology, sound technology, set/props construction, design, design visualisation; utilise a range of techniques in four of the following areas: stage management, costume construction, lighting technology, sound technology, set/props construction, design, design visualisation. students must undertake both of these modules. Technical students may take both or 2D and 3D Visual In this subject, students apply their developing knowledge and skills to VCA productions by being allocated to junior roles within the Production Team. Some of these roles are: Assistant Stage Manager, Workshop Crew, Costume Crew, Lighting Crew, Sound Crew, or similar. Through this, students will gain more understanding, experience and confidence in contributing to the Production Practice 2 production process in preparation for taking on roles with greater responsibility. In addition, students will be introduced to common roles and processes in filmmaking that involve set, costume, lighting and sound. Intended learning outcomes On successful completion of this subject students should be able to:
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Successfully undertake production roles that requires some responsibility in more than one specialist area Demonstrate a deeper understanding of the production process and the relationship between different areas of technical theatre Generate basic paperwork relevant to a specific area of technical theatre Demonstrate an understanding of production processes within the film and television industry
Year 2 Year Long – Both Majors Core subject In this subject, students apply their developing knowledge and skills to at least three VCA productions by being allocated to roles within the Production Team on productions that require higher levels of responsibility and leadership. Some of these roles are: Designer on a small production, Assistant Set Designer, Assistant Costume Designer, Associate Lighting Designer, Associate Sound Designer, Stage Manager, Assistant Stage Manager, Workshop Assistant, Costume Assistant, Head Electrician, Sound Production Practice 3 System Designer, or similar. Through this, students will deepen their understanding, experience and confidence in contributing to the production process in preparation for taking on roles with even greater responsibility. This subject could include roles on VCA film projects. Intended learning outcomes On successful completion of this subject students should be able to: successfully undertake one or more production roles
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that require some responsibility; demonstrate a deeper understanding of the production process and the relationship between different areas of technical theatre and/or film; generate standard paperwork relevant to a specific area of technical theatre and/or film; apply knowledge and skills learnt in classroom subjects to an actual production.
Year 2 Semester 1 – Technical Major
Core Subject In this subject, students will be introduced to foundation skills needed to take on management roles within technical theatre and then apply these skills to an area relevant to their chosen specialisation: Set and Props, Costume, Lighting, Sound or Stage Management. In addition, through a choice of modules (where timetable permits), students develop intermediate understanding and skills in two of the following areas: Stage Management, Costume Construction, Set and Props Construction, Lighting Technology, Sound Technology and Advanced Visual Representation. Through studio-based classes students will develop a comprehensive understanding of the chosen areas as well as learn intermediate level skills for employing these in the context of live performance. Students may select any of these modules providing Technical Studio 1 they have completed all previous modules in the specialist area in Foundations of Design and Production 1 and 2 achieving a pass grade or higher. Intended learning outcomes On successful completion of this subject students should be able to: demonstrate an understanding of the role management plays in stage and/or screen-based productions; apply an understanding of managerial processes to develop industry standard paperwork appropriate to a stage and/or screen-based production; demonstrate intermediate knowledge of materials and processes in selected area of technical theatre and/or film and television; utilise intermediate techniques in selected area of technical theatre and/or film and television.
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In this subject, students investigate how design and technology are being used in new and novel ways within the entertainment industry, with a particular focus on the performing arts and film. It will cover: Current thinking about the role of design and technology Looking at new technologies that are influencing stage and screen productions New working processes being used to develop new work within film and live performance Current practitioners at the leading edge of design and Frontiers in Design and technology for stage and screen Intended learning outcomes Technology On completion of this subject students should be able to: demonstrate an understanding of current design and technical trends within the entertainment industry; articulate the role design and technology can play in contemporary theatre and film making; identify emerging practices that offer possible future directions for own practice; identify and analyse contemporary approaches used in the creation of a live performance or film production.
Year 2 - Semester 2 – Technical Major Core subject
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In this subject, students select one module in which they will develop advanced understanding and skills in one of the following areas: Costume, Set and Props, Lighting or Sound. Through studio-based classes students will develop a comprehensive understanding of the chosen area as well as learn advanced level skills for employing these in the context of live performance, events and/or film and television. Students may select any of these modules providing they Technical Studio 2 have completed all previous modules in the specialist area in Technical Studio 1, Foundations of Design and Production 1 and 2 achieving a pass grade or higher. Intended learning outcomes On successful completion of this subject students should be able to: demonstrate advanced-level knowledge of materials and processes in selected area of technical theatre and/or film and television;
utilise advanced techniques in selected area of technical theatre and/or film and television; employ specialist tools and equipment in the creation of production elements.
Students may choose one of VCA's elective VCA Elective offerings
Year 3 – Year Long – Technical Major Core subject
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This subject involves the completion of an internship (150 hours minimum) in the area of technology, construction and/or management for live performance or film and television with an approved external partner (organisation or individual practitioner). The Internship experience will enable students to extend and apply the Technical Internship knowledge acquired through the BFA (Design and Production), will provide students with a valuable professional experience, and will extend their professional networks. The internship is supported by individual tutorials, designed to introduce workplace culture and strategies for developing, identifying and articulating employability
skills and attributes and linking them to employer requirements. Pre-placement seminars will assist students to develop an Internship Proposal in consultation with the Subject Coordinator to ensure that the internship includes appropriate learning activities that meet the intended outcomes of this subject. Students are responsible for identifying a suitable internship prior to the start of the year with support from the Subject Coordinator or delegated supervisor. All placements must be approved by the Subject Coordinator. If students have problems finding a placement they should approach the Subject Coordinator well in advance of the teaching period. The Subject Coordinator or delegated supervisor will monitor the student’s progress during the internship which may involve site visits, discussions with the external partner, verbal and/or written progress reports. Intended learning outcomes On successful completion of this subject students should be able to: Demonstrate advanced knowledge of conditions, cultures and practices in the entertainment industry Apply skills and knowledge gained through the BFA (Design and Production) in a professional environment Reflect on current practices in the entertainment industry Identify future professional pathways for own practice.
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In this subject, students apply their developing knowledge and skills to at least two VCA productions by being allocated to leadership roles within the Production Team on productions that require high levels of responsibility. Some of these roles are: Designer on a medium to large production, Stage Manager, Workshop Head of Department, Costume Head of Department, Head Electrician, Sound Head of Department, Technical Manager, or similar. Through this, students will deepen their understanding, Production Practice 4 experience and confidence in contributing to the production process in leadership roles. Students may have the opportunity to be assigned leadership roles on VCA film projects. Intended learning outcomes On successful completion of this subject students should be able to: successfully undertake production roles that requires leadership in a specialist area; demonstrate a deeper understanding of the production
process and the relationship between different areas of technical theatre and/or film; generate standard paperwork and/or design documentation relevant to a leadership area of technical theatre and/or film; apply knowledge and skills learnt in classroom subjects to an actual production in a leadership role.
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Students will propose and undertake an individual project that enables them to further develop their technical and/or management skills on a significant piece of work. The project can be based in any area within the performing arts, film and television industries and should focus on the technical and/or management area that students have become specialised in. All projects require the approval of the subject coordinator and the availability of a suitable supervisor. Intended learning outcomes On successful completion of this subject students should be able to: Independent Technical articulate a well-considered proposal in a specialist Project technical and/or management area in live performance or film and television; develop a detailed project in response to an individually negotiated brief; generate industry standard documentation relevant to individual project; articulate a rationale that demonstrates an understanding of a specialist technical and/or management area within live performance or film and television.
Year 3 Semester 1 – Both Majors Core Subject Through a series of guest lectures and projects students gain a deeper understanding of the industry they are about to enter into as well as how to promote themselves to gain employment in the area of their choice. Professional Practice They will learn about the business side of working in the and Promotion stage and screen industries as a sole trader as well as the funding bodies and organisations that support the stage and screen industries and consider how they might utilise these through applying for funding and other forms of support. Students will also prepare materials that document their practice including a CV,
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letter of introduction, and a folio or website for the purposes of self-promotion. Intended learning outcomes On successful completion of this subject students should be able to: Describe yourself as an artist/practitioner Produce visual self-promotion materials to a professional standard Produce written self-promotion materials to a professional standard Identify key funding bodies and organisations within the live performance and film/TV industries
Year 3 Semester 2 – Both Majors Elective Subject Students may choose one of VCA's elective VCA Elective offerings
VCA Electives - level 1 subjects Students wishing to take subjects offered as breadth options on the Parkville campus should seek permission from the Course Coordinator Code Name Study period Credit Points
Please select
MUST10012 Alexander Technique for Daily Function Semester 2 12.5
THTR10019 Clear Speech and Communication Semester 1 12.5 Semester 2
DRAM10025
FLTV10021 Interactive Art Media 1 Semester 1 12.5 Semester 2
FLTV10023 Introduction to Screenwriting Practices Semester 1 12.5 Semester 2
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Code Name Study period Credit Points
Please select
MUSI10202 Jazz: The Improvisatory Spirit Semester 1 12.5
FLTV10010 Making Movies 1 Semester 1 12.5 Semester 1 Semester 2 Semester 2
MUSI10179 Making Music For Film And Animation 1 Semester 2 12.5
MUSI10184 Pop Song Writing 1 Semester 1 12.5 Semester 2
THTR10007 The Actors Process Winter Term 12.5
AIND10003 Ancient & Contemporary Indigenous Arts Summer Term 12.5
CCDP10001
FINA10035 Still Life: Nature Morte Semester 2 12.5
FINA10036 Life Drawing: The Body Semester 1 12.5
AIND10004 Art and Indigenous Voice Semester 1 12.5
DNCE10027 Dancing the Dance 1 Semester 1 12.5 Semester 2
MUST10009 Music Theatre: From Chorus To Ensemble Winter Term 12.5
UNIB10011 The Secret Life of the Body 1 Semester 1 12.5 Semester 2
DRAM10025
DRAM10026 Up Close and Personal with MTC Semester 1 12.5 June Semester 2
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Code Name Study period Credit Points
Please select
CCDP10002 The Electronic Arts: Vision and Sound Semester 1 12.5 Semester 2
CCDP10003 Video Games: Remaking Reality Semester 1 12.5 Semester 2
DPSS10007 The History of Cool: Fashion & Attitude Semester 2 12.5
MUST10009 Music Theatre: From Chorus To Ensemble Winter Term 12.5
MUST10010
MUST10011
MUST10012 Alexander Technique for Daily Function Semester 2 12.5
VCA Electives – level 2 subjects Students wishing to take subjects offered as breadth options on the Parkville campus should seek permission from the Course Coordinator Code Name Study period Credit Points
Please select
DPSS20009 Travelling Design & Performance Studio Summer Term 12.5
MUSI20190 Advanced Recording Studio Techniques Semester 2 12.5
MUSI20194
MUSI20167 Creating Music For Advertising Not available in 2020 12.5
THTR20043 Design and the Moving Image June 12.5
MUSI20164 Free Play New Music Improvisation Ensem Semester 1 12.5
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Code Name Study period Credit Points
Please select June Semester 2
MUST20010 Singing and the Power of Pop Music Semester 2 12.5
THTR20022 Improvisation: Text, Space and Action Winter Term 12.5
MUST20011 Intimate Acts: Inside The ‘Fourth Wall’ Semester 2 12.5
FINA20033 Introduction to Printmaking Processes Summer Term 12.5 February Semester 1 July Semester 2 October
FLTV20005 Making Movies 2 Semester 1 12.5
MUST20008 Music Theatre: Singing Sondheim Not available in 2020 12.5
MUST20009 Music Theatre: Singing the Golden Age Not available in 2020 12.5
FINA20026 Painting Techniques Summer Term 12.5 February Semester 1 Winter Term July Semester 2
THTR20042 Puppets as Storytellers Summer Term 12.5
MUSI20192 R&B, Soul & Gospel Choir Semester 1 12.5
MUSI20163 Samba Band Semester 1 12.5 April
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Code Name Study period Credit Points
Please select June Semester 2
MUSI20173 The Art of Game Music Semester 1 12.5
THTR20023 The Artist’s Toolbox February 12.5 July
MUSI20174 The Laptop Recording Studio Semester 1 12.5 Semester 2
DNCE20031 Dancing the Dance 2: Create & Perform Winter Term 12.5
FINA20035 Drawing with Anatomy Summer Term 12.5 February
AIND20011 Indigenous Art and Changing the Nation Semester 2 12.5
CCDP20001 Street Art Semester 1 12.5 Semester 2
MUSI20206 The Business of Music Semester 2 12.5
FINA20036 Under Camera Animation Summer Term 12.5 February Winter Term July
FINA20044 Art and the Botanical Summer Term 12.5 February Winter Term July
FINA20045 Introduction to Screenprinting Summer Term 12.5 February
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Code Name Study period Credit Points
Please select Semester 1 June October
MUST20007 Bollywood: a cross-disciplinary study Not available in 2020 12.5
DNCE20032 Body Works Not available in 2020 12.5
MUST20008 Music Theatre: Singing Sondheim Not available in 2020 12.5
MUST20009 Music Theatre: Singing the Golden Age Not available in 2020 12.5
MUST20010 Singing and the Power of Pop Music Semester 2 12.5
MUST20011 Intimate Acts: Inside The ‘Fourth Wall’ Semester 2 12.5
VCA Electives - level 3 subjects Students wishing to take subjects offered as breadth options on the Parkville campus should seek permission from the Course Coordinator Code Name Study period Credit Points
Please select
DRAM30020 Acting for Camera Winter Term 12.5
FLTV30013
MUST30012 Music Theatre: Singing Rock Musicals Summer Term 12.5
MUSI30236 The Music Producer: From Brass to Beats Semester 1 12.5
THTR30039 Understanding Masks Winter Term 12.5
THTR30042 Hashtag Cyberstar Summer Term 12.5 Winter Term
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Code Name Study period Credit Points
Please select
FLTV30022 Making Movies 3 Practical Production February 12.5
MUST30012 Music Theatre: Singing Rock Musicals Summer Term 12.5
DPSS30007 Design and Production Global Atelier Not available in 2020 12.5
THE THEATRE SCHOOL – DE PAUL UNIVERSITY Major Requirements https://theatre.depaul.edu/conservatory/undergraduate/theatre- technology/Pages/default.aspx First Year TEC 104 INTRODUCTION TO THEATRE TECHNOLOGY ART 106 BEGINNING DRAWING Technical Drawing Sequence I TEC 151 TECHNICAL DRAWING I TEC 152 TECHNICAL DRAWING I TEC 153 TECHNICAL DRAWING I Principles of Design Sequence DES 141 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN DES 142 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN DES 143 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN History of Dramatic Literature Sequence (Arts and Literature Requirement) THE 204 HISTORY OF DRAMATIC LITERATURE THE 205 HISTORY OF DRAMATIC LITERATURE THE 206 HISTORY OF DRAMATIC LITERATURE Three Quarters of Theatre Crew TEC 107 THEATRE CREW Second Year
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Technical Drawing Sequence II TEC 251 TECHNICAL DRAWING II TEC 252 TECHNICAL DRAWING II TEC 253 TECHNICAL DRAWING II Construction and Rigging Sequence I TEC 257 CONSTRUCTION AND RIGGING I TEC 258 CONSTRUCTION AND RIGGING I TEC 259 CONSTRUCTION AND RIGGING I Design/Technical Electives Take three courses with approval of advisor and instructor Production Practice Sequence I TEC 271 TECHNICAL PRODUCTION PRACTICE I TEC 272 TECHNICAL PRODUCTION PRACTICE I TEC 273 TECHNICAL PRODUCTION PRACTICE I Third Year Survey of the Arts for Theatre Sequence THE 381 SURVEY OF THE ARTS FOR THEATRE THE 382 SURVEY OF THE ARTS FOR THEATRE THE 383 SURVEY OF THE ARTS FOR THEATRE Construction and Rigging Sequence II TEC 357 CONSTRUCTION AND RIGGING II TEC 358 CONSTRUCTION AND RIGGING II TEC 359 CONSTRUCTION AND RIGGING II Design/Technical Electives Three courses with approval of advisor and instructor Production Practice Sequence II TEC 371 TECHNICAL PRODUCTION PRACTICE II TEC 372 TECHNICAL PRODUCTION PRACTICE II TEC 373 TECHNICAL PRODUCTION PRACTICE II Fourth Year Production Management Seminar TEC 457 PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT SEMINAR
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TEC 458 PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT SEMINAR TEC 459 PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT SEMINAR Design/Technical Electives Three courses with approval of advisor and instructor Theatre Elective One course in consultation with advisor Production Practice III and/or Internship Select three courses from the following list: TEC 471 TECHNICAL PRODUCTION PRACTICE III TEC 472 TECHNICAL PRODUCTION PRACTICE III TEC 473 TECHNICAL PRODUCTION PRACTICE III TEC 490 INTERNSHIP Liberal Studies Requirements Honors program requirements can be found in the individual Colleges & Schools section of the University Catalog. Select Academics, followed by Undergraduate, then Honors Program Alternative. First Year Program Chicago Quarter LSP 110 DISCOVER CHICAGO or LSP 111 EXPLORE CHICAGO Focal Point Not Required Writing WRD 103 COMPOSITION AND RHETORIC I * WRD 104 COMPOSITION AND RHETORIC II * Quantitative Reasoning & Technological Literacy LSP 120 QUANTITATIVE REASONING & TECHNOLOGICAL LITERACY I Sophomore Year Multiculturalism in the US LSP 200 SEMINAR ON MULTICULTURALISM IN THE UNITED STATES Junior Year Experiential Learning Not Required
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Senior Year Capstone Not Required Learning Domains Arts and Literature (AL) THE 204 HISTORY OF DRAMATIC LITERATURE THE 205 HISTORY OF DRAMATIC LITERATURE THE 206 HISTORY OF DRAMATIC LITERATURE Philosophical Inquiry (PI) 1 Course Required Scientific Inquiry (SI) 1 SWK or 1 Lab Course Required Social, Cultural, and Behavioral Inquiry (SCBI) Not Required Religious Dimensions (RD) 1 Course Required Understanding the Past (UP) 1 Course Required LIR DUBLIN Year 1 First year involves students working on The Lir productions as crew, as well as hands on training and class work. This is designed to give a broad grounding in theatre skills. Through skills-based training, the course will provide students with the proficiency to take a head of department role in a theatre production in their second year. The Stage Management & Technical Theatre Year one course includes • Stage management • Stage electrics • Scenic construction • Sound • Scenic art • Property making and procurement • Costume • Theatre History • Set design • Stagecraft • Career development
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OTHER AREAS COVERED:
• First Aid (students receive a First Aid Certificate) • Health and safety in the workplace • CAD drawing • Music score reading • Production & Technical management • Television and film Year 2 The aim of the second year of the course is to enable students to apply skills acquired in their first year to a series of theatre productions, directed and designed by professional theatre practitioners. Students will work on five productions throughout the year in a variety of roles. Two of these roles will be from the stage management options, one from technical options and the other two will be chosen in consultation with the Technical Director. In consultation with the course convenor students will also undertake a 4 to 6 week placement with a professional theatre, organisation, theatre company or practitioner.
Stage Management in Production Students will be assigned in the role of Stage Manager, Deputy Stage manager, Assistant Stage Manager or Film role in one of the final year productions of the Bachelor in Acting degree. The production will enable students to apply the knowledge and skills acquired in the first year of the course in a professional environment.
Production electrician Working closely with a professional lighting designer students will be required to realise a lighting design practically in the studio theatre.
Sound design Coordinator Working closely with the professional director of one of the final year Bachelor in Acting productions, students will be responsible for researching, collaborating on, and recording a sound design for the theatre.
Assistant Production Manager & Technical stage manager Students who opt for this option will work with the production manager on the management of an entire production process for one of the final year Bachelor in Acting productions.
Prop Maker/Supervisor Working closely with the Technical Manager, Stage Manager and Deputy Stage Manager, students will be responsible for designing and making props to a professional standard for use in one of the final year Bachelor in Acting productions.
Costume supervisor Students will work closely with the professional Costume designer and will be responsible for the oversight of the costume department of a final year academy 210
production.
Scenic Construction Roles Working alongside the set designer students will realise the construction and fit up of a theatre set on one of the final year Bachelor in Acting productions.
Scenic Artist Working alongside the set designer students will realise the scenic art of a theatre set on one of the final year Bachelor in Acting productions.
Film/TV Students will work in a technical capacity in the production of a short film. The process will replicate the working environment of film or television recording.
Specialised Roles Based around the productions being hosted several other roles may become available to students
Year 3 In year three students will undertake work placements with prominent theatre companies, festivals and industry related companies in order to further develop their chosen area of specialism. Research projects will be assigned according to the preferred career choice of each individual student. These projects can be theoretical or practical in nature, for example designing the sound, making the scenic art or making props for a theatre production. Students will be encouraged to keep a journal of reflective practices throughout their final year. The practical training during the degree course will be complemented with a range of classes including theatre history, principles of stage management and principles of theatre technology. Led by dedicated and experienced theatre technicians and stage managers these classes will reflect best practices in professional theatre.
ROYAL ACADEMY OF DRAMATIC ART (RADA) Year 1 Foundation Technical Skills: scenic construction (15 credits) Foundation Technical Skills: stage management/props (15 credits) Foundation Technical Skills: lighting (15 credits) Foundation Technical Skills: sound (15 credits)
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Foundation Technical Skills: stagecraft (15 credits) Foundation Technical Skills: scenic art/wardrobe (15 credits) Foundation Skills: stage management (15 credits) Design Project & Professional Skills Development 1 (15 credits) Year 2 Practical Production 1 (15 credits) Practical Production 2 (15 credits) Practical Production 3 (15 credits) Practical Production 4 (15 credits) Practical Production 5 (15 credits) Professional Development 2 (15 credits) Professional Placement (30 credits) The BA (Hons) in Technical Theatre and Stage Management course is offered only as a progression opportunity and award to a Level 6 honours degree. This is an opportunity to deepen your specialist knowledge to BA level and further prepare yourself for a highly successful career.
BA (Hons) This course is vocational and practice-based, using our state-of-the-art workshops, studios and theatres and making use of opportunities within our public productions and showcases. You will also benefit from the RADA Buddy mentoring scheme, which supports your transition from student to professional with graduate ‘buddies’ providing professional advice, feedback and networking opportunities. Places are available in a number of subject areas: Costume supervision Lighting (design and/or production lighting) Production management Sound (design and/or production sound) Property making Scenic art Scenic construction Stage management Technical management
Video (design and/or production video) 212
ROYAL CONSERVATOIRE OF SCOTLAND BA Production Technology and Management is a practice-based programme which develops skill, knowledge and understanding incrementally. Students on this programme are interviewed and accepted based on their profile in one or several areas of study taken from the four core subjects on offer (stage management, lighting, sound and stage technology). All of these disciplines are studied in year one before specialist pathways are followed from year two onwards. Year One Your first year will be based on experiential learning and skills acquisition focusing on the context of production through a range of classroom, workshop and venue-based experiences. This culminates in allocated assistant roles in each core area on RCS productions (e.g. Assistant Stage Manager, Assistant Electrician). You will engage with a broad-based introduction to the production environment and standard practices both in core subjects and other related areas. In Personal and Professional Practice modules you will investigate and analyse the importance of the key issues such as the creative and cultural context, equality and diversity awareness, the importance of health and safety and the RCS requirement for best practice in this area. You will also investigate the collaborative nature of production and performance and have the opportunity to work with other students from across RCS. Year Two Year two aims to consolidate fundamental skills and knowledge and to introduce more advanced approaches and techniques including management and self-promotion. You will be allocated to production roles in your specialism, with increasing levels of responsibility. You will also engage with advanced learning in your specialism, as well as classes in key areas such as management and communication, through which you will equip yourself to continue your personal development journey and ultimately undertake more complex, senior roles (e.g. Stage Manager, Production Electrician). From this position, you can begin to develop leadership skills whilst at the same time consolidating your practical capabilities. Personal and Professional Development at Level Two focuses on the development of the individual practitioner, looking at more advanced health and safety practices, practical management techniques such as budgeting and scheduling, personal development and promotional tools such as CVs and websites as well as a mock interview with an industry partner. You will also engage with options modules where you can choose from a range of modules on offer from programmes across the institution. Year Three In your final year, you are expected to perform with full autonomy, consolidating your learning and applying the specialist skills you have gained on senior roles on RCS productions. You will begin by working collaboratively with year two students offering the opportunity to explore more complex operational roles rather than solely leading a
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team. This will enable your skills base to develop to the highest possible standards as well as providing an opportunity to reflect on leadership strategies by observing other students in management roles. Staff support is available on request and through tutorials but we expect you to operate on an almost professional level. You will negotiate your individual pathway in your final year to take advantage of the available production roles, options modules and work placement opportunities. Personal and Professional Development at Level Three builds on previous modules but focuses on the company rather than the individual introducing broader management techniques, risk management and the development of entrepreneurial and business skills. Assessment Work is assessed through staff observations of your practice but reflection underpins the approach to assessment. Reflective blogs and summary statements form a key component of assessment in Personal and Professional Development modules. There is a strong emphasis on the assessment of process and so all paperwork generated in each practical role is also assessed as evidence of your widening understanding of the production process and your role within it. CAL ARTS BFA Design and Production Course Requirements https://catalog.calarts.edu/requirements/theater/Pages/default.aspx#bfadesign Curricula for the Programs in Design and Production consist of classroom studies and hands-on studio and production work. Entering BFA students are required to complete a common set of foundation courses that cover aesthetics, theory, history, literature, graphics, technology and crafts. Transfer and upper-division undergraduates work with their mentors to create training programs tailored to each student's individual needs and interests. The curriculum for each métier area is highly individualized, with core program requirements serving as a framework for further studies customized to meet each student's goals and ambitions. Upon graduation, successful BFA Design and Production candidates will be able to: Demonstrate a critical understanding of the historical and cultural foundation of theatrical and arts practices, as well as knowledge of the contemporary arts landscape. Effectively explain their work, and to present concepts skillfully in writing and through visual or aural communication. Work professionally, responsibly and collaboratively within the challenges of a variety of projects while contributing a vibrant, creative voice. Demonstrate a body of original work, created in the classroom and in production, which shows an expressive understanding of Design for Performance processes and a personal aesthetic platform upon which to build. A demonstrable competency in the technological principles and techniques of the practiced area of specialization, along with ambition to innovatively explore new methods, materials and outcomes.
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Demonstrate a basic knowledge of allied theatrical disciplines (scenery, costume, lighting, sound, media) promoting an awareness of the complexity of problem-solving issues each may encounter, and the dissolution of conventional hierarchies. Métier Requirements: BFA Design and Production TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater-Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that it is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement BFA Costume Design Specialization Sensitive to the art of performing, to the coordination of visual effects, to the expressions of the written and unwritten word, to the cultural anthropology of clothing, and to the techniques of manufacture, students undertake pre-professional studies in costume design, drawing and rendering, history, and related technologies. Métier Requirements TIMM 210 Intro to Sketch-up TFND 110, 115, 120, 125 Theater Studio Labs TCOS 100, 101 Costume Techniques I TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater - Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that is is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement TCOS 210, 211 Costume Design Methodology Special Topics: (choose any 300 level design course) TDAP 395 D&P Production (6 semesters) TDAP 320 D&P Seminar TCOS 499-498 Independent Study/Internship (2 semesters) Via consultation with your mentor, suggested electives are offered within the School of Theater and throughout the Institute, subject to availability and permission of listed instructor. 215
BFA Experience Design Specialization Experience Design converges studies in narrative, immersion, environments, behavior, dramaturgy, and interactivity. Students approach the creation of experiences from a diversity of perspectives, wrapped around a core design process that foregrounds experimentation, strong visual communication, rigorous iteration, and the ability to bring concepts to life in real-world applications and collaborations.
MÉTIER REQUIREMENTS TIMM 210 Intro to Sketch-up TFND 110, 115, 120, 125 Theater Studio Labs TSCE 110 Undergrad Techniques in Design TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater - Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that it is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement TSCE 201 Scene Design I Minimum 2 Special Topics in Experience Design, Scenic, Costume, Lighting, or Interactive Media Drafting (choose from AutoCAD, Vectorworks or other by approval) TIMM 440 Digital Rendering or TIMM 444 Digital Drawing TDAP 320 D&P Seminar TDAP 395 D&P Production (6 semesters) TDAP 499-498 Independent Study/Internship (2 semesters) Via consultation with your mentor, suggested electives are offered within the School of Theater and throughout the institute, subject to availability and permission of listed instructor. BFA Lighting Design Specialization In a specialization committed to both artistry and technology, students gain a firm understanding of the lighting design process, from the development and articulation of a conceptual approach, to plot making, to the creation of the realized work onstage. They broaden their experience with additional projects in film, video, dance, and art. TIMM 210 Intro to Sketch-up
TFND 110, 115, 120, 125 Theater Studio Labs 216
TLTG 110 Master Electrician Techniques TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater - Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that it is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement TLTG 250 Light Lab: Theatrical Conventions TLTG 210 Lighting Design I: Plot making TLTG 215 Lighting Design I: The Design Process TDAP 320 D&P Seminar TIMM 360 Vectorworks TDAP 395 D&P Production (6 semesters) Via consultation with your mentor, suggested electives are offered within the School of Theater and throughout the Institute, subject to availability and permission of listed instructor. BFA Scene Design Specialization Scene design, in providing a visual support to the dramatic form, is an integral part of the theater and is woven into the fundamental philosophies of modern performance practice. Students strive for the vision and imagination of a creative artist; the ingenuity and skills of a stage artisan; and the knowledge and sense of a performance director. Métier Requirements TIMM 210 Introduction to Sketch-up TFND 110, 115, 120, 125 Theater Studio Labs TSCE 110 Undergrad Techniques in Design TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater - Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that it is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement TSCE 201 Scene Design I
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TSCE 300, 301 Special Topics in Scene Design TDAP 320 D&P Seminar TIMM 440 Digital Rendering or TIMM 444 Digital Drawing Drafting (choose from AutoCAD, Vectorworks or other by approval) TDAP 395 D&P Production (6 semesters) TSCE 499-498 Independent Study/Internship (2 semesters) Via consultation with your mentor, suggested electives are offered within the School of Theater and throughout the Institute, subject to availability and permission of listed instructor. BFA Sound Design Specialization While integrating aesthetic concerns with scientific disciplines, the Sound Design program can stretch as far as each student's energy, inventions, and imagination allow. Students are urged to explore abundant projects and coursework throughout the institute. Métier Requirements TFND 110, 115, 120, 125 Theater Studio Labs TSND 201 Sound Design I TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater - Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that it is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement TDAP 320 D&P Seminar TSND 355-359 Special Topics in Sound Design (offered in rotation) TIMM 360 Vectorworks TSND 340, 341 Creative Listening for the Sound Designer TDAP 395 D&P Production (6 semesters) TSND 460 Professional Sound Environments TSND 430 Max Audio Programming TSND 465 Acoustic Environments Via consultation with your mentor, suggested electives are offered within the School of Theater and throughout the Institute, subject to availability and permission of listed instructor. 218
BFA Stage Management Specalization The BFA Stage Management specialization enables students to develop as artistic leaders and collaborative artists through project-based instruction in management, theatrical design, acting, directing, and stagecraft. Emphasis is placed on developing strong communication and critical thinking skills, broad knowledge of the professional arts environment, and proficiency in the practical skills necessary for success in a variety of professional environments. Métier Requirements TFND 110, 115, 120, 125 Theater Studio Labs TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater - Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that it is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement TCPM 320 Undergraduate Stage Management Seminar (7 semesters) TMSM 100 Basic Stage Management TTDI 105 Stagecraft I, or TTDI 300 Fundamentals of Technical Direction TGEN 310 Institute Acting TGEN 320 Institute Directing TACT 130 Run Crew TCPM 395 Stage Management Production (minimum of 6 semesters) TMSM 340 Theatrical Unions TMSM 325 Special Topics in Stage Management Via consultation with your mentor, suggested electives are offered within the School of Theater and throughout the Institute, subject to availability and permission of listed instructor BFA Technical Direction Specialization With a high degree of skill and creativity, students discover ways to utilize today's changing technology. They take the lead in the creation of new art and technologies, and exhibit a level of professionalism that meets or exceeds the growing demands of the theater/entertainment industries and the field of technical direction. Métier Requirements TFND 110, 115 120, 125 Theater Studio Labs
TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater 219
TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater - Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that it is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement TTDI 305 Advanced Stagecraft TIMM 315 AutoCAD I TIMM 325 AutoCAD II TTDI 300 Fundamentals of Technical Direction TTDI 425 Tech Mgt Style & Technique TSCM 225 Statical Engineering* ICOM301 Digital Fabrication TDAP 320 D&P Seminar TDAP 395 D&P Production (6 semesters) TTDI 410 Parametric Drafting TTDI 450 Rigging Via consultation with your mentor, suggested electives are offered within the School of Theater and throughout the Institute, subject to availability and permission of listed instructor. Bottom of Form
BFA Design and Production Course Requirements https://catalog.calarts.edu/requirements/theater/Pages/default.aspx#bfadesign Curricula for the Programs in Design and Production consist of classroom studies and hands-on studio and production work. Entering BFA students are required to complete a common set of foundation courses that cover aesthetics, theory, history, literature, graphics, technology and crafts. Transfer and upper-division undergraduates work with their mentors to create training programs tailored to each student's individual needs and interests. The curriculum for each métier area is highly individualized, with core program requirements serving as a framework for further studies customized to meet each student's goals and ambitions. Upon graduation, successful BFA Design and Production candidates will be able to: Demonstrate a critical understanding of the historical and cultural foundation of theatrical and arts practices, as well as knowledge of the contemporary arts landscape.
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Effectively explain their work, and to present concepts skillfully in writing and through visual or aural communication. Work professionally, responsibly and collaboratively within the challenges of a variety of projects while contributing a vibrant, creative voice. Demonstrate a body of original work, created in the classroom and in production, which shows an expressive understanding of Design for Performance processes and a personal aesthetic platform upon which to build. A demonstrable competency in the technological principles and techniques of the practiced area of specialization, along with ambition to innovatively explore new methods, materials and outcomes. Demonstrate a basic knowledge of allied theatrical disciplines (scenery, costume, lighting, sound, media) promoting an awareness of the complexity of problem-solving issues each may encounter, and the dissolution of conventional hierarchies. Métier Requirements: BFA Design and Production TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater-Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that it is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement BFA Costume Design Specialization Sensitive to the art of performing, to the coordination of visual effects, to the expressions of the written and unwritten word, to the cultural anthropology of clothing, and to the techniques of manufacture, students undertake pre-professional studies in costume design, drawing and rendering, history, and related technologies. Métier Requirements TIMM 210 Intro to Sketch-up TFND 110, 115, 120, 125 Theater Studio Labs TCOS 100, 101 Costume Techniques I TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater - Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that is is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism
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TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement TCOS 210, 211 Costume Design Methodology Special Topics: (choose any 300 level design course) TDAP 395 D&P Production (6 semesters) TDAP 320 D&P Seminar TCOS 499-498 Independent Study/Internship (2 semesters) Via consultation with your mentor, suggested electives are offered within the School of Theater and throughout the Institute, subject to availability and permission of listed instructor. BFA Experience Design Specialization Experience Design converges studies in narrative, immersion, environments, behavior, dramaturgy, and interactivity. Students approach the creation of experiences from a diversity of perspectives, wrapped around a core design process that foregrounds experimentation, strong visual communication, rigorous iteration, and the ability to bring concepts to life in real-world applications and collaborations.
MÉTIER REQUIREMENTS TIMM 210 Intro to Sketch-up TFND 110, 115, 120, 125 Theater Studio Labs TSCE 110 Undergrad Techniques in Design TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater - Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that it is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement TSCE 201 Scene Design I Minimum 2 Special Topics in Experience Design, Scenic, Costume, Lighting, or Interactive Media Drafting (choose from AutoCAD, Vectorworks or other by approval) TIMM 440 Digital Rendering or TIMM 444 Digital Drawing TDAP 320 D&P Seminar TDAP 395 D&P Production (6 semesters)
TDAP 499-498 Independent Study/Internship (2 semesters) 222
Via consultation with your mentor, suggested electives are offered within the School of Theater and throughout the institute, subject to availability and permission of listed instructor. BFA Lighting Design Specialization In a specialization committed to both artistry and technology, students gain a firm understanding of the lighting design process, from the development and articulation of a conceptual approach, to plot making, to the creation of the realized work onstage. They broaden their experience with additional projects in film, video, dance, and art. TIMM 210 Intro to Sketch-up TFND 110, 115, 120, 125 Theater Studio Labs TLTG 110 Master Electrician Techniques TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater - Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that it is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement TLTG 250 Light Lab: Theatrical Conventions TLTG 210 Lighting Design I: Plot making TLTG 215 Lighting Design I: The Design Process TDAP 320 D&P Seminar TIMM 360 Vectorworks TDAP 395 D&P Production (6 semesters) Via consultation with your mentor, suggested electives are offered within the School of Theater and throughout the Institute, subject to availability and permission of listed instructor. BFA Scene Design Specialization Scene design, in providing a visual support to the dramatic form, is an integral part of the theater and is woven into the fundamental philosophies of modern performance practice. Students strive for the vision and imagination of a creative artist; the ingenuity and skills of a stage artisan; and the knowledge and sense of a performance director. Métier Requirements TIMM 210 Introduction to Sketch-up TFND 110, 115, 120, 125 Theater Studio Labs
TSCE 110 Undergrad Techniques in Design 223
TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater - Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that it is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement TSCE 201 Scene Design I TSCE 300, 301 Special Topics in Scene Design TDAP 320 D&P Seminar TIMM 440 Digital Rendering or TIMM 444 Digital Drawing Drafting (choose from AutoCAD, Vectorworks or other by approval) TDAP 395 D&P Production (6 semesters) TSCE 499-498 Independent Study/Internship (2 semesters) Via consultation with your mentor, suggested electives are offered within the School of Theater and throughout the Institute, subject to availability and permission of listed instructor. BFA Sound Design Specialization While integrating aesthetic concerns with scientific disciplines, the Sound Design program can stretch as far as each student's energy, inventions, and imagination allow. Students are urged to explore abundant projects and coursework throughout the institute. Métier Requirements TFND 110, 115, 120, 125 Theater Studio Labs TSND 201 Sound Design I TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater - Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that it is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement TDAP 320 D&P Seminar TSND 355-359 Special Topics in Sound Design (offered in rotation)
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TIMM 360 Vectorworks TSND 340, 341 Creative Listening for the Sound Designer TDAP 395 D&P Production (6 semesters) TSND 460 Professional Sound Environments TSND 430 Max Audio Programming TSND 465 Acoustic Environments Via consultation with your mentor, suggested electives are offered within the School of Theater and throughout the Institute, subject to availability and permission of listed instructor. BFA Stage Management Specalization The BFA Stage Management specialization enables students to develop as artistic leaders and collaborative artists through project-based instruction in management, theatrical design, acting, directing, and stagecraft. Emphasis is placed on developing strong communication and critical thinking skills, broad knowledge of the professional arts environment, and proficiency in the practical skills necessary for success in a variety of professional environments. Métier Requirements TFND 110, 115, 120, 125 Theater Studio Labs TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater - Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that it is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement TCPM 320 Undergraduate Stage Management Seminar (7 semesters) TMSM 100 Basic Stage Management TTDI 105 Stagecraft I, or TTDI 300 Fundamentals of Technical Direction TGEN 310 Institute Acting TGEN 320 Institute Directing TACT 130 Run Crew TCPM 395 Stage Management Production (minimum of 6 semesters) TMSM 340 Theatrical Unions TMSM 325 Special Topics in Stage Management
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Via consultation with your mentor, suggested electives are offered within the School of Theater and throughout the Institute, subject to availability and permission of listed instructor BFA Technical Direction Specialization With a high degree of skill and creativity, students discover ways to utilize today's changing technology. They take the lead in the creation of new art and technologies, and exhibit a level of professionalism that meets or exceeds the growing demands of the theater/entertainment industries and the field of technical direction. Métier Requirements TFND 110, 115 120, 125 Theater Studio Labs TAIC 100 Conversations in Contemporary Theater TAIC 300 Survey of World Theater - Text TWNT 300 Winter Session (every Spring that it is offered) Three units selected with mentor from the following: TAIC 305 Survey of World Theater - Performance Tactics TAIC 310 Arts and Activism TAIC 315 Art and Community Engagement TTDI 305 Advanced Stagecraft TIMM 315 AutoCAD I TIMM 325 AutoCAD II TTDI 300 Fundamentals of Technical Direction TTDI 425 Tech Mgt Style & Technique TSCM 225 Statical Engineering* ICOM301 Digital Fabrication TDAP 320 D&P Seminar TDAP 395 D&P Production (6 semesters) TTDI 410 Parametric Drafting TTDI 450 Rigging Via consultation with your mentor, suggested electives are offered within the School of Theater and throughout the Institute, subject to availability and permission of listed instructor. Bottom of Form
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UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL Curriculum Applicants are generally accepted for the first year of the Technical Production Program only; entrance to the second and third year of classes is subject to approval of the Technical Program faculty. Students are chosen on the basis of demonstrated ability through the submission of a resume and portfolio comprising past work in the field. It is assumed that applying candidates have prior experience in both theater and in technical production. When all the application materials are received, the Department will send a letter to the applicant or call to confirm the time and place for an interview. An on campus interview is strongly recommended.
First Year: 1st Semester – 12 hours total Dram 800—3.0 hrs. Technical Direction (study of technical and engineering problems in theatrical production, structures) Dram 805—3.0 hrs. Special Studies/Theatrical Drafting Standards (A study and practicum of theatrical drawings as they apply to design and construction for scenery for a theatrical production) Dram 806—3.0 hrs. Advanced Technical Methods (a study of the equipment and procedures in the execution of scenery for a theatrical production) Dram 841—3.0 hrs. Technical Theater Practicum (production work with PlayMakers and the Department of Dramatic Art) 2nd Semester – 12 hours total Dram 801—3.0 hrs. Technical Direction II Dram 480—3.0 hrs. Period Styles for Production Rotates with: Dram 666–3.0 hrs. Media in Performance Dram 821–3.0 hrs. Advanced Lighting Design Dram 842—3.0 hrs. Technical Theater Practicum II (drafting true size & shape, arc welding, Plasma cutter, TIG welding, oxyacetylene welding/brazing, production work with PlayMakers and the Department of Dramatic Art) Second Year: 1st Semester – 12 hours total Dram 465—3.0 hrs. Sound Design Dram 802—3.0 hrs. Advanced Technical Direction (a study of management, technical, and engineering problems involved in theatrical production, and AutoCAD)
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Dram 830–3.0 hrs. Technical Production Seminar/Fluid Power (pneumatics, hydraulics and motion controL) Dram 843—3.0 hrs. Technical Theater Practicum III (TD for Departmental Productions, ATD for PlayMakers, and production work for PlayMakers and the Department of Dramatic Art) 2nd Semester – 12 hours total Dram 803—3.0 hrs. Advanced Studies in Technical Direction Dram 805—3.0 hrs. Special Studies/Rigging/Stage Machinery & Mechanics Dram 480—3.0 hrs. Period Styles for Production Rotates with: Dram 666–3.0 hrs. Media in Performance Dram 844—3.0 hrs. Technical Theater Practicum IV (may include TD for Departmental Productions, ATD for PlayMakers, and production work for PlayMakers and the Department of Dramatic Art)
Third Year: 1st Semester – 9 hours total Dram 813—3.0 hrs. Technical Planning and Production (Machining, production work for PlayMakers and the Department of Dramatic Art) Dram 830—3.0 hrs. Technical Production Seminar/Occupational Safety Dram 845—3.0 hrs. Scenography for the Theater (a study of the scenographic techniques as it involves surface manipulation for scenery for a theatrical production) 2nd Semester – 9 hours total Dram 813—3.0 hrs. Technical Planning and Production Dram 845–3.0 hrs. Stage Properties Dram 992—3.0 hrs. Graduate Final Practicum/Thesis Project (TD for PlayMakers Production or approved production project) Total Graduate hours required for the degree: 66
The Department of Dramatic Art provides opportunities to design lighting, sound, and scenery for productions (this is not the emphasis for this program, however). The Department also provides, for the qualified candidate, an opportunity to teach related technical classes for the undergraduate program. Evaluation: At least once a semester, the faculty will formally evaluate the candidate’s progress and make recommendations concerning continuation in the program. Evaluation of each
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individual will be made on the basis of classroom work, modules, and any and all work with the professional company and the Department of Dramatic Art. Letter grades (H, P, L, F) will be assigned for the work in all classes. In addition to classroom work, the candidate is required to present at every evaluation an updated resume and portfolio. This portfolio should contain updated photographs, drawings and other items that demonstrate the professional and individual development of the candidate.
LONDON ACADEMY OF MUSIC AND DRAMATIC ART (LAMDA) Production & Technical Arts: Stage and Screen | Course Content Year One Students are given a thorough grounding in four core disciplines – stage management, scenic construction, lighting and sound – through classes in stage management, productionmanagement, prop making, lighting (including design), rigging, sound, set design, scenic construction, health and safety, first aid, fire safety, WYSIWYG and AutoCAD. These classes introduce essential technical disciplines and provide students with an understanding of the elements involved in stage and screen production. Alongside training in these disciplines, students receive an introduction to related areas within television and radio, including the roles of First AD, Second AD and Location Manager. During the second and third terms, students work on LAMDA’s productions – spending approximately six weeks gaining practical experience in junior roles in the stage management, construction, lighting and sound departments. These productions play in repertoire in LAMDA’s state-of-the-art theatres. Year Two In the second year, students undertake four senior production roles on LAMDA shows, enabling them to strengthen their leadership skills. They may have the opportunity to transfer productions to theatres elsewhere in the UK and overseas. Previous transfers have included venues in Bowness-on-Windermere, Bury St Edmunds, Paris, Moscow and New York. As optional modules, senior roles are available on LAMDA film and radio projects, which are shot, recorded and edited by industry professionals. BA (Hons) Production & Technical Arts Year Three (optional top-up year) Students who successfully complete our FdA at the required level may apply to progress to the one-year top-up BA (Hons) qualification. This course enables students to specialise in one discipline and develop advanced production skills in that area. Students may choose from the following specialism options: Lighting, Sound, Stage Management, Production Management, Scenic Construction or Screen & Audio. Content includes 10 to 12 weeks of work-based learning, a senior production role on a number of public LAMDA productions and a self-directed project.
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In their second year all students complete two six-week work placements within the entertainment industry, offering professional experience in an area of the student’s choice. LAMDA is currently the only UK drama school to offer two placements as standard. Many students go on to secure employment with their placement companies after graduation. Throughout the course, students are encouraged to network with current industry practitioners. They receive classes in taxation, interview technique and creating a professional portfolio. They also participate in mock interviews with visiting professionals, who provide valuable feedback.
YALE Technical Design and Production ®MFA and Certificate Plan of Study∫ Technical Design and Production Required Sequence Year Course Subject I DRAM 109aØb Structural Design for the Stage DRAM 119b Electricity DRAM 149a Production Planning DRAM 159a Theater Safety DRAM 169a Shop Technology DRAM 169b Stage Rigging Techniques DRAM 179a&b Technical Design and Drafting DRAM 199b Digital Technology Two electives Three production assignments II DRAM 6aØb Survey of Theater and Drama DRAM 209a Physics of Stage Machinery DRAM 249a Technical Management DRAM 249b Production Management DRAM 279b Technical Design Six electives Three production assignments III DRAM 399a Technical Writing DRAM 399b Technical Design and Production Thesis
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Six terms of elective sequence courses Two production assignments Second or third year students may request the substitution of a substantial project for one production as signment.
Elective Sequence The elective sequence is determined in consultation with a faculty adviser and allows ea ch studentreasonable flexibility in selecting courses in his or her chosen area of concentration. Yale Cabaret Technical Design and Production students are encouraged to work in all capacities at the Yale Cabaret, however¨ this participation is understood to be in addition to and in no way a substitution for requireddepartmental work. All students must seek prior app roval from the department chair for participation inthe Cabaret¨ and no second or third year student on probation may participate in the Yale Cabaret in any capacity. Courses of Instruction DRAM 6a&b Survey of Theater and Drama See description under Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism. DRAM 59a&b¨ Theater Safety and Health Practicum A term≠long course that provides mentoring¨training¨ and hands≠on experience with the members of Yale’s Environmenta l Health and Safetydepartment and Fire Code Compliance ®FCC© office¨ and other Yal e campus safety professionals. Atthe start of each term¨ the instructor and stud ent confer with Yale safety professionals to identify a safety or health topic area to be explored during class meetings. The student meets we ekly for a minimum of two hours with a safety professional with expertise in the topic area and ass ists with,specific duties such as safety inspections¨ researching exposure concerns¨ and data analysis.
Class,assignments are tailored to the specific interests of the student and could include writing reports basedon research and developing forms¨ checklists¨ andØor inspection d ocuments. An evaluation of the,student’s engagement with the topic area and grading of assignments is provided to the instructor ofrecord by the safety professional. William J. Reynolds
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DRAM 69a¨ Welding Technology A course in the fundamentals and applications of elect ric arcwelding techniques ®TIG¨ MIG¨ STICK© as well as brazing and soldering. Empha sis is on welding ofmetals including∫ steel¨ aluminum¨ brass¨ copper¨ etc.ª joining dissimi lar metalsª fixturingª andevaluating the appropriate process for an application. The majo rity of class time is spent welding¨brazing¨ or soldering. Enrollment limited to six. David Johnson DRAM 69b¨ Mechanical Instrumentation A course for both the arts and sciences that go es beyond anintroductory shop course¨ offering an in≠depth study utilizing hands on instructional techniques. Surface finishes and tolerances versus cost and time¨ blueprint reading¨ machineability of materials¨feeds and speeds¨ and grinding of tools are discussed and d emonstrated. David Johnson DRAM 89b¨ Costume Construction A course in costume construction with hands on practice in bothmachine and hand sewing as well as various forms of patterning¨ incl uding draping and flat drafting. Advanced students may elect to undertake patterning and construction projects using Yale School ofDrama’s antique costume collection. Open to nondepartmental stud ents with prior permission of theinstructor. Robin Hirsch DRAM 99ab¨ Internship Practicum Interns are required to successfully complete two ter ms ofpracticum in their chosen area of concentration. Area supervisor DRAM 109a&b¨ Structural Design for the Stage This course concurrently develops the p recalculusmathematics and physical sciences requisite for advanced study in modern th eater technology¨ andconcentrates on the application of statics to the design of safe sce nic structures. Assignments relatestructural design principles to production applications. Open to non-departmental and non School ofDrama students with prior permission of the instructor. Bronislaw Joseph Sam mler DRAM 119b¨ Electricity This course presents the basics of theoretical and practical opti cs¨ electricity¨and electronics of lighting instruments¨ dimmers¨ and special effects need ed to function as a masterelectrician. Emphasis is placed on relevant portions of the Nat ional Electrical Code. Open tonondepartmental students with permission of the instructo r. Alan Hendrickson DRAM 129b¨ History of Theater Architecture A survey of European and American theat er architecture as it relates to cultural and technological changes through time. This course uses the wr itings of current and past authorities on such subjects as acoustics¨ space layout¨ and decoration to illus trate and evaluate these buildings’ many variations. Open to nondepartmental and non≠School of Drama students with prior permission of the instructor. Alan Hendrickson
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DRAM 139b¨ Introduction to Sound Engineering and Design This course provides stude nts with thebasic skills and vocabulary necessary to perform as sound engineers and de signers. Students areintroduced to standard sound design practice¨ associated paperwo rk¨ production design tools¨ acousticassessment tools¨ and sound delivery systems addr essing both conceptual and sound reinforcementdesign. Course objectives are accompli shed through practical assignments¨ production reviews¨ andconceptual design projects . Open to nondepartmental students with permission of the instructor. Michael Backhaus DRAM 149a¨ Production Planning An introduction to production planning. Topics includ e cost andtime estimating¨ and scheduling¨ for all phases of production. Open to nonde partmental and nonSchoolof Drama students with prior permission of the instructor. Jon athan Reed DRAM 159a¨ Theater Safety An introduction to theater safety and occupational health. Topics includechemical and fire hazards¨ accident and fire prevention¨ code requiremen ts¨ emergency procedures¨ andtraining and certification in first aid and CPR. Safety and health policies at YSDØYRT are discussed¨along with the safety≠related requirements f or work in the production shops and on the stages. Classtopics fulfill the requirements fo r the OSHA-10 Outreach Course in General Industry¨ and students who successfully complete the course receive an Outreach Card from OSHA. Open to n ondepartmentalstudents with prior permission of the instructor. William J. Reynolds DRAM 169a¨ Shop Technology This course serves as an introduction to the scene shop s andtechnology available at Yale School of Drama. Materials¨ construction tools and techniques¨ and shoporganization and management are examined in the context of sce nic production. Class projects aretailored to each student’s needs. Open to nondepartm ental students with permission of the instructors. Neil Mulligan¨ Matthew T. Welander DRAM 169b¨ Stage Rigging Techniques This course examines traditional and nontraditi onal riggingtechniques. Equipment discussed includes counterweight and mechanical ri gging systems and theircomponents. Class format is both lecture and lab with written an d practical projects assigned to furtherthe student’s understanding. Open to nondepartm ental students with permission of the instructor. NeilMulligan DRAM 179aØb¨ Technical Design and Drafting This course develops the skills necessary for effectiveand efficient graphic communication between the technical desig ner and shop staff. Emphasis is placedon graphic standards¨ notation¨ plan and section drawings¨ and the translation of designer plates to shopdrawings. Students develop the se techniques through sketching¨ applying the fundamental aspects ofAutoCAD¨ and te chnical design projects. Open to nondepartmental students with permission of the instructor. Matthew T. Welander DRAM 189a¨ Costume Production This course examines the processes involved in the r ealization of aset of costume designs¨ from the drawing board to the stage. Focus is on shop organization and thefunctions of the designer¨ assistant designer¨ and costume sh
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op staff¨ with emphasis on budgeting¨scheduling¨ fabrics¨ and equipment. Open to nond epartmental students with prior permission of theinstructor. Tom McAlister DRAM 189b¨ Fabric and Fabric Manipulation This course explores the aesthetics and p erformance characteristics of fabrics commonly used for the stage¨ and how to choose apparel fabri cs. It examinesthe basic properties of natural and synthetic fibers∫ weaves and texture¨ pattern and scale¨ drape¨memory¨ hand¨ finish¨ and cost. Open to nondepartmental stu dents with prior permission of theinstructors. Tom McAlister DRAM 199b¨ Digital Technology This course provides a foundation for the digital skills n ecessary intoday’s technologically rich workplaces. Topics include computer networking and data distribution fortheatrical systems online resources to foster new methods of collaboration industry standard productivity software critical to the clear presentation of informationª three≠dimensional scanning¨ fil emanipulation¨ and printing. Open to nondepartmental students with permission of the i nstructors. Erich Bolton¨ Jonathan Reed DRAM 209a¨ Physics of Stage Machinery This course introduces Newtonian mechanics as an aid inpredicting the behavior of moving scenery. Theoretical performance calculat ions are developed toapproximate the actual performance of stage machinery. Topics in clude electric motors¨ gearing¨friction¨ and ergonomics. Open to nondepartmental and n on≠School of Drama students with priorpermission of the instructor. Alan Hendrickson DRAM 209b¨ Hydraulics and Pneumatics Discussions of concepts and components beg un in DRAM209a are continued for fluid power systems. Topics include hydraulic power unit design¨ the selectionand operation of electro≠hydraulic proportional valves¨ load lifti ng circuits using counterbalancevalves¨ and pneumatic system design. Emphasis is pla ced on the practical aspects of componentselection¨ especially for hydraulic cylinders¨ h ose¨ and fittings. Open to nondepartmental and nonSchool of Drama students with prior permission of the instructor. Alan Hendrickson DRAM 229a¨ Theater Planning and Construction This course is an introduction to planning¨ design¨documentation¨ and construction of theaters¨ concert halls¨ and similar spaces. Emphasis is placed onthe role of the theater consultant in functional planning a nd architectural design. The goal is tointroduce the student to the field and provide a basic understanding of the processes and vocabulary oftheater planning. Open to nond epartmental and non≠School of Drama students with permission of theinstructor. Eugene Leitermann DRAM 239a¨ Introduction to Projection Engineering This course provides students with t he skills andvocabulary necessary to perform as projection engineers. Students are intr oduced to the paperwork todesign¨ the equipment to implement¨ and the software to op erate a successful video projection systemwhile interfacing with a projection designer. C lass format includes lectures and lab sessions that focuson equipment and software. Op en to nondepartmental and non≠School of Drama students withpermission of the instruc tor. Erich Bolton DRAM 249a¨ Technical Management This course discusses application of management techniques andorganizational principles to technical production. Emphasis is placed on
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leadership and interpersonalskills as well as on organization¨ planning¨ and facilities utili zation. Assignments provide furtherexploration of related topics in the form of written and/or presented material. Open to nondepartmentalstudents with prior permission of th e instructor. Shaminda Amarakoon¨ Jonathan Reed DRAM 249b¨ Production Management This course explores the organizational structure s found in notfor≠profit and limited≠partnership commercial ventures. Students explore patterns of responsibility and authority¨ various charts of accounts and fiscal controls¨ estimating techniques¨ budgeting¨ andscheduling. Guest lecturers lead discussions introducing a variety of thea trical organizations¨ theirartistic policies and processes¨ and the products that result. Op en to nondepartmental students withprior permission of the instructor. Shaminda Amara koon¨ Jonathan Reed DRAM 279b¨ Technical Design This course examines the technical design process in th e developmentof solutions to scenery construction projects. Solutions¨ utilizing traditiona l and modern materials andfabrication techniques¨ are studied from the perspectives of budget¨ labor¨ safety¨ and structuralintegrity. Neil Mulligan DRAM 289a¨ Patternmaking This course explores costume history through the three≠di mensional form. Each week students drape and or draft a garment from a specific period from primitive “T” shapes tomid≠twentieth≠cent ury patterns. Open to nondepartmental students with prior permission of theinstructor. R obin Hirsch DRAM 309a¨ Mechanical Design for Theater Applications This course focuses on the pr ocess ofmechanical design for temporary and permanent stage machinery. Design cons iderations andcomponent selections are examined through lectures¨ discussions¨ assig nments¨ and project reviews. Other topics include motion control¨ fluid power circuit design¨ and industrial standards. AlanHendrickson DRAM 319a¨ Automation Control Designing and constructing control systems for mecha nized sceneryinvolves theoretical and practical work in electrical power distribution¨ swit ching logic¨ electronics¨ and software programming. The material covered in lectures and labs progresses from simple on≠offelectrical control¨ to relay logic¨ motor speed control¨ and finally full positio ning control. Topicsinclude motor starters¨ open collector outputs¨ power supplies¨ PLC ladder programming¨ and ACmotor drives. Alan Hendrickson DRAM 329b¨ Theater Engineering∫ Lighting¨ Sound¨ Video¨ and Communication System s This course introduces the basic concepts of the design of lighting¨ sound¨ video¨ and communicatio n systems andinfrastructure within the context of the overall design of performing arts fa cilities. Topics includeprogramming and budgeting equipment systems¨ code requireme nts¨ and integration with otherbuilding systems. The student develops and details basic equipment systems within a building envelopeprovided by the instructor. Open to nonde partmental students with permission of the instructors. 235
Alexander Bagnall DRAM 339a¨ Advanced Topics in Projection Engineering This course builds on the conc eptsintroduced in DRAM 239a. Students apply their knowledge in a series of practical pr ojects designed tomaximize their exposure to current technologies and techniques. Clas s format includes lectures and labsessions that focus on equipment and software¨ includ ing media servers¨ video codecs¨ computerhardware¨ signal distribution¨ and projection surfaces. Open to nondepartmental students withpermission of the instructor. Erich Bolt on DRAM 359b¨ Advanced Topics in Theater Safety The implementation of an effective the ater safety program requires knowledge and understanding of applicable codes and standards¨ and theirapplication in a theater production environment. This course reviews codes and sta ndards¨ includingOSHA 29CFR1910 and 29CFR1926¨ NFPA 101 Life Safety Code¨ oth er related NFPA codes andstandards¨ International Building Code¨ ETCP certifications¨ and Equity requirements. Theidentification¨ control¨ andØor mitigation of hazards are ad dressed through risk assessment and theapplication of the Hazard Communication stan dard in the workplace. Students who successfullycomplete the course fulfill the requirem ents for the OSHA≠30 Outreach Course in General Industry andreceive an Outreach Ca rd from OSHA. Open to nondepartmental students with permission of the instructor. William J. Reynolds DRAM 369a¨ Advanced Rigging Techniques This course builds on the concepts introdu ced in DRAM169b. Topics include rigging solutions for Broadway and national tours¨ flyi ng performers¨ and fallprotection and rescue techniques. Projects include both written a nd hands≠on work. Prerequisites∫ agrade of High Pass or better in DRAM 169b and the ability to work at heights. Neil Mulligan DRAM 379b¨ Autodesk Inventor An in≠depth study of 3D drafting and parametric modeli ng techniquesusing Autodesk Inventor. Topics include creating parts¨ assemblies¨ and a nimationsª detailing andannotating shop drawingsª and performing basic stress analysis on models. Prerequisite∫ DRAM 179aØbor permission of the instructor. Matthew T. Wel ander DRAM 389aØb¨ Properties Design and Construction Through lectures and demonstratio ns¨ studentsstudy design and fabrication of stage properties. Assignments encourage st udents to develop craft skills and to explore the application of traditional and new techniques to production practice. Open tonondepartmental students with prior permission of the instructors. Jennifer McCl ure¨ David P. Schrader DRAM 399a¨ Technical Writing The objective of this course is to improve writing skills th roughout theterm¨ enabling students to convey information clearly¨ logically¨ and effectiv ely through work in threeareas. The first focuses on interpreting and writing the many for ms of technical documentationproduced in the field of live events management. Exampl es of technical documentation include
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operations and maintenance manuals¨ technical riders¨ and bid package documents. Th e second focuseson thesis development¨ requiring students to produce a detailed outlin e and introductory chapter oftheir thesis. The third focuses on producing a cover letter¨ r ésumé¨ and digital portfolio in preparationfor a jobs skills workshop during the January Seminar Week. Tony Forman DRAM 399b¨ Technical Design and Production Thesis Each student develops a thesis d ealing with aproduction≠ or planning≠oriented subject. By the end of the second year¨ a thesis proposal is submittedfor departmental review. Following topic approval¨ the thesis is developed under the guidance of anapproved adviser¨ and a complete draft is submit ted five weeks prior to graduation. After revision andadviser’s approval¨ the work is eval uated and critiqued by three independent readers. Following revisions and departmental approval¨ two bound copies and one digital copy are submitt ed. TonyForman¨ C. Nikki Mills DRAM 409b¨ Advanced Structural Design for the Stage This course builds on the conce pts introducedn DRAM 109aØb. Topics include aluminum beam and column design¨ ply wood design¨ and trusses andcables. Prerequisite∫ DRAM 109aØb or permission of the instructor. Bronislaw Joseph Sammler DRAM 419b¨ Control Systems for Live Entertainment Show control is the convergence ofentertainment¨ computing¨ networking¨ and data communication technologies. Topics include datacommunication and networking principlesª details of entertainment≠specific protocols such asDMX512¨ MIDI¨ MIDI Show Control¨ MIDI Machine Control¨ and SMP TE Time Codeª and practicalapplications and principles of system design. Open to nond epartmental and non≠School of Dramastudents with prior permission of the instructor. E rich Bolton DRAM 429b¨ Theater Engineering∫ Overhead Rigging and Stage Machinery This course introducesthe basic concepts of the design of overhead rigging and stage machi nery systems and infrastructurewithin the context of the overall design of performing art s facilities. Topics include programming andbudgeting equipment systems¨ code require ments¨ and integration with other building systems. Thestudent develops and details ba sic equipment systems within a building envelope provided by theinstructor. Open to no ndepartmental students with permission of the instructor. Not offered in2016–2017› DRAM 439b¨ Architectural Acoustics This course is both an introduction to the basic pri nciples andterminology of acoustics and a survey of the acoustics of performance venu es¨ with an emphasis ontheaters. Topics include physical acoustics¨ room acoustics¨ ps ychoacoustics¨ electroacoustics¨ soundisolation¨ and noise and vibration control. The go als are to furnish the student with a background inacoustical theory and its practical appl ication to performance spaces¨ and to instill the basics ofrecognizing and modifying asp ects of the built environment that determine acoustic conditions. Open to nondepartmental students with permission of the instructor. Not offered in 2016– 2017› DRAM 449aØb¨ Independent Study Students who want to pursue special research or th e study of topics
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not covered by formal courses may propose an independent study. Following departme nt approval ofthe topic¨ the student meets regularly with an adviser to seek tutorial advic e. Credit for independentstudy is awarded by the department¨ based on the adviser’s recommendation. Tutorial meetings to be arranged. FacultyDRAM 469a¨ Scenery Construction for the Commercial Theater This c ourse examines constructiontechniques and working conditions in commercial scene sh ops servicing the Broadway theater industry.Field trips to shops in the New York City ar ea and backstage tours of the shows being discussed inclass are included. An importan t aspect of all assignments is an in≠depth discussion of the transitionfrom designer’s dra wings to shop drawings¨ construction in the scene shop¨ and eventual set≠up in the theater. Chuck Adomanis¨ John Boyd¨ Carrie Winkler DRAM 489aØb¨ Costume Seminar This course provides the opportunity for an in≠depth analysis andconversation about the processes involved in realizing a set of stageworth y costumes. Using bothcurrent production assignments and class projects¨ focus is on u nderstanding the design¨ build¨ andtechnical processes¨ including budgeting¨ sourcing¨ and shoppingª interpreting the rendering andresearchª selecting materialsª fittingª and d eveloping strong working relationships with the costume andproduction staffs¨ stage ma nagers¨ and directors. Prerequisite∫ DRAM 189a. Open to nondepartmental students with permission of the instructor. Tom McAlister¨ Ilona Somogyi DRAM 529b¨ Theater Planning Seminar This course is a continuation of DRAM 229a¨ fo cusing on therenovation and rehabilitation of existing buildings for performing arts use th rough a term≠long designproject. Teams of students develop conceptual designs for the reuse of a specific building¨ after touringthe building and conducting programming inter views with potential users. The students’ design work isinformed by guest lectures by ar chitects¨ acousticians¨ historic preservationists¨ and other design andconstruction profe ssionals. The design project provides students the opportunity to apply knowledge acquired in DRAM 329b¨ 429b¨ and 439b¨ although these courses are not prerequisites. EugeneLeitermann
BA (Hons) THEATRE PRACTICE Programme specification and units1
CONTENTS
PROGRAMME SPECIFICATION
YEAR ONE/LEVEL 4 UNIT OUTLINES
UNIT 1: Introduction to Theatre Practice
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UNIT 2: Text Analysis UNIT 3: Developing Your Creative Practice
YEAR TWO/LEVEL 5 UNIT OUTLINES
UNIT 4: Practitioner 1 UNIT 5: Practitioner 2 UNIT 6: Practitioner 3 UNIT 7: Theatre Practice: Specialist Competencies
YEAR THREE/LEVEL 6 UNIT OUTLINES
UNIT 8a: Professional Development Task 1: Practical Task UNIT 8b: Professional Development Task 1: Extended Essay UNIT 9: Professional Development Task 2 UNIT 10: Future Practice Task
APPENDIX 2: ASSESSMENT CRITERIA AND MARKING DESCRIPTORS PROGRAMME BIBLIOGRPAHY KEY FACTS 2
CENTRAL SCHOOL OF SPEECH AND DRAMA https://www.cssd.ac.uk/ba-technical-production-management INTRODUCTION TO THE PROGRAMME PROGRAMME OVERVIEW BA (Hons) Theatre Practice aims to develop reflective professionals in the practices of theatre, highly equipped as specialists in their discipline and able to manage themselves and others in a fast-evolving field of live performance. A high level of student ownership is key in
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the learning that students get from the diverse range of project and production activity. The programme provides a safe environment in which experimentation, innovation and creativity are highly valued as part of the learning process. Graduates feed back to us that this was key preparation for the intensive team-based creative and production processes of professional practice. Training is put into practice and individuals learn to take risks and responsibility, to work collaboratively and to turn mistakes into breakthroughs. The BA (Hons) Theatre Practice degree (BATP) is firmly rooted in contemporary practice of the highest professional standards. These are benchmarked by ongoing input from theatre and its industries and broadly contextualised by a historical and theoretical overview. Staff (academic and technical) have active professional profiles and bring their current knowledge and expertise to the work that they do with you. As a staff team we value the understanding to be gained from current practices and we also encourage you, through vibrant industry links, to explore what is innovative. One programme with twelve specialist courses You will specialise in one aspect of theatre and performance practice, working alongside students from each of the other courses, enabling you to engage with and understand the collaborative work of theatre practice. The specialist choices are: Costume Construction – A subject that has evolved into a craft which requires the making of garments suited to the modern body, while achieving the correct shape and silhouette for a given era and design. As part of the production team, costume constructors work with the costume designer to interpret the brief and create costumes and accessories to the level of finish expected by contemporary audiences. Theatre Lighting Design – Lighting designers need to be comfortable with both aesthetics and technology. Lighting design training begins with practical projects in our well-equipped studio and proscenium performance spaces. This is linked to a rigorous investigation of the design process, enabling lighting designers to develop their own design style. It is also possible to work with unconventional equipment on site specific projects, and to investigate architectural lighting and video projection. Performance Arts (PA) – A course for those who wish to ‘make', research, question, and discuss performance. It is for practitioners who are interested in challenging and re- thinking assumptions about the creation and understanding of live performance. PA
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students will have the opportunity to develop basic skills across the creative and contextual disciplines of performance practice and interdisciplinary studies. Students engage in collaborative projects with designers, scenographers and directors to produce new performances as well as undertaking different roles to challenge their own process and produce individual creative work.3 Production Lighting – Concentrates on the realisation of performance lighting, from working with a Lighting Designer to specify a lighting system, through managing the procurement and installation of that system, programming and plotting lighting states, maintaining the system when the designer leaves, and eventually loading out. The Production Lighting (Prod LX) programme begins with a solid foundation of safe working with electricity and working at height, and includes an introduction to video projection. Prop Making – In all areas of the theatre, film, television and advertising industries, prop makers are required to respond innovatively to design briefs, to produce high quality outcomes, through rigorous research, analysis, experimentation and development of skills. Imagination and an understanding of aesthetics, as well as technical skills, are essential to the development of a prop maker on the programme enabling the production of high quality outcomes. Puppetry, Design and Performance – Central pioneered the UK’s first degree in puppet theatre and continues to be one of the world’s leading institutions for the training of puppeteers, attracting national and international students. Central collaborates with a huge number of professional companies and practitioners, who visit as lecturers or host students on professional placements. The programme also has strong links with puppetry and visual theatre programmes throughout the world, and regularly visits international festivals to present work. Puppeteers will develop drawing, design and sculpture, animation, movement, vocal and manipulation skills. You will make puppets in a range of styles. Puppeteers will also explore the world of object manipulation and develop projects for performance both within and outside the School. Scenic Art – In all areas of the entertainment industry, including theatre, video, television and film, the Scenic Artist creates the painted and textural elements of the design to specifications agreed with the Set Designer or Art Director. You will develop skills in research, analysis and interpretation, and a high level of technical competence in drawing, painting, colour theories and working to scale, as well as a comprehensive knowledge of materials and their application. Scenic Construction – Skilled in carpentry, structural design, metal work and mechanical engineering, Scenic Constructors are principally problem solvers who use ideas and solutions drawn 4 from all aspects of engineering and industrial practice. Constructors learn to be independent and resourceful, and develop specific craft skills to the high professional level required to meet design briefs. Easy Virtue by Noel Coward, public production
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Design for Stage – Set and Costume Design is a creative discipline involving imagination, the intellect and many skills in realising the visual context for performance. The theatre designer is responsible for the visual realisation of theatre production, employing technical, communicative and managerial skills with resourcefulness, intellectual rigour and energy. Designers work with other theatre disciplines in production teams, in order to understand, respect and work effectively with all the people that you are likely to meet in professional practice. Design and Crafts Exhibition 2013 Theatre Sound – The art of creating and controlling the total sonic environment of live performance, as an integral part of the dramatic narrative, is the most rapidly developing of the specialist theatre disciplines, and is now a credited part of most professional productions. Using the latest digital technologies, this programme explores the textures, subtleties and power of sound and music as part of the live theatre experience. 5 Stage Management – The Stage Manager’s role throughout rehearsals is to be a conduit between the Director and the Production Team, on the management of performance and on prop sourcing. The modern Stage Manager must have excellent ‘people skills’ and be able to adapt to any production setting, ranging from the more traditional West End theatres to large-scale outdoor events to smallscale community performances. You will develop skills in time management, resource management, budgeting and scheduling, and work closely with students of all other theatre disciplines to develop an overall understanding of performance and theatre production. Beggars' Opera, devised public production Technical and Production Management - Students from this discipline learn all aspects of managing the infrastructure for performance, from the hands-on skills and techniques of theatre technical work to the management of people and departments in negotiation with the creative team. Technical Managers will work closely with all departments involved in the creative process, and learn to understand the fundamental principles involved in developing a performance. Successful completion of Technical and Production Management prepares students for a career in technical management, production management, or associated disciplines within the entertainment industry.
SUPPORT FOR CONTEXTUAL INVESTIGATIONS Good theatre-making relies on each participant’s ability to research text, background and practices, and then to share ideas and information with collaborators. Support for rigorous thinking, contextual and interdisciplinary study and presentation skills is embedded throughout the whole BATP programme. One of the structured places where you will be introduced to a range of ideas about theatre and performance is the Contextual Studies programme. This programme includes Lectures,
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workshops, seminars from visiting professionals and practitioners and student group discussions. WHO IS THE PROGRAMME FOR? The programme is for post-18 students (including mature students) who wish to study theatre practice in a vocational setting at a professional level. This programme admits students who already have a commitment to a specialist area of theatre practice on entry. It is, therefore, able to develop students to a high level of specialist practice (with advanced skills of interdisciplinary collaboration.TINCTIVE FEATURES OF THE PROGRAMME AT CENTRAL • Specialist disciplines are able to focus on their area of study for three years but in the dynamic context of collaborative work with all the other theatre-making disciplines. • Students have the opportunity to collaborate extensively with professional companies and individuals. (Recent collaborators include Punchdrunk, Parrot {in the} Tank, Blind Summit, English National Opera, Little Angel, the Royal National Theatre, the Roundhouse, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Robert LePage, Circus Space and Emergency Exit Arts. • Elements of the programme are designed to help you prepare for professional practice on completion. • Projects include collaboration with BA Acting in specialist professional performance contexts. • Projects include collaboration with other undergraduate and post graduate programmes in the school. • The programme has well established Industry links across the sector. • Students benefit from Central’s location in London. • The programme is part of the UK’s largest and most wide-ranging specialist drama institution. EDUCATIONAL AIMS The aims and learning outcomes of the BA (Hons) in Theatre Practice are to: Develop an understanding of a complex body of knowledge related to the disciplines of Theatre Practice, some of it at the current boundaries of an academic discipline. Develop analytical techniques and problem-solving skills that can be applied in many types of employment. Develop the ability to evaluate evidence, arguments and assumptions, to reach sound judgements and to communicate them effectively. As such, the programme aims to develop reflective professionals, equipped as specialists in their discipline, able to manage themselves and others in a fast-evolving field of live performance. There is a high level of student ownership, and the learning that students get from the diverse range of
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project and production activity. The programme provides a safe environment in which experimentation, innovation and creativity are highly valued as part of the learning process. In particular, the programme aims to develop:
• Professional Competence - to develop, channel and interrogate your skills and critical understandings of a specific theatre discipline to a professional level. You will be confident in your professional role and responsibilities, able to work creatively with a good knowledge of the wide range of working contexts. • Engaging theory with practice (praxis) - to put theory into practice (which is what praxis is) means to use the research you have done into the theory related to your Course and find practical ways of using that theory. • Teamwork and Interdisciplinary Collaborative Practice - to learn from collaborations from other specialist disciplines within and outside the programme. You will use your specialist skills creatively to solve problems for yourself and your colleagues. • Management and Leadership skills - to develop your skills so you can get the most out of yourself and your team. These skills are gained by expanding your knowledge of your professional context and are developed through your practical experience on the programme. • Interpersonal and Communication skills - to develop your confidence in communicating creatively, documenting and presenting ideas, concepts and information with a broad range of people working within the field of performance and live events. You will learn to give and receive constructive feedback so that the work you create can develop creatively. • Career and Personal Development - to develop as a life-long learner (that is to find ways of continuing to learn long after your time on the programme ends), able to self- appraise (that is to evaluate yourself and your work), identify goals (professional and personal) and work independently. To develop strategies for Personal Development Planning (PDP) while on the programme that will become helpful strategies in furthering your career (e.g. management of your professional work extending your learning beyond the programme, creative entrepreneurship, professional networks and forums). LEARNING OUTCOMES Learning outcomes demonstrate what a student is expected to learn by taking the degree. Each unit has four or five learning outcomes which are directly taken from the overall degree learning outcomes. Learning outcomes describe what you should know and be able to do if you make full use of the opportunities for learning which the programme provides. If you successfully complete the BA Theatre Practice programme at Central: You will obtain a knowledge and understanding of: • The responsibilities of your role and how it relates to other roles [A1].
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• The relationship between theory and practice in your relevant field of Theatre Practice [A2]. • Historical, conceptual and critical frameworks in relation to Performance [A3]. You will develop thinking skills that will enable you to: • Creatively solve problems to further independent and collaborative work [B1]. • Plan and undertake rigorous independent research [B2]. • Experiment, interrogate, analyse and create new models [B3]. You will develop practical skills that will enable you to: • Apply relevant specialist skills of technique, craft and associated technologies [C1]. • Document and present your work [C2]. • Practice and apply health and safety considerations rigorously and consistently in your work[C3]. • Demonstrate effective time management and organisational skills [C4].
• Contribute effectively to the needs of a given production or performance as an individual and as a member of a team [C5]. • Work to current working practice in your discipline and its associated technologies [C6]. You will develop the broader life skills that will enable you to: • Evaluate your personal development through a process of reflection and self-appraisal [D1]. • Develop strategies for lifelong learning [D2]. • Communicate effectively and actively collaborate with others to achieve common goals [D3]. • Utilise Information technology creatively [D4]. • Conceptualise, develop and implement creative project management in speculative and realised contexts [D5]. Course specific competences align with National Occupational standards which in turn are assured by our industries through CC Skills and Skills Scene. (Members of the programme team - and experts in their fields of practice - have taken part in the consultation on the National Occupation Standards.)
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The programme features a number of learning and teaching styles. Sessions are led by the programme leader and team, guest tutors or visiting professionals. Emphasis is placed on your own interaction with the challenges and opportunities which the programme provides and you are expected to develop an independent and self-directed approach to your studies, which will serve you in your continuing professional development as a lifelong learner. The teaching and learning methods used to enable these outcomes to be achieved and demonstrated are: - Studio teaching - Lectures and workshops - Seminars - Group and one to one tutorials - Tutor and peer supervised production work. Assessment Tasks Each unit has assessment tasks, with a ‘magnitude’ (i.e. amount or size of task) which will allow you the opportunity to show that you have achieved the learning outcomes of the degree. The form of assessment might include: - Critical Essay - Reflective Assessment (as explained in BATP Reflective Assessment Handbook on Brightspace) - Practice Assessment (the demonstration of particular skills and practices) - Presentations. BATP Reflective Assessment is inclusive by design. Feedback is given after formal assessment tasks but also throughout the programme, for example in studio teaching sessions and from peer and practitioner feedback.
Assessment Criteria Assessment criteria show what you will need to demonstrate to successfully achieve the learning outcomes through the assessment tasks (e.g. effective use of research). Assessment criteria enable assessors to make informed judgements on the level to which your learning outcomes have been achieved. Your work is assessed through the following criteria: - Intellectual engagement (e.g. devising and sustaining arguments and/or solving problems) - Analysis and interrogation, demonstrating knowledge and understanding some of which is at
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the forefront of the theoretical and practical field/industry - Progress in relevant practice-based techniques and skills - Taking creative risks, as appropriate - Appreciation of the uncertainty of knowledge - Self-reflection - Effective use of research - Communication (of, for example, ideas and concepts) - Successful collaborative skills - Successful autonomous processes Not all assessment criteria will apply to each unit but all assessment criteria will be incorporated at some point within the degree. Assessment Descriptors Assessment descriptors indicate the level to which you have achieved the learning outcomes and, therefore the unit. Most of your assessment descriptors will be within the grade level you are awarded. Please see Appendix B for the assessment descriptors. Each unit within the degree has between three and six learning outcomes which are directly drawn from the overall degree learning outcomes. Each unit has formal assessment tasks - with a ‘magnitude’ (i.e. amount or size of task) - which will give students the opportunity to demonstrate that s/he has achieved the learning outcomes of the degree. Assessment criteria show what students will need to demonstrate - or do - to achieve the learning outcomes and in the assessment tasks (e.g. effective use of research). Assessment (or level) descriptors are directly linked to the assessment criteria and indicate the level the student has reached and therefore the level to which the student has achieved the learning outcomes (and the mark awarded to the unit therefore). PLACEMENT AND WORK-BASED LEARNING Whilst there are no mandatory external placements or work-based learning, the nature of the learning outcomes in level 5 (Practitioner 1, Practitioner 2, Practitioner 3) and level 6 (Professional Development Task 1and Professional Development Task 2) mean students may undertake project work in professional settings external to the School. Such external settings would be capped at two (exceptionally, three). These are closely negotiated with tutor and external host prior to completing the School’s formal placement paperwork. As well as covering areas of insurance and other related matters, whilst off site this system also ensures relevant feedback. Most students on the programme undertake one external placement project in the 2nd year and one in the 3rd year.
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Placements are normally for no more than 7 weeks, involving approximately 18-24 hours per week of activity. Placements may only occur in the second of third year of the programme 10 DISCLOSURE AND BARRING SERVICE Performance Arts students are required to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check; this will be initiated at your registration onto the programme. Students who are or become barred from engaging with children or vulnerable adults may have restricted placement or work-based learning opportunities. Other BATP programme courses do not require students to undergo a DBS check for registration on the programme. However depending on context, some placements may require a check later in the course. The results of the check may restrict the placement or work-based learning opportunities that are available to the student. All scheduled academic activities for your programme will normally take place within the School’s published term dates. Exceptionally, your attendance may on occasion be required during vacation periods – for example, when a meeting with the director of a public production on which you are working cannot take place during the preceding term. In such cases, you will notified at least 4 weeks prior to the start of the vacation concerned. PROGRAMME STRUCTURE, LEVELS, MODULES, CREDITS AND AWARDS The BA (Hons) Programme is a 3-year full-time degree. Study is arranged in 3 X 10 week terms. The degree offers 120 credits at each of Levels 4, 5 and 6. The degree is broken down into units providing opportunities for on-going development. Individual study specialisms develop as the programme progresses. Units vary in form and structure and include practical sessions, lectures, seminars, workshops, large and small-scale production activity, and small group projects. Overview of the three years of the programme Year 1 / Level 4 Year One establishes a common understanding of production and performance practices, taking a broad view of the processes that are involved. By the end of the year, you will develop a sound knowledge of the basic skills and concepts of your discipline and will have learnt how to take different approaches to solving problems, applying what you have learnt with some independence in a range of production settings. All units in Year One are marked pass or fail. You will be given an indication of your degree classification for each unit. (i.e. in comparison to the grades for a degree: First, Upper Second, Lower Second, Third, Fail.) Year 2 / Level 5
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By the end of Year Two, you will have a sound understanding of the principles and practice of your specialist discipline and will have learnt how to apply these principles in a range of production and performance contexts. You will be able to evaluate different approaches to solving problems and will have technical skills appropriate for entry-level positions in your chosen discipline. You will be able to operate independently within given guidelines. You will work with less reliance on staff-managed and timetabled activities, compared to Year One. Assignments will offer a greater degree of challenge than the projects you did in Year One. You will spend more of your time working as an individual and as a member of production teams in both college-based and off-site productions. To meet the challenges posed by each assignment, you will need to be self-reliant and maintain a disciplined approach to time-management and prioritise the most important elements of your workload. Year 3 / Level 6 The first two years of the programme will have provided you with a broad and secure base from which to approach the final year. You will have experienced the process of production and performance from a variety of different perspectives and developed a range of appropriate skills. You will be experienced in working to deadlines, working effectively within resource constraints and have met the exacting demands of working productively within the collaborative processes of theatre-making. Although you will have studied a specific discipline, you will have a clear understanding and appreciation of the other disciplines that contribute to the making of performance and how each of these disciplines informs the others. By the end of Year Three, you will have developed an understanding of the complexities of your discipline, and done some work at the forefront of current practice. Through this, you will be able to analyse and evaluate what techniques or strategies to apply in a wide range of production or performance contexts. REGULATIONS FOR ASSESSMENT Full assessment regulations are published for students. This is a summary only. You must pass every unit to achieve the credit required for the BA with Honours. A percentage mark or a pass/fail grade is given for each unit. The pass mark for each unit is 40%. A Pass grade is equivalent to 40%. Unless otherwise stated, you must pass each separate element of assessment in the unit in order to pass the unit as a whole. The value of each separate task in the assessment of the unit is listed in the unit outline. If you fail a unit, you may be reassessed once. For that reassessment, the maximum mark given is 40%. If you fail the same assessment a second time you will normally fail the programme. All assessment is conducted in accordance with the procedures and regulations described in School’s Handbook of Academic Regulations, which is available for
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consultation, and in accordance with criteria which are published in the unit outlines and programme handbook, which you are given at the beginning of a unit and programme. • To qualify for Cert HE, 120 credits at Level One must be reached (at pass level) • To qualify for Dip HE, a further 120 credits at Level Two must be reached (at pass level, minimum) • To qualify for BA (Hons), a further 120 credits at Level Three must be reached (at pass level, minimum). Progression: Students must achieve 120 credits to progress from one level (year) to the next. Breakdown of assessment: • All Level 4 (first year) units are assessed as Pass/Fail • 60 credits from level 5 (second year) will contribute 25% to your overall degree mark • 120 credits at level 6 (final year) will contribute 75% to your overall degree mark. Final awards are based on the overall degree mark and are as follows: • 1st class – 70-100%; • 2.1 (Upper second) – 60-69%; • (Lower second) – 50-59%; • 3rd – 40-49%. 12 The Examination Board meets once a year in July. External Examiners are appointed from the academic community in the role of a moderator to review a sample of all percentage-based units and to attend the Examination Boards. SUPPORT FOR YOUR LEARNING • Inductions to academic learning and practical skills • Levels of contact with tutors / visiting professionals as appropriate to the subject • Extensive e-mail bulletins from the staff team • Detailed unit outlines with clear assessment criteria • Excellent learning facilities e.g. video editing suites, sound studio, state-of-the-art • Theatre and performance spaces • Extensive Production support (technical, craft, wardrobe) • Induction to the School and the programme • Provision of virtual learning environment and programme related information • Academic and progress supervision by Personal Academic Tutor • Provision of sessions regarding career development
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• National Union of Students at Central • Access to full range of library and IT resources • Access to Student Advice Service • Academic and progress supervision tutorials • Learning Centre (including Learning Skills, specialist Dyslexia and Disability support) • Access to Senate House Library (University of London) • Library and computer inductions • Access to costume hire and props store – i.e. sign up surgery times - Notes of academic tutorials should be made. Unless stated otherwise, these will be drawn up by the student and e-mailed to the tutor who will also store them. - E-mail or telephone ‘tutorials’ are included as part of allocated tutorial time. - Tutor feedback on draft essays will comprise broad comments on areas for improvement e.g. that the argument is not sustained or does not unfold fluently; an overall comment about technical errors such as referencing. Specific examples of kinds of improvement may be made by using a ‘modelling’ example.
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ANALYSIS OF CURRICULA My survey approached twenty eight schools in North America, Europe, United Kingdom, Asia and Australia. Of these fifteen responded with no one identifying as Asian, so I’m limiting my survey of curricula to the four respondent groups. CalArts - Los Angeles USA Offers a four-year Bachelor of Fine Arts in Technical Direction104 and other technical disciplines. The first year is a foundation year in which all disciplines study métier subjects and can choose a number of electives that may inform their own practice. From here the various disciplines diverge studying a suite of métier subjects and electives over three years. Although CalArts doesn’t include instruction creative thinking within the course, the foundation year does include a broad range of contextual subjects along with a wide range of skill-based learning. In an environment like Australia where students are increasingly arriving straight from high school the foundation year is a great opportunity for cohorts to gain base level insights into the theatrical world and develop a language with fellow students from different disciplines along with experiencing two in-house
104 See appendix Curricula survey institutions CAL ARTS
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productions. The students also have the opportunity to study subjects outside the theatrical context, increasing the potential for divergent thinking. RADA - London UK Offers a two-year FdA Technical Theatre and Stage Management105 which can be followed by a one year BA Hons. First year of the foundation degree is a broad and comprehensive survey of all aspects of technical theatre and in the second year you are allowed to specialise in a particular discipline. As the prospectus states ‘your training will be almost entirely vocational and practical.’ The BA Hons is a ‘fully vocational and practically based course of study, concentrating on production work in your chosen discipline and industry internships. History of theatre is the only contextual subject offered as part of the foundation course. CARNEGIE MELLON - Pittsburgh USA Similar to CalArts Carnegie Mellon offers a four-year degree with the first year being a broad-based foundation year in métier skills. The following three years include non- drama and directed electives which will broaden the student’s world, enhancing their ability to think globally.106 Carnegie Mellon has two other programs that engage with creative thought.
‘OSWALD, A course designed to build creative thinking, storytelling and collaboration skills and prepare students for the unexpected. Meeting with a team of Design and PTM faculty five days a week for eight weeks students are tasked with tackling problems in innovative, creative, and unique ways. Specific course content changes every year; the course catalog says “A course sophomore DP’s must take. Bring tools.” (BFA students)’ And ‘PLAYGROUND, For one week of the year all School of Drama classes are cancelled and students have the opportunity to produce performance pieces completely on their own. Any student may fill any type of role, all casting and staging decisions are at the discretion of the student producers. At the conclusion of the week all pieces are presented festival style in a 72hour period. Past projects have included musicals, plays, sound & light shows, art installations-imagination (and no budget) are the only constraints (BFA and MFA students). Both these programs together with the opportunity to broaden one’s world through contextual and non-drama electives are an extremely positive move toward enhancing creative practice. QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY - Brisbane Australia QUT Offers three-year BFA’s in technical theatre which follow the pattern of base level métier skills with junior roles in school productions followed by more advanced classes
105 See appendix Curricula survey institutions, RADA 106 See appendix Curricula survey institutions, Carnegie Mellon
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and positions and finally leading positions within the school productions in conjunction with industry work placements.107 The course also offers electives (after completion of minimum credit points in métier subjects) to broaden the students creative base knowledge as we’ve seen in other university-based courses, however all these electives are vocational in essence and don’t deal with creative practice per se. Again, the three-year BFA and the predominance of production work could be seen to limit time available for reflection and analysis and find the student ‘just wanting to get it done’. I’ve been pointed to a number of subjects in the focus group to consider as part of this survey, KRB 120, 121, 220, 221 and 217. All these subjects are vocational in essence and none mention creativity in their learning outcomes however KRB 217 does state ‘This unit challenges students to think beyond their established production processes and examine and explore their own contribution to the creative process.’ So, we see the idea of embedded references to creativity being present but no direct investigation into personal creative practice. Also, from the focus group we hear, ‘We did a whole course restructure and curriculum re-write two years ago with one of the core agendas being to place creativity at the centre of our production training. We encourage all our students to view their practice (be they stage managers or technicians or designers) as creative. We’ve employed the term Production Arts to encompass the broad range of disciplines we teach.’108 While altering perceptions by changing nomenclature may have some effect, I think there’s room here for more focused instruction. ROYAL CENTRAL SCHOOL OF SPEECH AND DRAMA - London UK Central offers a three-year BA (Hons) Theatre Practice in which you can specialise after the broad-based foundation year 1. The course is very vocationally focused with a concentration of production work and industry involvement.109 Although the front page of the prospectus states ‘Develop your identity as a performance art maker and producer on a course which fosters independent and collaborative creative practice’. The BA (Hons) PROGRAMME SPECIFICATIONS AND UNITS document, after describing Costume, Properties, Scenic Art, Set Construction, Performance Arts and Puppetry, only mentions the word creative in it’s description of design as a ‘creative discipline’. Each year consists of a small number of units, 3 in year 1 and 4 in year 2 & 3, all of which have broad titles such as Unit 5: Practitioner 2, or Unit 9: Professional Development Task 2. I couldn’t find any mention of engagement with
107 See appendix Curricula survey institutions, QUT 108 See appendix Curricula survey institutions, Queensland University of Technology 109 See appendix Curricula survey institutions, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
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creativity in a contextual or theoretical sense, or of any investigations into historical or philosophical groundings although they must exist. VICTORIAN COLLEGE OF THE ARTS - Melbourne, Australia The VCA offers a three-year BFA in Technical Theatre across a number of disciplines.110 The structure of the courses follow the traditional transition from a first year studying basic métier skills and knowledge alongside production work. Second year follows on with more advanced theoretical concepts and production work with a third year offering more in-school production work accompanied by industry internship and career planning capstone studies. In addition to the métier subjects there one elective per year. These are vocational in nature but offer the student an experience outside the play production heuristic. There is one elective ‘Games and Playfulness’ which may offer some insights into areas of creativity. THE LIR, NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DRAMATIC ART - Dublin, Ireland The Lir offers a two-year Professional Diploma in Stage Management and Technical Theatre which is based on rotating groups who pass through various technical disciplines. These skill-based studies are supported by theoretical studies in theatre history and CAD drafting. The Lir commented in the focus group conversation: ‘We may differ in that we don’t offer any design roles to undergrads on productions. We do a certain amount of design training in classroom format I guess we deliver a course that believes all backstage work requires an amount of creative thinking but wouldn’t be defined as ‘creative’ training in comparison with director and designer training.’
Although there is an acknowledgement that there is a level of creativity involved in technical theatre, there also is a separation here that there is a difference between the ‘creatives’ (designer & director) and the rest of the creative team. The vocational nature of the course is illustrated by the marking rubrics which reference parallels with professional head of department performance, or professional crew standards. LONDON ACADEMY OF MUSIC & DRAMATIC ART - London, UK
110 See appendix Curricula survey institutions, Victorian College of the Arts
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LAMDA offers a two-year FDA Production & Technical Arts: Stage & Screen with an optional specialised BA (Hons) Production and Technical Arts.111 Similar to Lir, Central and RADA the first year is a wide-ranging suite of métier subjects with a vocational focus. The second year continues with offers of senior roles within the in-house productions accompanied by the possibility of taking place in transfers of productions to regional theatres and some international destinations. Second year students also spend twelve weeks doing industry internships. Students may also take part in film and radio projects shot, recorded and edited by professionals. The optional one-year BA (Hon) includes 10 to 12 weeks of work-based learning, a senior production role on a number of public LAMDA productions and a self-directed project. THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DRAMATIC ART - Sydney, Australia NIDA offers a three-year BFA in a range of technical theatre subjects.112 Students specialise from 1st year onward with the students spending roughly half their time in the production of performances. As with their English counterparts the first year of the courses is focused on base level métier skills and knowledge with the addition of contextual subjects such as ‘introduction to Collaboration’ and ‘Performance and Ideas’ While the Technical Theatre and Stage Management course continues in this vein for the second year, Costume, Properties and Staging have a studio year where the students build and widen their studio practice without taking part in the production program. In their second year all BFA students take part in ‘Self Directed’, an opportunity for students to put their own pieces together. Students form groups which then have approximately 200hrs to plan their presentation for showings on one evening. The subject is assessed but can be of any style and students can work out of discipline. Third year sees the students performing lead roles in two NIDA productions and working on research projects. They also spend a number of weeks on industry secondment programs. Students attend Professional Practice lectures throughout their tenure. ROYAL CONSERVATOIRE OF SCOTLAND, Glasgow, Scotland The RCS offers a three-year degree in five technical theatre disciplines.113 The first year is a broad-based foundation across all five disciplines, scenic art, set carpentry, prop makers, costume makers and set and costume designers, while also taking instruction in your major area of study. At the end of year 1 students can also choose a minor to complement their major.
111 See appendix Curricula survey institutions, LAMDA 112 See appendix Curricula survey institutions, NIDA 113 See appendix Curricula survey institutions, RCS
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Year 2 students consolidate skills and knowledge while taking part in RCS productions as part of a collaborative team. Processes, skills and techniques are gathered as well as the opportunity to observe senior students in managerial positions. In third year each student nominates a career pathway and are given relevant positions in RCS productions. They take part in industry secondments and exhibit in a graduation exposition. From the focus group it was confirmed that there was no discussion of creativity or creative processes in particular, but that creativity was ‘embedded in everything the students did’. RCA does run a ‘Bridge week’ which ‘ironically is extra-curricular and unassessed! Students simply pitch for resources (money, venues, staff support) and then produce their own work. The key thing is that there doesn’t have to be a performative outcome – you can simply use the resource to experiment with equipment or explore ideas in a workshop setting’114. This is a positive step in terms of engendering creativity and motivation in a theatre school, it goes some way to engendering an environment where intrinsic motivation is fostered, where different voices are allowed to be heard.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS Barry Conway – LIR – Dublin - Ireland Conversation with Barry Conway, Director of Technical Training The LIR National Academy of Dramatic Art at Trinity College 03/10/2018 – 19:19Hrs Nicholas Day Thanks for coming back to this again. I've got two versions of recording going on at the moment, so I'm recording audio twice just in case. Barry Conway: Um, excellent. Nicholas Day: So as per our last conversation, if you remember the preamble about how I was thinking about the culture here whereby the writers, designers, directors are all called creatives and everybody else are called technicians and my feelings within an educational institution that it was a bit divisive and maybe gave the wrong idea of where students
114 Ros Maddison, RADA, Educational Institutions Focus group
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sat within a creative collaborative environment. So yeah, I think my first question was to ask you your thoughts on that, and how you think technicians engage with creativity both within an educational institution and within a professional world. Barry Conway: 03:27 Sure. Well, I guess I would agree that the term creative is somewhat overused and possibly misused because to call the director and the design team, the creative team seems to eliminate anybody else in that process where of course actors are inputting and with the director in terms of how a piece is created, and indeed the technicians and stage managers they're inputting creatively, in terms of how set is delivered, how a lighting design is put together. So, I think that it is misleading, and I think the designer directs the creativity and the directors direct the creativity, but I think it's fair to say the actual creative input is a much broader, a much broader input. And I think technicians do have a creative input and that needs to be acknowledged and a language about acknowledging that is something that we were looking for now to instil within the technicians that you are being creative in terms of finding solutions, be it how to build, set, how to paint a set, how to find solutions to lighting design issues that doesn't take away from what the designer is doing, doesn't impinge upon the designers remit, but is creative in its own right. I think to instil the idea that, that you're just doing a box ticking job completely undermines the process that technicians provide when they're putting together a show. Nicholas Day: 05:03 I guess this is a two part question, what do you feel the key learning outcomes for your students are when they graduate from LIR, and do you think they come out as graduates feeling able to engage in creative conversations even though they may not be in design positions. Do you think they, they feel licensed to enter into those kinds of conversations. Barry Conway: 05:56 Okay, well I'll answer the first part Barry Conway: 05:58 Obviously there's a number of key learning outcomes. One of the ones I feel that's important for our very practice- based protocol which is about 80 percent practice-based 20 percent research or academic based if you like, is that they're ready to work, that they're used to the working environment. They're used to the hours, they're used to the pressure of say the tech and the production weeks so that as they, as they graduate, they are ready to just step into the industry and start working, albeit, presumably at a relatively junior level and with skills that will allow them to very 287
quickly advance or will allow them to advance to a much higher level over the arc of their career. Um, I think that's one of the key learning outcomes as well as the knowledge and the practice in the particular areas that they've been studying, being a combination of, of many skills or be defined by a particular, a particular discipline such as technical or stage management. Barry Conway: 06:55 Um, so I think that's very important for the students coming out. I think when they do come out we're seeing a couple of things, and I've only have what, six years of graduates to take this from, that we're seeing graduates moving very quickly into design roles, particularly when they're getting involved at the fringe festival level, we have a large fringe festival in Dublin, and so a lot of our graduates and indeed our undergraduates are engaged with that. It happens just before term starts. So, we're seeing a lot of them moving into design, by design or by the nature of the projects they're working on. And I'd like to think that they are in a position to engage with the creatives. And part of the process that we have by bringing in professionals to run the process on our final year shows is that they they're learning the beginnings of a language to engage, that starts with getting a brief, answering a brief, finding a prop or sourcing one, you know, having questions about how the set is constructed and I would hope that would lead them between that and a lot of the professional development they do, to have the language skills to engage creatively, but again, you have a higher focus on it, so it's something that from this interview I'm taking on board in terms of consideration of going actually do I need to strengthen, reinforce that message within what we're, what we're doing to make sure that that idea of being part of the creative process is embedded at an earlier point. Because sometimes it's potentially being skipped over as taken as assumed and clearly from your research, that it shouldn't be assumed that people understand they're part of the creative process as a technician. Nicholas Day: 08:25 The next question was about whether creativity is dealt with as a separate topic or subject within your course structure or whether as a lot of institutions do, they, they think that creativity is just embedded in everything everybody does. So therefore, it's kind of an osmotic process. So, within your course is it either dealt with it all in an explicit kind of way or do you just talk about it as an element of the general practice. Some people will come into a course kind of thinking, ‘I am a creative soul’. Other people think, well, no, I'm not and that's why I chose to be a technician, I chose to be a technician because I don't see myself as a creative. I I want to bounce off designers. However, there's the notion that if you work in the arts, you have to, to some extent where the artists badge to a degree and be willing to step into those kinds of conversations
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when they arrive. So yes, just how is that sort of dealt with within your institution. Barry Conway: 10:55 I mean we have a module in the second year which is a design modules where they have a module in set design and costume design. They do a module in lighting design. They do a module in sound design. They do cover the design element and it is a single module, so it's designed more as an opening of a window rather than a full training process towards being a designer. But that doesn't answer necessarily the kind of awakening, the awareness of technicians, as part of a creative process and so they are by default creative in themselves. I think that's something that we address more in professional development sessions where we talk, we'll have one or two members of staff talk with each year group and a lot of that is focused around kind of general conversations around how the production process works, particularly looking at kind of the pinch points in the stress points and, where they are, why they are, how the best way to manage them is, how to differentiate between a situation that's under a lot of pressure and a situation that's been driven by somebody who's being inappropriate, which again in itself is a question that is a conversation you need to work through progressively and carefully. So within that I don't think we currently address students as creatives in a very direct and purposeful way. And it's something that's coming out of this interview and the previous chat that we had. I'm thinking more of I'm looking at as a thing that we should be looking to embed more. Barry Conway: 12:36 I think if we are to do it, it would be embedding it throughout the process as opposed to having its own module. Because as you highlight, you don't want somebody who feels they're in a comfortable place because they're actually accessing their creativity. They don't feel that they are, so they feel like, well ‘I'm a technician and something that gives me cable problems and power problems and how to rig a light problems and I fix those, I'm not a creative’. I think try and balance of how you use them in a position to say, oh no, you have to be creative. You can put a student in an unfortunate situation as opposed to an ongoing conversation that's embedded throughout each element of the process going, well actually you are doing creative input at all stages along the way. You just might not be aware of it when you go back and say, well, maybe we can't rig the light here, but if this is the effect you're looking for, have you thought about maybe putting it over here or if this is what you're trying to do, maybe we could approach it this way, which would be quicker and more achievable or more affordable or whatever. Um, and I think that would possibly be the first fruit I would look at in terms of trying to embed the notion that it's a collaboration of creative people that create an art process and
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it's directed by key individuals because it needs to have a focus to stick to but obviously everybody involved is contributing to that creative collaboration. So again, it’s about managing the language, so you should be careful about the message that you are delivering. You don't want a technician thinking they're supposed to argue with every lighting designer they work with, that they understand it is a layered process where they're supporting a design process with their creative input. So, it's one I'm going to have to think and to really find a good solution and I think it will be incremental steps and we're in kind of embedding it throughout the course, but maybe highlighting it via the staff first and foremost that this is something that we should be considering. Nicholas Day: 14:43 I have a point here about curriculum design, whether within discussions on pedagogy or project design, whether you talk about the notion that if people are aware of different kinds of creative styles or different personality types and how people collaborate on work, that that might be a more fluid interaction, you know. We have a subject called Introduction to Collaboration where we talk about working in teams and conflict resolution etc. Um, I guess I’m asking you to comment on where you were going, whether creativity is discussed in tutorial or as a distinct subject or topic or, or class that might be delivered. Barry Conway: 16:15 You’ve gone one step further than we have. We certainly have and what we call it, professional development area conversations around, you know, the conflict resolution. Do you know how that process works? Um, and we do. I know we, in fact Danny is, has asked to, and it's going to lead a new, a new topic this year and learning strategies and so learning styles because that's what he's studying at the moment, which will be part of that, but we haven't formally addressed as you do in looking at creative archetypes and say, well, you've got creatives that work this way or that way. And it's an interesting. It's an interesting topic. It's something I did to. I need to learn more about myself in terms of how to deliver that to students, but it's definitely something to consider because at the moment we do that in a much more general way as opposed to going, well, this is, you know, these other key archetypes. Barry Conway: 17:05 you're going to come across in your career and these are ways to manage them and so it will be as opposed to what we're doing is going well this can often happen, and you'll find that people react to the pressure of the tech week in different ways. And this is sometimes how they'll and this is how we react and this is why it happened, this is why we react this way and this is how we manage those other things at the appropriate time. So, we're doing a version of that but it's much more about the conflict resolution rather than
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naming it as creative archetypes, which is what I think you're talking about. So, it's something that we don't do yet, but certainly something particularly on the back of your research, I will be looking to consider and think your research will be very informative around what the consensus is amongst academies like ours. Nicholas Day: 17:55 Sure. Um, well across the schools we're, we're very similar. Think you follow the RADA structure and then the Americans have got the foundation year and then three year BFA and then we have a three year BFA and then a possible masters at the end of that for some courses, but in all of them, there's a structure whereby there's learning skills than production, more advanced skills than production, more advanced skills and then production and people sort of taking up, stepping up from, you know, assistance to like lead hands or whatever to supervisors to hire higher positions up the chain towards graduation. So that was sort of fairly kind of common, just kind of dispersed differently over the years I guess. Um, but it was kind of agreed amongst all of them that within the play production process there was very little time for reflection and analysis of what was going on before you kind of then kind of went into another stream, whether that kind of back into kind of a school's learning or back into another production stream or so on. Nicholas Day: 19:22 Um, what's your feelings about that within your academy and how do you deal with that? Barry Conway: 19:30 What we've done, we've done two things as we initially adopted the RADA model, which is a two year program. And then last year we've changed it into a three-year program. So it's a, it's a, an honors bachelor degree and so that gave us a lot more scope, I took a lot of research out of the RCS and Ross Madison and so we have built in instead of productions in each year, there's a six week block which is allowed for classwork. Um, you know, the more, the more formal training process. And so it's very basic in the first year it's about the health and safety things that don't spend learning first aid or those kinds of early areas. And the second year is it's much more about the design module and then the third year it's much more about specialist skills. Barry Conway: 20:19 And also in the third year we have a research point. So they have another production periods where they're not within a production but they have time to work on the research project B, that practice based or a fully written dissertation. But I would agree that I'm at the end of each six weeks we do, we run a six- week block and I'm sure many others do. At the end of that, students run straight into another role and so the time to reflect on that is somewhat limited. We will in our last week during our shows, we have a number of tutorial sessions where each group will sit down with their direct tutor and talk through things that they learned and 291
we're challenged by on the production and then we meet collectively as a group to have a production discussion where the students get to talk about their experiences and share their experiences and their challenges and their successes with the other students. Barry Conway: 21:08 Which I find is, can be very helpful because you will find absolute gems hidden amongst the students and who can deliver it directly to peers in a way that, that sometimes I think teachers can't. Um, but it is one of the challenges of this style of training is that, you know, by and large you are putting in large productions with production needs. And I don't know, a way of, of not having that constraint without radically reducing the number of productions you do or change into a model that's much more focused on our discipline with a much less interaction with the show. At the moment I'm seeing enough success out of our model in terms of the students being ready to go to work and the students being directly employed to think that I would not risk changing that radically at this point. Nicholas Day: 22:03 Do you think if you had the option to change anything about your course? What would you change, is there anything the way it engages with the rest of the school perhaps that you think could work better? Barry Conway: 22:22 I think it, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's a thirty six week year. So it's already a very long period. I mean, a lot of college courses are 24-week terms. Um, so it's, it's already quite long. What would be nice would be to have break points in between the productions where you do have time to have reflection, have kind of more formalized meetings, whereas a lot of those sit within and around the production period. I'm part of the original restructure was because our class time wasn't literally kind of stuck in and around the productions and it just, it wasn't, it wasn't cohesive in terms of delivering something. It wasn't an irregular timeframe. There was a lot of other work going on, long hours going on. So, I didn't feel the students were really able to really gain the benefit of that. Um, so that's why we've, we've taken the step that we have, if I had free reign, it would possibly be to have an extra week kind of in every production period of where there isn't a production in process where you could have more regular meetings. You can have more structured classes around that. So that would be, that would be a thing that will be nice to have. But obviously logistically I don't see any solutions that present themselves that would allow you to do that kind of without reforming the academy from the ground up. Nicholas Day: 23:48 Do your students have activities where they’re allowed to switch around roles, you know, like say lighting people will become actors or actors become lighting people etc? 292
Barry Conway: 24:11 They do within the course. So, in the first year they all day crew in every department, so they work in every department now and so in their second and their second and third year they have electives. So, it's designed to be both a specific and flexible. So, somebody wants to be a production manager, can do a number of roads to increase knowledge and skills in all areas. Somebody who wants to be a stage manager can focus down on, on stage management. So, it's that said, I usually try and guide the students to do a couple of things because, you know, I think stage managers often end up with costume roles and duties whether they like it or not. So having those skills is useful in terms of employment. I think that lighting technicians are, you know, employers are looking for all techs these days as opposed to specific disciplines. Barry Conway: 24:58 So I think if somebody is very interested in lighting would also encourage them to maybe take a sound role as well. So they have a couple of skills, maybe do something in audio visual so that they have a broader, a broader range of skills in terms of employment. We don't have a crossover with the acting stream and it's something that's been talked about on and off really since we've started. And that's really down to logistics is we haven't found a way to get the two courses to have cross over time where an actors could, you know, try and call it a show or a scene from the show or the technicians can go on stage and you know, figure out what it is to actually have to remember you're blocking and physical position as well as all of you and all of those things. So it would be nice, but at the moment it's not yet available. Nicholas Day: 25:53 Is there anything like a student led project where they devise a work by themselves and get it up and then present it to the school as a totally student devised piece. Barry Conway: 26:11 No not fully student led. We have a couple of projects every year where the students can take over and kind of fully input a show. So, it's the second-year actors do a Shakespeare every year and the second year and technical students get to be the stage manager, get to be the lighting designer. It's a small show. We don't allow it to become too big, but they can put the set together and they have full creative input in that. And then also when they do, um, the film aspect, they have a, a film component to their training and they will fully device and create pieces as the first part of the film process where they're fully engaged with. They act in it, they film it, they edit it, they, you know, they make these little pieces of each other and then they work collaboratively with the foundation course where they shoot a film over a week and then they work with the second year of the actors where they shoot a film over the week where they become more and more into the technical roles as well as the final year of production where they actually shoot two films.
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Barry Conway: 27:08 And at that point is if they're fully in the technical roles being, you know, ads are running the costume department or the department in my film technology, my film lingo isn't, isn't the best. So, we do have some of that, but we don't have a fully realised student piece where the actor is. I gave them free reign to create their own piece. The actors do self-devising, but it's always directed under a, under a member of staff and the devising piece that they do are separate to my course where they create a couple of their own pieces. Nicholas Day: 27:45 When you're in production when do the technical students first get the design brief about the production? Is it the final design presentation or white card presentation or the first concept meetings etc? Barry Conway: 28:21 The first concept, the first concept stuff is managed by staff because obviously there's a body of work to be done to make sure the project's realistic for what we can deliver. So that happens at a good distance out from the production period itself. Yeah. So, so prior to that six weeks, our production manager is talking to directors and designers to figure out the design ambitions to know a yes or no to some of the bigger asks because obviously being an academy and where we've got technical sponsors, occasionally we can do things that would be very expensive in the real world. Like at projection equipment, but because the actual cash budgets are limited, like everyone's, you can't necessarily go and buy a huge amount of custom made props, so there's always a certain amount of negotiation around tailoring our design ambition to the resources that we have, so we will tend to bring the students, we will bring in key students in either a week before the six week process started, two weeks before the six week process starts where they'll sit in on a, on a, a white card, had a near final white card with the designer to go through their initial appraisal of the work load ahead of them, and then on the first day of the process we have a read through and we have a model box presentation and that's where they all become fully engaged at the HOD level. Barry Conway: 29:49 They become fully engaged. The crew don't get fully engaged with the project until they either start to build it or start to rig it. Nicholas Day: 29:58 Right. So, at six weeks have a final design presentation with everybody in the rehearsal room. Barry Conway: 30:08 Yeah, Nicholas Day: 30:08 with the cast Barry Conway: 30:13 The director, designer and they talk through it, but a week before that the head of scenic and the head of set will have seen
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the model box and I've had a meeting with the designers, talk through those elements and there's usually a costume conversation that happens at that point, but usually that evolves over the process. Costumes very rarely come designed and finished before rehearsals start. It's usually more about why it might be going and what they're, what they're looking for. The stage management team will also have been in touch with the director a week or two weeks prior to her rehearsal starting so that they can get the room ready, get scripts ready, all those kinds of things so that they're ready to go for the first day of rehearsals. Okay. Nicholas Day: 30:55 Within the school where does technical fit within the structure of the school, as opposed to acting and the other disciplines? Barry Conway: 31:23 It’s an interesting one? Nicholas Day: 31:27 I would say just within that sort of power structure of the kind of building, like where does it kind of sitting is it. Barry Conway: 31:35 I think we do fairly well. I mean I, I've, I've seen other institutions where they have a dominance in terms of their brand in the world being very well known for acting and I feel even sort of in terms of their own promotion of themselves, the technical, the technical course plays fairly clear second fiddle. And because we were designed kind of from scratch based on the model and because our director, the director of the academy was coming from, uh, from producing festival work. I feel much better parity around the acting and the technical course and indeed the master's courses and much clearer, you know, they're not, it's not a school that has an acting course that uses a technical course just Barry Conway: 32:29 so they can make things happen in the LIR the relevance and importance in technical course that set the course is designed around x number of shows and the SMCT course has to deliver that number of shows. And because that is, I'm part of the original design process to change that for whatever reason is, it's not impossible, but it's certainly, it's certainly not at my whim to go, oh, well let's cut to show cause there's, you know, I'd rather have some more time to train and those kinds of conversations are much slower to change, but it is something that actually we actively acknowledge at points when we do reviews in terms of what we were best designing the course. Um, and interestingly, the course itself, when it was originally designed, was designed around the first year when we kind of put things together and assessed it. And that's a very poor point to assess the course because at that point we had no final year technicians then we got capacity to do side projects, we were bringing in these shows, so they could work on these shows.
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Barry Conway: 33:50 we had casuals in and they understand their role that they've been in a couple of years and developing their departments. I'm actually feeling the pressure is moving outwards. We were saying, we’ve lots to do with my students and I'd much rather have more time to work with my students and less time maybe to support the project. So, we have had to do a process where we cut back on a lot of the internal projects, because what we thought we had in year one isn't what we have in year three, four, five, six, and we're now into seven. Barry Conway: 34:20 So yeah. There are elements of trying to change that and to answer the first point, I think the technicians are listening to a lot of work and in fact all of the key investments over the last couple of years has been in the technical department to bring it up to the speed it needs to be because obviously when you're at a start-up, you've, you've more ambition than you have resources, which is I guess, the way of the world. Um, so I don't feel we've been short- changed and I don't feel we're overly relegated to saying, oh, it's just technicians. This is really an acting school. I think we're very lucky in the fact that it was set up as a, an academy that delivers writers, directors, designers, actors, and technicians and foundation students. And they're all given a good credibility within the course. We don't, but, you know, ask me again 75 years and we'll see where it stands. Nicholas Day: 35:12 Okay. Well, I've sort of gotten to the end and my list Barry. Um, so thanks for coming back online and helping me out with that. Again, I'm old trans, get this transcribed. It's been a little bit choppy with the scribe. So maybe if there's some bits and pieces of my views are filling, if I'm using bits of text filled in but all send it back to you and you can have a look at it and just to sort of make sure that there's nothing in there that you don't really mean or was it I'll put in your mouth and um, and I'll ask, you know, whether you mind if I quote you. So, at that point, yeah, I'll kind of get through that in the next few days.
Barry Conway: 35:59 Well, I appreciate being a part of this. I think it's a very interesting thing that you're doing. So best of luck with it. I'm looking forward to hearing more about it as you, as you progress towards your final, your final paper. Nicholas Day: 36:11 It’ll hopefully be March next year. So I can shoot you some of the material I've been reading if you're interested. Barry Conway: 36:28 I'm very curious to hear after you and Danny talk, his take on it as well. Well, fantastic. Well I'll look forward to talk to them tonight or tomorrow night. Thanks for listening. It's a pleasure. Thanks so much. Bye. Bye now.
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Carly O’Neil- QUT – Brisbane - Australia Interview with - Carly O'Neill MA (Research) QUT, BA (Technical Production Management) QUT Study Area Coordinator (Acting and Technical Production) Lecturer in Stage Management - BFA (Technical Production) School of Creative Practice | Creative Industries Faculty | Queensland University of Technology 07/09/2018 – 16:02Hrs Nicholas Day: 00:03 I know I've got this fancy little bit of software that seems to be a little bit haphazard. I spoke to a chap in Dublin for an hour the other day and hung up and it hadn't recorded a thing, but I've also got a little zoom recorder here as a backup. So, I’ll have that going as well. The good thing about the, um, the software based one is it turns it into words later on for you and kind of saves you having to kind of transcribe everything. I paid somebody to transcribe my interviews, so, but it's still not saying it is recording. Carly O’Neil 00:41 Come on. Nicholas Day: 00:45 Why aren't you recording? Carly O’Neil 00:57 Uh, Nicholas Day: 01:00 Maybe I'll just go with the, with the zoom recorder version. Going to transcribe it. Okay. Here we go. So I thought I’d just give a little bit of background, I did that survey monkey and after that I got quite a bit of good data in that, but it was all, you know, on a yes, no and 60 percent this and 30 percent basis that and it was always my intention to then go back and do some sort of focus group. Some chats to flesh out some of those notions a bit more. I had the idea of doing a paper was sitting around thinking about the notion where the writers, the designers and the directors are referred to as the creatives. And then there's the technicians which infers that, maybe the technicians aren't creative and I think that within a professional sense that's O.K. because everybody's quite comfortable in their own practice and what they do. But when that's used within a theatre school, I was thinking it might be a bit divisionary and maybe give the technicians the wrong idea of where they sit within the whole creative ensemble. I then started to think more on that, about how we will use the word creative a lot. I know a lot of the course material that NIDA produces uses the word creative all the time. Nicholas Day: 02:48 ‘hot beds of creativity’ and ‘creative excellence’ that sort of thing, but there's never really any discussion about what exactly creativity is or what kind of creative types people can be and how
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they might interact. You know, we do subjects here like, introduction to collaboration that are largely about conflict resolution and how to get on with people within a collaborative context but not so much about learning types and how that intersects with creativity and how knowledge of what your creative self is, whether you’re a ‘connector’ person or a ‘knowledge’ kind of person, how you fit into kind of a creative group and how that knowledge can be quite a benefit when going into those situations and making your offerings. So, given all that balloon of ideas, the first question I've got written down here is that in the survey all institutions agreed that creativity is an essential attribute to technicians. I just wondered if you could comment on that and, and how you think theatre technicians engaged with creativity in a professional context and an educational one. Carly O’Neil 04:53 Okay. Well, in terms of creativity, I mean creativity in our program very much sits at the heart of our program. It's right at the heart of our curriculum and our philosophy here because, and that was one thing when I came to teach here, I was very much after your own heart in terms of, I absolutely believe that the work of technicians and stage managers is inherently creative and often not acknowledged as such. So, I guess, we talk to our students about technology as a tool for the technician, a creative tool. So, technology is to the technician what the body is to the dance or the voices to the, you know, the actor or the instrument is to the music, the musician, so that it's not technology for technology's sake. It's a creative tool that they are skilled in and educated in, and it's the way that they express their creativity. So, does that answer that question? Nicholas Day: 06:04 Yes, do you think the students when they leave the school and entering into the workplace, do you think that notion is really embodied in them, that they feel creative souls? Carly O’Neil 06:15 It’s like that now, it wasn’t like that when I studied, definitely not. And when I first came to teach here, it was still very much the, you know, the technical production students were the facilitators of other people's creativity rather than, you know, collaborators or, or contributors themselves. But that's, that changed very much. I mean we wrote a whole new curriculum in 2015 that was about embodying creativity in our students and then starting to see themselves as creative beings and as artists. Yep. So we use the term here with our students, we call them production artists and that's very, we, we talk to them about that from day one and it just sort of feeds into everything that we, that we do here with them and everything that we say to them. Nicholas Day: 07:10 Okay. So, I imagine that, then creativity is a key learning outcome. 298
Carly O’Neil 07:17 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nicholas Day: 07:18 Where would you say were the bulk of your applicants come from, are they school leavers or like a second degree or. Carly O’Neil 07:28 Um, we've had a bit of a shift in our profile in the last couple of years. So traditionally, like other programs of this nature, we've always been, interview-based and portfolio based, but two years ago the powers that be decided to do away with that. And so now we admit students through ATAR rankings, like other universities. So what we've seen is a real shift in people. Students coming here that already have another degree so that might have a degree in creative writing or in drama or graphic design, that sort of thing. And so traditionally the, we used to get a lot of school leavers and now we've seen this real shift into students that have had done other degrees and obviously look around and decide that they want to work in theatre or they want to work in entertainment, but they actually aren't, don't have skills as such, so they come to us to get a job basically, to put it bluntly. Nicholas Day: 08:42 NIDA is the other way around really, we used to get a lot of second degree but now it’s people coming straight out of school and I think that's mainly because you people can't finance their second degree now as they could in the past. So is creativity dealt with as a discrete subject or a module within your course? Carly O’Neil 09:09 What happened was, so in creative industries, so that's the faculty that we sit in. Then there's three schools within the creative industries faculty. There's a school of design, the School of communication and the school of creative practice and we sit in the school of creative practice. So we're here with acting, drama, dance, music, creative writing, visual art. Carly O’Neil 09:38 there's three I'm forgetting, can't remember. So all of these disciplines are in the School of Creative Practice and in their first year, it's only actually started this year, because all of the different fine arts degrees within the school of Creative Practice all had different degrees structures, there was a note, an edict came down that they had to be a common structure written across all the BFA’s and one of the things that was part of that rewrite was the introduction of two core units in first semester of first year and second semester. First year that all of the creative practice students take together, that explicitly addresses the idea of creativity and creative practice, the first one is actually called ‘understanding creative practice’ and the second one, I don't know, I'm happy to say I can send you those. Nicholas Day: 10:45 In your school within the university, are you, able to tap into the university for some of that content if you like? Or is this all developed within the performing arts?
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Carly O’Neil 11:01 Oh, it's all developed within the school. Nicholas Day: 11:02 So, still on that thing about how people engage with creativity, you know, a brief in my experience can range from a director and a designer just telling you what they want you to to their stage, to an invitation to engage in a totally collaborative experience. You might kind of run into those communal European companies where everybody does everything and so they all live and sleep together. So, there's quite a wide range of that might mean, in the way people get into those kinds of creative collaborations. Do you feel that when your students graduate, that be totally okay working with those kind of groups, even those from non-design disciplines. Nicholas Day: 12:16 are your graduating students prepared to respond to briefs around creative development even if they're in technical roles, say even people who were there as a production electrician or something that still feel empowered to go, oh, you know, I've got this great idea. Carly O’Neil 12:37 Yeah, I think so. I mean, our students understand that that's not always appropriate in particular environments, you know, moving into traditional environments and that sort of thing that, you know, it's not always appropriate sort of sit there as a stage manager in the rehearsal room and have an opinion on everything. That's what the directors there for, but I'd say definitely that they feel empowered to offer creative solutions and where appropriate that they can contribute ideas and discussions. We talked to our students about, having to earn their seat at the table and you know, if they want a seat at the table, they need to earn it. So they need to be creatively equipped. They need to be intellectually equipped. They need to understand the big ideas around theatre making and be able to contribute to the conversations and then that's how they get invited to have a seat at the table. So, something else I was going to say about that too, we talked to them about creative problem solving and, you know, and that's a way that you can contribute your creativity. I'm a really big believer in that we have the students have to feel like they're collaborators and that they are creative beings in order to have any sort of longevity in the industry , and so that's really important to me because my own training was very much about know the point of entry, you know, we were trying to be a technician or a stage manager and we were trained to be a servant to the work rather than a contributor to the work and to, you know, be be seen and not heard and do our job and all of that sort of thing. And then I sort of saw my professional colleagues, you know, 10, 15 years into their careers that just didn't know, didn't know how to evolve that, didn't, that weren't rewarded any more. They weren't, I guess, you know, because they just felt, I don't
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know, like a facilitator rather than a contributor. So, I think that if we can, and also, I mean I'd like to see the, the professional culture changed to where the traditional creatives acknowledged and understands the creative contribution of the technical and production teams, and I think that sort of starts that starts at an educational level. So, we, we work a lot with the other disciplines with the dance disciplines and the acting disciplines and the drama disciplines to really embed that as a, as a way of working. I don't know, I guess my pie in the sky dream is that that cultural change will then feed out into industry as the future choreographers in the future. Actors and directors and designers. And you know, that if, during their education they are taught to view their production people as collaborative as their collaborators, they're creative collaborators that they'll then take that out into the industry. So that's a long time. Nicholas Day: 15:55 Well maybe not in the sense, that the period of the big subsidized companies is coming to a possible end, and it's the smaller fringe groups that have more of that culture in them. So as you say for a sustainable career, the ability to kind of get out there and sell yourself as a theatre artist as opposed to merely a technical person is going to be an important thing. Carly O’Neil 16:41 My least favorite word is the word techie. And I won't let the students use it. They're not allowed to use it, they're not allowed to diminish themselves by ‘Oh, we're just the techies’ where the kids in black playing with the lights. And I don't let other people use it. I don't let other staff use it in front of me. I'm like, oh, ‘we'll just get the techies to do that’. So that's sort of one word that is moved out of our vernacular. Nicholas Day: 17:17 Is ‘the creatives” still in the vernacular up there. Carly O’Neil 17:23 Yeah. But I try not to say that on the programs and that sort of thing, we don't talk about, you know, the creative team and the production team or the technical team. We more talk about the company. So yeah, I mean baby steps, Nicholas Day: 17:45 I think you might've already answered this but I’ve just got a note here about, you know, when you sit down and discuss pedagogy and curriculum development with your colleagues, does, learning types and creative personalities figuring those conversations Carly O’Neil 18:09 you mean as that relates to students? Nicholas Day: 18:12 Yeah, seeing you developed these modules or subjects around creative thinking techniques or tools, it must have been at some stage or another considered.
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Nicholas Day: 18:35 So you’re a three year and then there’s the English two year and one Hons. year and the American four year courses. But they're all similar in the sense that, there's periods of skill development and then there's production work and then there’s more skills and then production work and then people build up in the levels and become head of department. How do you feel about that kind of structure. I mean I agree with you, it's really important for for students to work within environments where they’re mirroring industry as closely as we can, in that we are vocational courses. We teach people how to kind of go out there and do it. However it was also so it came up in that survey that most people thought that within the kind of time addressing area of the production that there may not be adequate time for reflection and incubation of ideas. So I was just wondering if in your own perfect world, how do you feel about that and what would you change if you had the ability to change. Carly O’Neil 20:08 I totally agree with that and don't get me wrong, like I agree, absolutely agree that theatre has to have a hierarchy reporting line. You know, I've seen too many processes where, you know, everyone does everything, and everybody gets a prize and it's all very lovely as you referred to as communal sort of European theatre companies, but, you know, look when you. Yeah, and you see it just fall in on itself where there's no accountability. I guess I if I could change anything, I would just say that there would be based on my own professional experience, it would be that there was just a better embedded culture in our industry that was one of acknowledgement and respect. Carly O’Neil 20:57 I don't know if that makes sense, if that’s the answer to your question, but In my ideal world we would still have our roles and as you said, everyone understands their own practice and what their lane is when we've all just got to work towards getting bloody show or on, there's not always time to sit around a table and Kumbaya and, you know, ‘we'll have our ideas heard’ and nor is it appropriate for some circumstances. Nicholas Day: 21:31 I'm sort of saying incubation and reflection. I'm also thinking of as a student learning. That you're in this tunnel and the pressure is on just to, as you sort of say, get this show on. Your third years are directing your second years and they’re directing the first years and second years, and then there's staff outside that, shoehorning the thing. I know we all have three years to fit in a hell of a lot of learning. What do you think? Carly O’Neil 23:07 Well, we do less than we used to. We've made a decision three years ago to really scale back the production work the students were doing so that we could actually do it in a much more, we could take our time on. And there was a lot previously, it was 302
just, I mean, we run a production program from mid-January through to December. There was no week in the year where we weren't in some form of production and so it was just, it was just crisis management. From January to December, it was just myself and my colleagues just felt like what we did was just walk around putting out fires constantly. So we had an opportunity to get a lot more agency within the university than what the program used to do. I guess it was very much sort of seen as a bit of a, so what I'm looking for,, position of servitude kind of find them, keep coming back to. So I mean we worked really hard at it at a staff level too, to have more of a say, to not be the servant of the acting program and the dance program and just kind of, they dictate to us this is what we're doing and we just kind of have to follow suit. So, we sort of said to them we need to be doing this, we need to be doing less because we need to be able to teach the students more effectively, we need to be able to teach them before we put them into the theatre. I know that's a crazy idea. And then we can actually dedicate staff resources, financial resources, physical resources to really, reflective production processes rather than just letting, you know what I'm saying. Nicholas Day: So, what's the balance. Carly O’Neil They do one a semester, one big show a semester, now they can volunteer to do other shows, but they're not assessed. So, I would say that like the dance program and the acting program is still doing the same number of shows. They're just less well-resourced in terms of our students. So they just sort of had to revise their expectations and their production parameters, which, you know, the world didn't end despite everybody thinking that it would at the time, it was a big thing for us to do because culturally that's not how theatre schools do things. So, they do a lot of other little projects. So, the reason I had to push this meeting back today is I had to go to a showing of our second year students do a unit called, we have a suite of units that we call the scenography minor, and this is the fourth unit in that minor and it's a called, intermediality in the art of technical theatre, I think it's called, and they make a work that's sort of based around technology. So they've done a full bumping process this week. And I just went to the dress rehearsal this afternoon and they've got their opening tonight and they do two shows tomorrow and then they bumped out. And that's kind of kind of it, but it's embedded into that, into that unit. So they make, they make content, but it's, it's a really technology based work. So that idea was talking to you about before with them, our students viewing technology as a creative tool rather than placing the performing artist at the centre of the work and then dressing the work with the technical elements, that philosophically the way that
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we view things is that it's all, it's all embedded and it's all important than it's all, bodies and words and lights and scenery is all part of the story making and no kind of element is more important than the other. I don't think I answered your question. Nicholas Day: 27:32 Do your students, get the opportunity to work outside their discipline at all? We have a thing here that's like a student led productions where they get together and make their own thing and sometimes swap around roles a little bit, do you do anything like that. Carly O’Neil 28:01 This is one that I just went to this afternoon. Some of our students were flexing their, um, their acting abilities that they're performing some with more successful than others, which was quite amusing. Um, but in that unit they are working with. So that's an open unit so any student can enroll in it. It's mostly our students because they have to take that, but other students can take it as an elective. So there's, there's a fashion design student in that unit, there's a visual artists, there's a dance students there’s a couple of interactive and visual design students. So in that context, I do work with, you know, other elements, that's probably the only opportunity where they could have experienced things outside of their own disciplines. Nicholas Day: 28:55 where do you see technical sitting within the other disciplines in your school? I think you've already kind of gone there in that maybe you had a lesser place in the past, but you've re -energized that and now it's up there with on a par with everything else. Carly O’Neil 29:21 well that's, I mean one of the reasons that's been easy for us to do is we've, I mean we have really, really good graduate outcomes. We have the best graduate outcomes of any of the departments as far as employment. We had to market and rebrand ourselves and remarket ourselves and so we waved that flag really, really high. Now in terms of, you know, a KPI, I'm important KPI as far as the university's concerned. Whereas that was sort of not ever, you know, like promoted I guess. So that's one of the, one of the things that we've kind of been able to really reassess ourselves in terms of what we bring to the party is, I mean our courses 30 years old now, I think so we're really sort of starting to see the students that came through in the early days and become really influential in the industry and you know, the ability to kind of claim them as our alumni within the university is you know, allowed us to kind of build it Nicholas Day: 30:27 Has it always been part of the university. Carly O’Neil 30:29 QUT has a bit of a weird history? It was an amalgamation of a number of different technical colleges and TAFE’s. So I don't know what the story was, but there was the Queensland Institute of
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Technology and then they kind of collected the, the teaching school and the technical school. And so in some form or another that production course has existed for 30 years. It was originally a diploma that was sort of sat underneath the TAFE structure. And then QIT, it got turned into a university rather than a technical college. Um, and so then it shifted into the, the degree structure and it used to be part of something called the Academy of the arts, which was probably a bit more like I understand NIDA or the VCA to be in terms of the relationship with the large university Carly O’Neil 31:41 Yeah. So, the relationship was a bit more like that I'd probably say 20 years ago where there was this kind of artistic academy that kind of didn't have to observed any of the rules of the university and just sort of sat within that. And then I think it was probably about maybe 15 years ago, the university swept the academy into the new faculty of creative industries. So, our course is probably much more at the mercy of traditional university systems and structures than say, you know, NIDA or VCA, whether you still have a little bit of separateness from your from your university. Nicholas Day: 32:30 Yeah, well there's a lot of energy put into that, however, you know, I still think that there's lots of, say with something like automation across the road, they have world leading robotics and would be wonderful to be able to access. Is it how much between other faculties of the QUT and the performing arts faculty, is there much kind of cross pollination between the two Carly O’Neil 33:20 There's a, there's a big push within the university for that collaboration to occur, particularly in terms of research outcomes. So like our head of Dance, She's the head of school now, she has a dance background, but she's also a sports psychologist so she does a lot of work with the, the health faculty for example. So there's a lot of collaborations that happen, drama works a lot with the health faculty as well. I'm around sort of applied drama and, different things like that. Carly O’Neil 34:09 I guess there are, I just can't think of any at the moment, but at least, I mean it's a big that sort of trans-disciplinary practices are really, it's a really big driver from the university to find those connections and build those relationships where possible with other, um, with other disciplines. Because, I mean, it's QUT, it has technology in its name. So, you know, it was just rung the bell when you were talking about robotics, like we'd love a robotic lab, but like we all love a bloody robot. It's always about the robots. We do a big, a big festival here every year called robotronica, which has actually driven by the STEM faculty. So, but we kind of are involved in that as well, but more in the delivery end.
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Nicholas Day: 35:06 when they become a STEAM instead of STEM . Carly O’Neil 35:09 Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'd love to. Nicholas Day: 35:17 Okay, well thanks very much for taking the time out to chat. It looks like I'm going to have to transcribe this, the old fashion way. So what I'll do is I'll send you a copy of the transcript it and I'll probably should have asked you if you mind being quoted at that time. Carly O’Neil 35:50 My pleasure. If there's anything else that you need in terms of if you want it to look it up. Course materials or anything? None of that top secret. Sorry. Nicholas Day: 35:58 Yeah, if you've got. Anything that shows how you actually deliver the course. Yeah, that'd be really useful to me Carly O’Neil 36:11 I can send that over because that's probably better expressed in those unit outlines. Nicholas Day: 36:14 Okay. Nicholas Day: Thanks very much. Have a lovely weekend.
Danny Persee - LIR – Dublin - Ireland Tutor Technical Theatre and Stage Management Danny Persse: 00:00:00 Good, can't see you at the moment, but I'll try and fix that up now. Nicholas Day 00:00:07 How are you? Danny Persse: 00:00:08 Excellent. I'm just going to turn off this other computer it’s distracting me. Great. Great. How are things in Sydney today. Nicholas Day: 00:00:17 A bit wet but otherwise okay, we’re just coming out of winter over here. So, we're doing productions and it’s the end of one of those days where one million people ask you ‘can I just ask you a question? Danny Persse: 00:00:31 I'm from that part of the world myself. I don't know if Danny mentioned it, I'm from Adelaide originally. Nicholas Day: 00:00:39 Really, what Festival Centre or somewhere like that? Danny Persse: 00:00:43 Yeah, and I was down in Melbourne for a while in the Art Centre and yeah, we probably know now a few people in common. I've been over here too, you know, but uh, I get back and forth a bit.
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Nicholas Day: 00:00:54 Well I guess you know Kelvin Allen he would have been one of the first Adelaide people I worked with Danny Persse: 00:01:01 Kelvin, the silver fox from Grote Street and Carmel and Chris Potter, an Adelaide boy originally I think Nicholas Day: 00:01:09 Kevin Sigley, people like that from the Festival, Malcom Lamb
Danny Persse: 00:01:20Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, a bit in common. What are you studying? Are you doing a masters. Nicholas Day: 00:01:36 Yeah, I'm doing a masters, I'm doing an Mphil here Nicholas Day: 00:01:41and um, Danny Persee 00:01:43it was something that I started doing because I'd been in the industry Nicholas Day: 00:01:48 and Nicholas Day: 00:01:50 I started working in education and then, it's so long since I've been in the tertiary education area that I thought it might be good to do something like this, to get myself into that academic mind space and start talking and thinking about those kinds of things. Danny Persse: 00:02:10 I just submitted my master's last week, last Thursday so I’m sure we can find a bit to talk about. Nicholas Day: 00:02:18And so that's been like a part time thing you've been doing. Danny Persse: 00:02:23 I did, I did the degree a few years ago, sort of part time in the evenings and yeah, I did the masters of three years so the first two years were pretty casual, but 20,000 word thesis just had to get in there. Uh, just, just last week. So yeah, that was pretty intense, but I had a bit of time off over the summer. So, I got it over the line I think. Nicholas Day: 00:02:49Yeah, that's my biggest problem, time. Yeah, because you spend so much time in these places and then you get strife off my wife ‘not going to do more work are you’. Danny Persse: 00:03:03that's it. So, I mean, look, I could chat to you a couple of times. I don't mind, have you a bit of an interview you want to get through? Nicholas Day: 00:03:13Yes, So I thought I'll try and do something kind of a practice based. And I started thinking about creativity within our technical area. And then the notion you might be familiar with, certainly here and I’ve found in the UK and elsewhere, there's a culture where the writers, directors and the design
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are referred to as the creatives and everybody else are technicians Danny Persse: 00:04:13 I feel that’s a recent thing myself, you know, but, uh, Danny Persee 00:04:15 which professionally never used to bother me that much because you’d go, ‘you can be created if you like, and we'll just carry on doing what we're doing, but then I was thinking within an educational institution it was a divisive terminology to use and it might give students the wrong idea when they're coming into the institution about where they sit within the creative, collaborative environment that we’re saying it is, and then when I started reading into it, it seemed to be the case that most of the, psychologists who have been investigating creativity and how it works we're of the mind that the more informed you are as to personality types and learning types and how you as a person sit within the arc of general creativity. It makes it easier for you to then move into groups of creative people and find your niche and, and find a way of communicating, so it would enhance your own creative input and that of the entire group. Nicholas Day: 00:06:02 Many researcher’s studies point to the notion that, the more that you know about yourself and your creative self, the more you can place yourself as a creative person, and I know a lot of the people that I deal with in set carpentry and some of the technical areas, stage management, don't see themselves as a creative occupation. They see themselves as a facilitator. They don’t see the situation where, every time they make a material choice or choose a process, which is a common workshop thing to do, you're making an impact on what the eventual outcome of the design is. You're putting your hand in it. Danny Persse: 00:07:45 I don't know if you're aware, but we're in the same job as you want come from that mechanist background, but I'm in a workshop building with students, so I think we're in the same, same area there, so that's good. Sorry, I just didn't know if you're aware of that. Nicholas Day: 00:08:02 I started off as a mech at the Opera House many years ago, so I went to art school to be a painter, started working backstage and then ended up here 30 years later. I've been a mechanist and then done film work and then, you know, prop construction, rigging that sort of stuff. And so, I see people starting into that same career and they've made a decision to work in the arts as a career but they're not willing to wear that art badge if you know what I
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mean. They go, oh no, not me. I'm not an artist. You know, don't look at me when it comes to that kind of stuff, you know, but it's unavoidable. You have to, to some degree and you're going to have to have those conversations and wade into that area. Nicholas Day: 00:08:59 Um, and, it would be the same with the LIR over there that, you have contextual studies that go towards the arming them for those kinds of conversations with lectures on historical context, theatrical styles etc. So, we arm them for that. But, you know, it's getting them to understand that as much as they might fight it, they do have a creative side of their personality and it's just a matter of knowing how to go about expressing it. So, my thesis is hovering around those ideas, and so I guess what I've been asking people in these interviews is, both a students in an education context and a professional context, how you see technicians engage with creativity. Danny Persee 00:10:20 Most definitely, I’ve been doing lot of thinking about it because I've done a lot of writing myself recently on it and in the introduction to my thesis it points out exactly that, what you're saying that directors, designers, the so called creative team, is there, but who is more creative than the people that are actually there and got their hands on the work. And I mean, this week I'm dealing with a designer and I'm constantly would be inputting into the process, so constantly having a creative input. So, I would definitely feel that there's a creative input from technicians on the ground, and probably certainly in the set construction discipline. And my own thesis was all about people who are making different types of knowledge, and I probably would have separated the making disciplines of construction and costume and scenic art away from the technological disciplines, from sound and lighting and that type of thing, but I'm sure those technological disciplines also have that creative input. Nicholas Day: 00:11:31 Um, so absolutely. I mean, it's something that perhaps like you has irked me for a long time since this phrase that are popping up. I don't know if it's because I moved because I used to work in venues a lot and I didn't use to have to deal with this term creative team so much or deal with the rehearsal room or perhaps something designers so much or that kind of process. But then I became aware that this is a, this is a phenomena now that, uh, and you only have to read the programs that, you know, the creative team is listed, and they get all the credit for the design. Whereas a lot of people will have put a lot of work
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into the work, and are overpast in that. And actually, there's a very good article I read on the Internet recently, I’ll send them to you, it was about art technicians. Danny Persee 00:12:33 People who work the artist's world and just like us you know, they're working for artists, the artist has the vision but they create the vision and you know, they main point in this article, was sometimes the artist has no idea how to realise that vision, which is what we do. We realize visions for designers, I think there should be a bit more credit for or the technician and the craftsperson that do that and there needs to be a realization in the industry because it causes a lot of friction I think because in theory the model is the designer delivers a modal box, I’ve got one just over there, as I'm sure you're familiar with, a model box and a plan that is really an instruction manual for the technician’s in practice, and as I'm sure you will know very well, that instruction manual’s got a lot of gaps that have to be filled. Danny Persee 00:13:39 And depending on the designer, every designer works differently. Some of them have an awful lot of gaps that need to be filled in, they nearly want you to design the show for them. And, I think there's a real culture, kick back in the industry, and it's an elitism. I don't know how bad that is in Australia at the minute that you daren’t question the hierarchy, hierarchy was a term used a lot around here, until fairly recently. You don't question this hierarchy or creative decision that all comes down from the director, producer, through the designers. And it's one way traffic. And I think in education terms, that is my area of study, there's a theorist who talks a lot about education being a dialogue, not a monologue. There's a famous quote by W B Yeats two says, education is more the lighting of a fire, than the filling of a bucket, so we just don't pour knowledge into the students, we have a dialogue with them and it's the same thing with the designers, we have a dialogue with them. It's not a monologue where they'd provided a design to you and that's the end of the story, you just make it, it's back and forth. And uh, I think definitely technicians and certainly set builders are part of that creative process. Danny Persse: 00:15:12 Just before we go on and I forget, I want to recommend a couple of books here, which I've just finished with, this one here is Richard Sennett, The Craftsman, It's called and uh, Richard Sennett, his name is nd he kind of looks like the nick looks at craft work through the ages, you know, we need discusses Stradivarius’ workshop and the
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craftsman building things in there and I think thesis was all about knowledge, tacit knowledge and all the knowledge of your hands and learning craft and things like that. So he discusses a lot about that. But I think it will feed into what you're talking about because, you know, we talked about craftsman and crafts people as the pride they have in their work and their creative control or, and, and the knowledge that they possess that knowing inaction, that tacit knowledge, that knowledge that they can't always explain and articulate a but just that ongoing knowledge they have. So I think there'd be, you know, it probably feeds into what you're talking about. Nicholas Day: 00:16:41 It's kind of funny there's, you know, the language, because when I first started working here, I was head of production crafts, so I was looking after a set construction props and costumes, as a team leader and then the three disciplines seperated. So, they all became the distinct disciplines of costumes, properties and set construction. There was maybe the feeling that crafts were a little bit doilies and macramé and that and it was better to call us technologies because technology had more twenty first century ring to it Danny Persee 00:17:48 yeah, this guy, as well, Donald Schon is a kind of more educational theorists.
Danny Persee 00:19:08 He talks a lot about the hierarchy of knowledge, uh, and it talks a lot about technical rationality as opposed to uncertainty and knowing an action and work things out as you go along. A lot of people would like a very technical explanation of what you're doing and how you're doing it, but sometimes that's not so easy to provide and that process is a much more tactile and inductive to create and we can't always explain things. So I think he was very useful to mine and I think my hook into what you're talking about about hierarchies of knowledge and you know, how that sort of tacit knowledge is demeaned or has a lower status or perceived as having a lower status anyway, and that's not a new thing, you know, I mean Richard Sennett discusses that in relation that ancient Greek culture, and you know, it's ongoing, it's also discussed in terms of not just our industry in terms of sort of the medicine, you know, 90 percent of cases that present to a doctor aren’t in the book and it’s up to the doctor to appraise that situation on the individuals involved, not everything is explained in a technical
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instruction manual, I suppose or can be explained in that way, Nicholas Day: 00:21:27 With your students that are leaving, Do you think they perceive themselves as artists? Like the actors or the designers do? Danny Persee 00:21:52 It’s so individual, any minute now our scenic artist may walk through the door, Craig, he's very much from an arts college background, a bit like yourself and the students that are attracted to scenic art and get on with him, we’ve had a couple of them, one of them has gone out and I was working for a sculptor, you know, she's not in the industry at all in our industry, chase going off in a different direction. Although, you know, there's a couple of students there who see them very much as seeing themselves very much as creative. Some of them go on to do a bit of design anyway. I mean, I think that, you know, some of them just go out touring and do the tech mech thing, you know, and probably see themselves as more facilitators. So I think, I think that's really individual. Um, but yeah, I think probably because when I first came over here from Australia, I think there was a lot more respect for the profession in Australia anyway. Then there was here and oh, here, particularly in the staging department, you were just seen as lifters and shifters and it wasn't even considered a profession itself. Certainly what we try to do here with the college, we're raising the bar of the profession and creating a profession, a professional milieu I suppose. Nicholas Day: 00:23:27 and yeah, as part of that, you know, I would encourage the students to think of themselves as a creative force in the production. Now I'm, I don't know what Barry talked to you about, he would probably have different views and I think that's his views are changing over time, but you know, he was at one stage very much of the opinion that the college has a hierarchy with preparing for the wheel well, where the creativity comes from the directors and we facilitate that. I think there's been a major shift in thinking in the college and in the profession in the last couple of years and we've had a couple of, we've had a couple of scandals in the profession or a bit of a little bit along the line of the me too movement, you know, where it was very dominant people and in positions who had bullied and abused and harassed actors, workers in the profession, you know, and I think that's shown a cat among the pigeons in the profession and uh, you know, there was opportunity for a lot more for those who are working in the technical fields, but yeah, the
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way I see it is, oh, I suppose if you really asked me is the way the students see it as I come out. Danny Persee 00:25:33 Well, it's hard to kind of pinpoint that it was, I was thinking, you know, like we, um, look, we're educating these people hopefully from sustainable careers that they could go on and it's been 30 or 40 years or whatever the industry and grow with it and you know, and, and engage and learn and expand their careers in whatever direction I kind of choose to go. So it's that kind of, you know, I guess, um, and they will be people that might go out and attach themselves to a bench and then sort of stay there for the rest of their lives and be quite happy knocking out things made out of wood because that's what they like doing. And it's absolutely fantastic Danny Persse: 00:26:21 Which is a creative process as well, very creative Nicholas Day: 00:26:22 as a tertiary institution, I suppose you're always kind of teaching to the utopian end. You try to gear them up for whatever happens, and it might be that you have a staging person hooks up with an audio-visual person and a performer and put together a festival gig and take it out. And that develops into a company, all these things are possible. As long as the people feel as though they're geared to enter into that kind of scenario. So, I'm wondering if you had any feeling to how licensed people felt in that regard. So, as you said there was this kind of very top down kind of culture that may be turning around and those kinds of relationships might be more possible these days. Danny Persee 00:27:57 There are two women that work closely with Craig, they were very creative, very artistic and worked with me in a construction workshop as well, They have set up their own company. They've actually done puppetry, puppet shows and stuff like that, you know, they are getting funding, like they're not saying any limits on their horizons like some company and do their own thing and it'll have a very much a creative making, building artistic focus on, you know, they're not actors and directors so that they got their focus on their technical side. Uh, but you know, they were there and the producers they're producing show they're producing work. Uh, and yeah, see themselves as having absolutely no limits I would say. So yeah, that's, that's one end of it. There's other guys is other people who have come out. It gets straight onto the internet. And actually some of them have been out to Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane festivals, you know, that teach these days. I fly all over the world, you 313
know, so, you know, I've had graduates come out of here and say, yeah, I'm, I'm working in Adelaide next week, you know, so um, Danny Persee 00:29:15 you know, and, and not feel like they would be on more on the touring mech tech path with the creative input. I mean even at that, you still a part of it though, if you, if you go to a show and you know, if you're a tourist mech, you still have a creative input to create a product on that stage. It's, it's part of what you do. But yeah, less so than those other students who are still want to have created their own company. I think in a way, I mean, I say it to my students all the time. I'm actually the on the manual handling instructor. Yeah. You know, I have a certificate as a manual handling instructor to do that. But I say, you know, in that course, look your work in the arts and everything we do is creative, you know, and even flying, I'd have a big flying background and saying this is a very artistic piece of manual handling equipment. Danny Persee 00:30:14 Actually I'm teaching a flying glass a day and about half an hour. But you know, this is a very it's inherent in the performance in Korea using your test at skills and your knowledge that fly in a piece of drop it on a particular node over the orchestra and you're expected to be inherent in the performance and you actually perform the flying system and what you do. So, uh, you know, we're working in the creative arts. Everything we do is to that creative and, you know, and I don't think there's any way that, you know, you can, you can say no, they're just technician. Uh, they, you know, they're just a machine, a mechanical copier. Um, that's, that's someone who I also read and love. Larve & Wenger. I don't know if you've come across them. Communities of practice, their whole thing is about the apprenticeship model, communities of practice that people will learn in those communities, but they do talk about the type of knowledge and people not being reduced mechanical copiers, is what they thought about? And uh, Danny Persee 00:31:55 again they talk about people who were tailors and midwives and, you know, always research into these little communities and now they have to learn in this community, develop their identity and it's not just learning from a master to apprentice, this is a whole group of people in this community and they have to learn, not just what to do but how to be, and their attitude. One of the phrases they use is people create craft without just being reduced to mechanical copiers as they call it. Because you can't do that,
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you've got to go out and then you've got to have a little bit of artistic flair and you've got to understand the process. Well, I don't think the theatre industry can be replaced by robots, to a certain degree, but people would claim to differ. It depends, on the flying system again, which Danny Persee 00:32:53 I do very well. Uh, but you know, we have automated systems these days and it's a story I use him in flying years ago. We're in Adelaide festival centre and we were doing Australian opera and there was a lot of very slow, graceful flying moves and, we, we're getting them bang on. We were landing cloths on the note of the orchestra and I might have been a ballet actually, but uh, the guys that come down from Sydney, from the Opera House and said this is great. They just can't do it in the past because they have a mix of automated and manual and the automated system just couldn't do what we were doing manually. And it's perfect example of what I just said, robots can't really fully replaced the artistic touch in the industry because it's a creative industry. And, and you know, we've always got to maintain that human element in it. Um, and, and I think that's constant cause I talk with my students a lot and I teach stage craft classes and we talk about automation of modern automation. I like to get into teaching the history of stage back to the ancient Greeks and stuff like that. And I say we use all these techniques still Danny Persee 00:34:24 because we're in this artistic process and you've got to have that human element because all of a sudden the, Danny Persee 00:34:30 well it's cheaper as well and there's a budgetry issue. But also it's more appropriate because the director says, can we go a bit faster or can we go with a slow road? Can we make it spin the other way? Or you know, and if you've invested a whole lot of money and to get this automated machine that only has three speeds to do x amount of things. Whereas with a manual machine you can always pull it little bit faster, a bit slower or so having that human tacit touch is I think essential. And I don't know is from the question, what was the question again? Nicholas Day: 00:35:06 What we're just talking about if people saw themselves as artists when they left the course and whether perhaps we feel it's important to instil that idea in people. Nicholas Day: 00:35:32 Oh, I think it's important. Nicholas Day: 00:35:33 to talk about creativity and to talk about creative types and learning types and how the understanding
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of that can engender that kind of feeling in yourself. Well, yes, as you say, if you're flying on a show, everything that audience sees is part of the show and if you're changing what happens then you're part of that experience, regardless of how small your part was, you know, whether you set the prop correctly or whether you did the change in the blackout correctly or whether the economy is going to alter the experience that audience has through the evening. Nicholas Day: 00:36:28 And then you all, you also led into an area that I have a note about, the notion that you can have a design presentation and sometimes they can kind of be here's the list of things that the director and designer want you to deliver to the stage; and sometimes they can be an open ended invitation to collaborate. They can kind of range from one end of the spectrum to the other, and I guess with students who are graduating, how licensed they feel to enter into those kinds of conversations. Danny Persee 00:38:28 just to come back to your original point, you know what you're asking. I would absolutely fail them. No, I would instill in the students you are absolutely a part of this artistic, creative process. Just as important as anyone else in touch and go out and hold it up high and, and accept that, you know, uh, you know, and maybe some of them take it on. Maybe some of them don't. I think they will do though, you know, they don't come to this course just so they can feel they're there to unload trucks and load counterweights probably, you know, like you went to ad school yourself and I, you know, I, I'd have an artistic background myself and I would've been interested in this industry rather than stacking shelves in the supermarket because it offered some, a little bit more to me. Uh, you know, and yeah, it's very much part of the process, so I think the, to have a creative outlook and a creative bent and you know, a lot of people in the industry and I've known some great people working in the industry and I think they have that even if they don't know what all that, you know, uh, they would have that people like Kelvin at the Maj over there. Nicholas Day: 00:39:49 It's one of those things that I've never met anyone who is in the business because the vocational guidance person at school said, Oh, you should work in the theatre. Danny Persee 00:40:19 Yeah. But that was our generation, So, it's a different world that we're dealing with. We got in the industry and a lot of people in the industry in Ireland, what grabbed off the bar stool saying we need someone for the get out, 316
whether they were the ones that lasted, some of them do last and that sometimes they're not the most appropriate people, you know, uh, for the industry, you know, because they don't have, they don't quite get it, you know, so I think it's better than were channelling people in who have an interest, who chose to go into the industry and that we can create a, an environment which recognizes and supports their creativity as I go through. You know, I think it's quite exciting. You know, we work in the educational field and I imagine you and me both had very well, I know at very different entry to the industry than the kids these days going through this course. Yeah. Nicholas Day: 00:41:48 When you're talking about the design of projects or curriculum, the pedagogy of your course do you discuss creative types, or learning styles or, cross cross- disciplinary needs, you know, Nicholas Day: 00:42:19 from a planning curriculum view. Nicholas Day: 00:42:21 Your course is modelled on RADA so it’s three years with a foundation and a second year where they specialize a bit more. I think that's kind of similar to your structure is there. Danny Persee 00:42:50 Yeah. And they get it. They get a choice to choose which direction they’re happy going in. They certainly start out getting a broad view and then we would sit down and discuss, Danny Persee 00:43:07 we work on a sort of working in practice space every six weeks we have a show and we built, we actually do 11 shows a year sometimes up and sometimes just doing a single show, but sometimes with Devin and up and doing more one on one show up, but every six weeks we'd go through this cycle and at the end of that six week period we'd sit down and have a discussion. We have a discussion first with the students, but then we have our own faculty discussion as such, where we sit down and we go through every student and this is part of the assessment process and saying, Yep, it very good, you know, the have a particular type, um, you know, they're very good creatively and scenic art or technically with lights or whatever. Uh, those specifics and just the general team working skills, you know, ability to set goals and reach goals. Danny Persee 00:44:06 And that's what goes as part of our assessment. But, you know, we would, I mean, I think your original question was, we planned this in advance, we kind of inherited a structure from RADA where we work along
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this, this rotational cycle of six weeks, uh, and you know, there'll be a group of a group of students will be six weeks in lighting, six weeks in construction in six weeks in costume. Um, so we, we don't plan it or direct them or I really don't think there should be directed anyway, uh, particularly in the Burstein broad overview and then they might choose where they're going with their specialisms a little bit more. Uh, and I will be conscious of not trying to choose and push them. I think other people like to grab their favorites to push them gently, encourage people if I think they're good in the construction workshop, but say, look, you did this. Danny Persee 00:45:05 So you give it a go in the future. Um, yeah. So, but we would discuss people's strengths and weaknesses and their creative abilities. Um, sort of retrospectively as we go on through, through these six week cycles and just how they got on. And, you know, it becomes pretty apparent before too long, which students are in and what their strengths might be. In what way they think. I mean, we have some very technically rational students come through as well who are all about the maths and you know, and well they get kind of corralled towards the, technological side of um, you know, the lights and sounds sometimes these people and some of them might be very good in the workshop and there's one guy, brilliant with trigonometry and stuff like that, you know, stuff I'll be running to the internet or the calculator for, you know, we'd be working it out in his head or with a scientific calculator or something. Danny Persee 00:46:06 Um, yeah, but, but I think sometimes people, there's a kind of a stereotype, you know, sometimes there's a bit of stereotyping. They look at people on the surface and say, are there are technological type person? I don't like that kind of streaming myself, you know? Uh, I really think the student should be given every opportunity to explore their own news and what they might like to do and what they might be good at, you know, but everyone tries to grab their favorites I think because with the students, you know, the stage managers and we grabbing the people who are good at it, you know, and they might also be very good at construction and want to have a go at the, you know, and sometimes there's a bit agenda stereo probing on those things, you know, I think the women have preferred the stage manager and there wasn't good at it, you know, and sometimes they push it away from construction, but it can be very good at sort of support everyone is I'd give anyone build and construction. And even if I told them weren't very good at it and say, well come on and then we'll teach, you know, 318
uh, that's what it's about when, you know, it's uh, it's about developing. Students were a bit weak at, you know, in their areas to develop what they want to do. Danny Persee 00:47:27 Barry had done a survey that I sent around a year or so ago now, um, and in that, in that survey, that was quite an acknowledged by pretty much everybody who did it learning production skills, learning production design, there wasn't like a real time for analysis and reflection and kind of looking back on it. And, um, and so I was just wondering whether, you know, you thought that that was kind of the case or, and Danny Persee 00:48:02 this is exactly what my thesis is about. I think we did too many shows here, but in practical hands on, and as much as we don't want a classroom module, I think model tends to be more time for reflecting for a bit of reflective writing. And sometimes students aren't very strong writers when we get a lot of severe dyslexics in, you know, and it's a struggle for them. But we are in university and I think it's something they've developed for their own personal skills, but also because, and beds they're learning, uh, and, and it helps them to make sense of what they've done. Uh, and finding a balance between the practical work, the reflective practice, uh, that's a huge part of my, my thesis and dissertation that I've written and probably Donald Schon. The reflective practitioner talks a lot about that. Um, so yeah, I think reflective practice is very important. Danny Persee 00:49:15 There's one educational theorists to David Cole who really relate to saying about someone having 20 years of experience, you know, but I mean, do they have 20 years experience in just one year, repeated 20 times, you know, if you don't reflect on what you're doing, you're going to end up just doing the same thing year and in year out and you're not really developing your critical thinking and, and, uh, and we'll fall into that trap. I do as well, you know, a project critical thinking and problem solving which you need in this industry because you, everyone's different. Every show's different. What worked on the last show, the last designer director might not work on this show. So, you've got to develop those critical thinking skills. And I don't know, I think that I'm not so sure if it's so bad in Australia, but the industry year has suffered on working harder, is better a weapon, his weapon better and you know, long hours and tough schedules and that's all part of the industry. I know, but, you know, it seems just to beat people over the head with that and say we're going to teach you to work long, hard hours,
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uh, and not think too much about what you're doing as you're doing it just to make these tight deadlines and, and get there. I think there's definitely got to be room for going back and having a look over what we've done and why we've done it, you know? Um, so yeah, a balance between sort of practice based work and reflective work is essential, I think. Nicholas Day: 00:51:00 And we don't have as much here as we like, I don't know what your models like over there. Do you have a lot of classroom work. Danny Persee 00:51:12 We do, we do blocks. We're doing five shows now over the top of one another. So you know, the designers have design Mr and blah blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, so it kind of doing all that and then we'll do like another block of skills by staff and then another block of productions, you know, um, and then, and then I'm not more students staging people, um, will write a production diary, a reflective diary, which nine times out of ten they'd back engineer at the end of the gig and had done nothing during it. So it's kind of a limited value in a way because it's not, they're not looking at things as they come to them and then going, oh, we did this because, you know, it's all kind of, like I said, it's a bit kind of schemed, you know, because it's all kind of from memory Danny Persee 00:52:06 down the track. So, I think, um, oh yeah. I suppose, you know, some of the things. One of the things I'm trying to encourage and my stage a little bit of classroom teaching, redoing, we reflect on the history of stage, but, and I think I mentioned this earlier, you know, and there's, there's actually a lot of material out there when he stepped on looking for it, you know, and getting back into Elizabethan times and how things are done there and how things are done in the Victorian era and you know, all the way back to the ancient Greeks and another book here somewhere. It must be interested in. Danny Persee 00:53:04 This is a really interesting book about magicians and stuff. Jim Steinmeyer. Yeah. Um, although that upside down. No, but that's, that's a good book and that's all about how magicians work to create their tricks. And uh, you know, there's a lot of staging type of principles in there, but he gets, he talks a lot about the attitude they have to develop as well to pull off, pull off those tricks and how it's more about more than just the technical aspect of them, the best, their creative input that they have to put into it as well. So, you've kind of covered, but that's it. That's just the talk of reflection. You were talking about reflection and getting more into this to do a little bit of reading and looking 320
at the books and stuff and that's, that's another type of reflection. You reflect on the history and reflect on other people's work and what other people have written and if they're going to lead their own stuff, I think they've got to do with a bit of reading as well, you know? Danny Persee 00:54:12 Yeah. There's a fault with the journalism in a lot of the time. They're like compositions and what I did on my holidays rather than, you know, point oh here's three examples that I researched of the same city and how different people do it or anything. It, you know, it's a lot on that one. And knowing that has to do because of the time addressing nature of what it is they're doing. They know that the work was this thing where there's an opening night and the public coming in. There's all the pressures, there's all the pressures that everybody in the profession have for an opening night and on top of that they're being assessed and everything and learning the process at the same time. So, it's, yeah, it's a hard space to be. And, and so I guess my next point was, you know, if you had the capacity to change anything, what would you change? And you've kinda gone through, well you'd have less, you'd have less shows and have more time for that kind of activity. Danny Persee 00:55:11 We have a pretty intense season here I think. Yeah. And yeah, I haven't been more balanced along those, which I've seen it the other way, you know, I've seen this isn't the first college I've taught in and it was in another college where we only did one or two shows a year. You know, there was a lot of classroom sessions with people who didn't even have knowledge about the industry. I don't think, um, I don't think that's works daily. You've got to have that balance. But yeah, there's room for us to have a little bit more balanced I think in the direction of reflection. I know, uh, I think that the industry suffers in general from, from that sort of freelance fever. We used to cook in favor of everyone rushing towards a certain goal, uh, which is inherent in what we do, but, but sometimes there's no time to stop and think it's just rested that deadline, finish it, you know, fall down in April and then the next thing isn't start working towards the next deadline and taking the time to debrief and evaluate and in any real formal structured way, you know, so. So I think there's definitely room for that yet Nicholas Day: 00:56:43 Do you do subjects or projects that give the students opportunities to engage in open ended explorations into things where by might not have an end. You know what I
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mean? They might not have an object or a thing as an outcome. It's an opportunity just to explore. Danny Persee 00:57:03 Yeah. Practical building could be, could be. Yeah, Danny Persee 00:57:08 it could, it could be practical building sense in the design of buildings kind of sense, you know? Danny Persee 00:57:16 Yeah. Just introduce you to Craig. Say Hi Craig, how are you? Just here and you might do something to you or had projects where the students are given a bit of creative leeway to come to their realm and then not to a sort of devised and by a designer or someone else. Danny Persee 00:57:44 Oh yeah. Most of the projects that want students to do is, um, what are the things that, because I teach senior, a senior can prop making. So, uh, the two of them have a kind of crossover point where I basically, uh, well, you mean a lead into a particular result or the actual. Danny Persee 00:58:16 They had a project where they can develop their own creative output, not having a predefined object that they're trying to achieve. Danny Persee 00:58:27 Oh yeah. So the last project was last week. Basically it was a three of the second year students were seeing a crew. They were to debrief was the, the creative miniature set for the likes of stop motion. So, any kind of film, but the idea is that you look through, look at it through a lens rather than in the, uh, the location of the, of an auditorium. So, uh, I gave them three different, the three students each have different environments to, uh, to go off on a, devise their own approach to us, gathered their own visual references and basically come up with the result that they're happy with. That was the idea because basically there's only three days and to do it to do this, uh, so it was, uh, the results actually turned out really well and the approaches and kind of guide them here and there with, during a couple of problematic early when they kind of run into a running, when they hit a bump, basically going, kind of get help them over it. But the actual end results was purely have their own, uh, their own design. So in that sense, yeah, that's, that's, that's a, that's an awful lot of what to do actually with them regarding the puppets, a projects as well. And the third year electives, that's all. Danny Persee 01:00:18 Yes. Last year they did a big, a big dissertation on a day to do a presentation and the practice of the practical work and the relevant relevant information there.
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01:00:36 Just jump in there for a second. I'm going to have to go teach a class. Nicholas Day 01:00:39 Okay. We've talked for about an hour. Yeah. So Nicholas Day: 01:00:47 I don't know. Do you want to sit down and chill? Nicholas Day: 01:00:52 Yeah. The other thing that I kind, because we've sort of covered a lot, pretty much all my points. The only other thing that was a I wanted to come, we cover was where, where you feel take a technical side within the hierarchy of the school, like in overall kind of design of how the school works and how it's kind of like, you know, why the importance between acting and uh, all the other disciplines of the school Danny Persee 01:01:23 I've got to run to the class. Nicholas Day: 01:01:25 You got another hour or talk about. Danny Persee 01:01:28 Yeah, that's a whole other discussion I suppose in a controversial one. Technical is just as important as any other department. Uh, again, they speak strongly into my thesis. I think Donald Schon, the reflective practitioner, he talks a lot about the hierarchy of knowledge. Uh, and that one and but it goes back even the tacit knowledge is different. Names is a Greek word there for Nissan, which in, in Greek types of knowledge for nieces and epistemology, which leads onto epistemology I suppose. I think historically that kind of for Nice step knowing is it's diminished. It's the main, um, and that feeds into the industry, into the college. Uh, I think, yeah, there's a, a long term a disrespect. I think the technical well in the theatre in general, although are absolutely certain they're reliant on it. I've done a send you some. I'll send you some links. Danny Persee 01:02:58 This is another one that comes to mind of some really good reading. Uh, but yeah, generally I would consider, and I've thought about a lot that the technical world is, it's a creative collaboration and all of fear and everyone's essential to it. Just as essential as anyone else. Uh, any technical world gets a lot of disrespect a, and there's all sorts of reasons for that. Uh, but I would feel that the technical world is just as important as any other department. So that's why I instill that in the students. But a book, I'll send you an email with a few links. You might be interested in reading what stage are you up to, have you done literature review and that kind of thing?
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Nicholas Day: 01:04:11 I'll be writing it all up over the summer holidays here. So it's been fantastic. Yeah. And maybe we'll talk again. Cheers
Dennis Gill Booth- UNC – Charlotte - USA Interview with Prof. Dennis Gill Booth, Scenic Technology Director of Graduate Studies – 18/10/2018 – 09:00 AEST University of North Carolina. USA
Nicholas Day: 00:12 Hello. Dennis Gill Booth 00:28 Hello Dennis. Hi, Dennis it’s Nick Day here. How are you? Nicholas Day: 00:35 How are you doing, good to connect with you finally? Dennis Gill Booth 00:38 Yeah, Um, are we meant to be talking on the phone or shall I skype, how would you want to do this? Nicholas Day: 00:47 Uh, I'm happy to talk on the phone. Dennis Gill Booth 00:51 We'll keep on going as we are then. So, I should just tell you that I am recording this telephone conversation and what I'll do down the line following that, I'll do a transcription and send that through to you have to check out before I start quoting you. Dennis Gill Booth 01:12 Perfect. Nicholas Day: 01:13 I thought I might start off our conversation by just doing a little bit of contextualising. Initially, sometime ago I was thinking about the instance, here in Australia at least, where writers, directors and design is referred to as the creatives and then there's the technicians, and I don't think this is ever really bothered any colleagues in the industry you know, everybody's been a secure enough in their various practices, but when I started working in an educational environment where students are forming their understanding of their place in our creative collaborative. Dennis Gill Booth: 01:54 Interesting.
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Nicholas Day: 01:56 I thought it was divisionary and one that might give your students a skewed idea of their place in our creative cohort. Then it occurred to me that we use the word creativity at NIDA or all the time, but we never really enter into any discussion about creative types of creative personalities, creative process and the psychology behind creativity. We assume that students learn about creativity through the play production processes. Nicholas Day: 02:41 And it turned out following the survey that you took part in earlier on that this was born out, that it was dealt with that way pretty much across all institutions. So, I just started to write a paper that just talk about the culture of creativity in technical theatre and the way it's taught and if educators even thought it was necessary to investigate theories of creativity and how it might affect the ongoing performance of graduates. So, I’m interested in your industry experience as well as your educational experience and how that shaped your understanding of creativity and technical theatre. The first question I have is educational institutions agreed overwhelmingly, that creativity is an essential attribute in theatrical technicians. Now, could you comment on that and the manner in which you think technicians engage with creativity? Dennis Gill Booth 03:42 Background about our institution, we are a conservatory environment, and the structure of our school is five unique distinct art schools. One is music, one is dance drama, one as design and production and the other is filmmaking. within that construct, in the school of design and production where I work, we have exactly that, design and production, physical production being trained right along with artistic and creative production. We have recently changed our program title for my specific program which used to be technical direction. We now have a graduate technical direction, concentration of graduate stage automation concentration, and our undergraduate concentration concentrations referred to as scenic technology as opposed to technical direction, which allows for a little better a lateral movement among the different craft skills that are required for physical production scenic production in particular. And I have some commentary about this creative process when we're ready for it, but I assume you'll have more questions. So, we'll kind of dive into that as we go. So, is that helpful? Nicholas Day: 05:22 I'm also interested in the direction of where when your graduates leave, to what extent do you feel when they enter the workplace that they identify as creative practitioners.
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Dennis Gill Booth 05:41 That goes further answer about our conservatory environment, which, which we a number of years ago, began a dialogue between all of our students in all of the art schools about this notion of being an artist. We were able to land our technical trades and concentrations in and design and production, and technical and management to some degree, to land on using terminology like technical design as opposed to a technical engineering, right? So that puts a connotation of creativity right into the category of work that we're doing. Referring to a scenic artists, Property technicians as a property artisans helps us keep that way of thinking about being a part of the collaborative team in a creative way, regardless of if you're doing a technical skill or a or a visual design skill. Uh, so I think that's how we view it and that's the worldview we have for both our undergraduate and graduate education and as our students go out into the marketplace, especially our technicals who are in very high demand, almost can't graduate fast enough. I think a big part of that is because they think of themselves as artisans and artists, even though they're working in technical skills, does that make sense? Nicholas Day: 07:32 Perfect sense, nomenclature is very important in creating a supportive environment. Is creativity dealt with within the school in any kind of direct kind of why? Do you talk about it within your contextual subjects? I imagined you do subjects that involve collaboration and a lot now a lot of schools have stuff around solving amongst creative groups and such. Do you deliver anything directly about creativity. Dennis Gill Booth 08:28 Both of our technical direction classes at the undergraduate and graduate level and in that unit right now we're talking about a focus on it as collaboration and trying to differentiate between leadership and management. That management tends to be a construct, an organizational construct and that leadership can come from anybody in a collaborative team. That's what exactly what you're looking, someone being in the collaborative team takes on a leadership role wherever it's needed and however it's needed to arrive at the artistic goal. Nicholas Day: 09:19 That’s interesting because when you talk about leadership in that sense, the notion that within a creative scenario that certain personality types, people who can see a good idea, Sternberg's investment theory, you know, there's the person who can see a good idea and champion that idea and bring other people on board with it, which I think sits with that idea of yours, of leadership, that
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somebody can see a light at the end of the tunnel and bring people with them toward it whether that be a technical solution or an artistic one. Dennis Gill Booth 10:08 We talk about leadership as a collaboration. Uh, and that the goal there is to influence and empower people to be able to be creative in the process. Nicholas Day: 10:25 Just going back a bit, with your students, do they largely coming from college or are there any postgraduate people coming in? What would be the balance? Dennis Gill Booth 10:41 Our school happens to be in the top five or 10 schools that train technicians and designers here in our country, and the upside of that is that we tend to get a lot of applicants to our undergraduate program coming from performing arts high schools that have a performing arts concentration. That's not always the case, but I’d say that the preponderance of our students come from a pretty well advanced high school programs that allowed them to understand when they're, I don't know, 17 or 18 years old that uh, that yes, they want to be a technical director. Yes. They want to be a stage manager so that, that allows us in our school to really have those 12 distinct programs, uh, as tract right from the freshman year. We don't wait until the junior year for them to figure that out. Um, we have, uh, a little bit of wiggle room in their freshman for their first year to try to make sure that they've landed in the right concentration. Dennis Gill Booth 11:59 Right. So we kind of moved them around between the shops to make sure that they get exposure to, to the entire process. But by sophomore year we've got them dialed in and it always amazes me we're able to do that. I mean, I think about my career or you know, when I was that age, I never would've been able to say that specifically, oh, I want to be a lighting designer. Oh, I want to be a technical director. Uh, I needed a more liberal arts experience, kind of exposed to a lot of different options to, to land on that is not what our school does well, our school is very siloed in the concentrations and it takes a student with a pretty good idea of what direction they're headed in for their career, uh, to, to land in the right place and do well and become rooted in the process are our graduate students on the other hand are a little different. Dennis Gill Booth 12:53 I've got a pretty wide demographic of people that are coming to me. It's was not unusual for me to have a student that already has a graduate degree in some other area. Uh,
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we have students that have been out working or a number of years before they decided to come back for graduate school and really focus on a specific concentration. Uh, and then we have, uh, those students that come right out of an undergraduate program and they already know that they, they want to come to our school for their graduate training. So it's a pretty good spectrum that way. But we're, our students tend to be very focused at any level. Nicholas Day: 13:41 A design presentation can range from a briefing as to what the director and the designer wants, to an invitation to come in and present ideas and options, an introduction to collaborate with them on a broader sense and everything in between. Do your students graduate prepared to respond to briefs around creative development even though it may not necessarily be designed roles? Dennis Gill Booth 14:18 I think we have a lot of students that are in design concentrations but actually at least start their careers as not only design assistants but possibly as scenic artist or props artists and craftspeople, so that their design eye and sensibility, support their craft, you know what I mean, but as opposed to the other way around, often you have the designer who has a good understanding of craft, that makes them a much better designer. Nicholas Day: 14:54 Do you think in the professional context, do you think that technicians are thought of as creatives or facilitators generally Dennis Gill Booth 15:11 We have a lot of conversation about that when we get to our job fair every year and before we get about 20 or 30 employers from the industry that come and interview our graduating class and we have great time talking about that. Uh, and you know, it really depends on, what I discovered, the company really, their view and how they use terminology, like fabricator as opposed to artists and that kind of clues you in to the way they're thinking about it. Right? Uh, but you and I know that a fabricator is an artist, a whatever medium they're working in, right. If they're, if they're a high calibre, high quality and then demand, uh, so, uh, that, that sort of, I don't know if you're familiar with the, the phrase, chicken before the egg. I think that's, I think that's exactly the roundabout conversation that we have on this topic and I'm not sure anybody's landed on anything very specifically except that at our school we view everyone as an artist first.
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Nicholas Day: 16:32 The Greeks came up with the techne/ episteme discord and I think the argument's been going on ever since then. So probably nothing's going to get sorted out in my lifetime. It's impossible not to have your hand in something once you've started work as a carpenter or on any level really, an ASM doing management. Dennis Gill Booth 17:01 Which way that pendulum swings is a bit cultural depending on the event or the company or the venue or you know, it tends to be local to that situation. Nicholas Day: 17:13 I know like in the UK there's a bit more of a cultural thing to it. It's more kind of blue collar/white collar if you know, the technical workforce has a bit of trouble with being called tekkys, which is a little bit of a dismissive term. Dennis Gill Booth: 17:32 I think with us it's a little bit that way as well. Nicholas Day: 17:37 With you, you sound as though you've got a good chancellor in setting up the dominant lexicon within the school. With the general politic of the school is there a tendency see the to see the technical courses as a support to an acting stream or on the same level to see them all on a level field when it comes to the overall planning of the academic year. Dennis Gill Booth 18:15 We certainly have a bit of a struggle with helping administrators understand just exactly what it is we do in design and production. Uh, you know, because we're not training actors we’re training people that are going to put production on stage, whether it's costumes, we could make up scenery, lighting, whatever, right? Uh, but, uh, uh, our chancellor I think has done a great job of promulgating what the school corporate is about, at least from the student and faculty point of view. He gave us, when he first got here two or three years ago, a hashtag to use for all for everyone to use on campus and it's hashtag ‘we create here’. And that is the stamp, we are creators, all of us, we are artistic in that sense, right? Whether we're managers, whether we're designers, whether we're a technicians. Uh, and you know what, that's that little hashtag that we use on social media has really galvanized for whole school about being creatives no matter what we do. Nicholas Day: 19:32 That sounds great. When you’re sitting down, you're discussing pedagogy with your colleagues in curriculum development. Do learning styles and creative personalities wander into the conversation, how you go about matching up cohorts in projects etc.
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Dennis Gill Booth 20:12 Yeah, there, there, there are a couple of themes I think that we tend to focus around all of us in all our specific curriculum. So, and one of them is that ‘we create here’ idea, but another is, we have a sort of a colloquial moniker for the school. Where were we say ‘we are the school doing’, right. So in our coursework, in our classroom work, everything that we teach in the classroom tries to focus on what is gonna happen in production and then allow for as many production opportunities as possible. In other words, as many collaborative opportunities as possible. Uh, so we do, I don't know, have these 10, but I think we do probably something like 25 fully supportive productions each academic year, which for us is a fall semester and spring semester. And I think if you padded film projects, partially supported projects, workshops, all of that, uh, music recitals, it gets up to hundreds of performance opportunities. Right? And each one of those opportunities is an opportunity to collaborate. It's an opportunity to do the craft, whatever the craft is. Uh, so I, I think that's our whole curriculum is driven around those themes, do and create Nicholas Day: 21:47 with schools whether they be USA, UK or Australia, there seems to be a reasonably common thread where there’s skill development, production period, skill development, production period. So, building up on skill levels and then more advanced roles within the production stream, and it was agreed across the board that within production periods, there was limited opportunity for students to analyse or reflect. There's not much downtime, if you know what I mean. So how do you feel about that kind of comment and how it applies to North Carolina? Dennis Gill Booth 23:01 I would have to harmonise with that exact problem. We have many, many conversations about how to build some reflective time into our students work time, you’re right we do that all the time, like every waking hour, and when is the time if they could sit down and discuss what just happened and make something out of that, so as we make curricular adjustments. One of the things that we're always looking for is how do we create that little bubble of time, reflective time, a post mortem opportunity to talk about how production process went, or an opportunity for an individual team on a production an opportunity to do some reflection during notes, whatever. Dennis Gill Booth 23:59 We're always trying to find that balance and it is difficult. It is very difficult, uh, especially in our environment where, you know, we are driving to do all the time.
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Nicholas Day: 24:14 My next question was, if you had the capacity to change the manner in which technicians are trained, oh, what would you change and why Dennis Gill Booth 24:25 the conversation we've been having here lately is trying to make an adjustment, a cultural adjustment to the generational issues that I have to assume, it's probably in your country as well as it is ours where students in high school are coming out of high schools tend to be generationally very disconnected from craft and from hands on involvement with fabricating or working or even work ethics sometimes is difficult. We're trying to figure out how our curriculum should respond to that. How do we backfill those things that you and I know are near and dear to production, which is to begin with, you open the show, uh, you know, you don't say, well, I didn't get it done, so we're not going to open the show. Dennis Gill Booth 25:34 Got To get the show open, right? Uh, so, you know, getting that work ethic and that if you're gonna commit to a collaborative process, you have to be all in that process. Uh, and then, uh, how do we start to backfill some skill sets that have kind of fallen away a culturally in the United States for example, there are many high schools that will not allow their students to use a table saw or any kind of power tool for fear of injury, right? Uh, or they have some, a manner of specializing the students that they feel has maturity that can handle that kind of equipment. You know what I mean? So one thing, students in our, in our freshman classes now that don't know how those tools work at all, they've never touched it, never even heard of them in some cases. And we're starting at such a low foundation level. Dennis Gill Booth 26:37 We were trying to figure out how to remediate some of that. Uh, one of the things we're looking at is to do summer workshop opportunities, but again, you know, you've got to get parental permission to expose students to dangerous equipment. Uh, and uh, that's kinda tough. Um, that's, that's really a struggle for us right now is trying to wrap our heads around how to deal with that. The other thing is, uh, the, the sort of push button, not mentality, but, but sort of expectation where a student comes to us and they, they understand they want to push a button and they want something to happen on the other end of that, but they have no idea or care about what happens between pushing the button and what happens on the other end. Uh, so, you know, that's, that's been problematic for us to, to help, uh, young students coming in, understand infrastructure like
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that. What is the technical infrastructure that happens from the button push to the thing, do whatever that result is. So those are two big topics for us right now. And trying to figure out how to, how to evolve our curriculum in order to, to accommodate those needs. Barry Conway: 28:03 It is the same human Australian as well. So developing curriculum development over the next 10, 20 years kind of thing. What kind of technologies coming in, how that might kind of change, you know, the virtual space, how that part of my goal that changing your courses. Dennis Gill Booth 28:27 our filmmaking is right now focusing on a virtual reality and authentic reality projects. So they're working with green screen studios and uh, and the post production process, the character generation issue process and how to work that problem from a filmmaker's point of view, but we all know that what happens in film very quickly, theatre tries to follow, right? So, so in live performance we're going to have to wrap our heads around what does that mean? So right now there's digital media, right, projection technology and all of that, which, which we're embracing and we've got some companies here in the United States that are working directly with us to develop a training that's appropriate to those technologies. Not only the technical problem of what the projection equipment is and what the optics are, so what the objects are, but also the content creation that has to support that. Dennis Gill Booth 29:37 So we're looking at developing both of those areas right now in the world of technical direction than stage automation. We're trying to keep up with a digital scanning with a CNC fabrication, CNC mills, a water jet technology, you know, all the processes that are going to be quote unquote labor saving in the fabrication world, are our commercial employers are really pushing on us to expose our students to those technologies. So for example, we just invested quite a bit of money in some Faro scanning, a digital scanning, three d scanning devices and we're trying to get our faculty schooled up on bad equipment and working with our employer collaborators, to help us have some wisdom and how we focus our efforts in those technologies. And again, it's about feeling out what are the foundation skills that our students need to be trained in. And then what are the technologies that they need to be exposed to that are going to get them a good livelihood and a good career in the business. So those are a couple of things that we're looking at
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Nicholas Day: 31:09 Are there any projects that students do that are just open ended that, you know, uh, an outcome isn't necessarily required where there's just an investigation into hydraulics or electronics in some way or in a mechanic. Dennis Gill Booth 31:54 Our classroom activity as opposed to our production activity because our production activities have that end game we have to get to. But we also have in our graduate program opportunities research projects and that's where some of those kinds of explorations can go on, we have a concentration in stage automation or in the classroom. Uh, those, those MFA students in the stage automation program are working with, servos, hydraulics, pneumatics and all that, a student in that program or in that concentration would have the opportunity to build something that is perhaps open ended or it's not specifically aimed towards a production solution as a thesis project. Dennis Gill Booth 32:55 We have a similar thesis project where It could just be a component that is part of a larger scheme or something that they can use them in. Dennis Gill Booth 33:02 So we had a student a couple of years ago who did a thesis project on a zero fleet automation winch, then we had another one that did a research project on a destructive testing machine that we call the taffy puller, uh, that will allow you to pull, pull something to 10,000 pounds and see what, what happens. Uh, we had a project where a student built a vacuum form machine, uh, that we still use in our shops. Uh, so, you know, whether it actually has an application or whether it's just an experiment, is really dependent on what the student wants to get out of that project. Nicholas Day: 34:00 Talking about scanning and CNC’ing, we did a project where we had a show that was on a sand dune and that was created with ply formers and lathes of ply and then muslin over the top and sand and split pool noodles for the ruts, but at the core of that was a scan of a clay model and then slicing, but in the actual doing of it depended on a knowledge if about boat construction and how that works, you know. So harks back to the engagement of technologies, but also a desire to learn about the old craft. Where the technology's come from. Dennis Gill Booth 35:00 You know what you learn along the way is that more often than not, you're going to use the work that you're producing, , I’m going to use the word gag, a trick on stage. You're that you're producing an illusion and what the technologies are applied to that, whether they're old school
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or new school can be just as effective either way. Right. Um, so that's kind of a broad overview that we tried or opportunity that would give a student is if they choose to, to, to, to work on a technology. Do they want to apply it to a production or not? Is really a part of a thesis intent statement and how they want to approach that problem. Nicholas Day: 35:49 So you say you’ve got everybody pretty much specialised by the end of their freshman year. Are there times within the rest of the journey through the school where they do step out of that specialisation and take on other roles within smaller collaborative groups. Dennis Gill Booth 36:29 I'm going to say we do not do that well at our school. So there's two opportunities for this interdisciplinary crossover, right? One as a D&P, student that wants to work on a project with a music student or a student or a drama student or filmmaking student and one of our other concentrations, that's incredibly difficult just to schedule their time to make that possible. So, so working outside of our design and production box is, is particularly difficult, but there have been times when we've had some of our TD students, I wanted to explore what's it like to be a construction manager on a film set to do a, uh, an onsite local production for a fil. And we do our very best to accommodate that. A thing that's a little more popular is within our world, we can have someone float over to sound or float over to lighting or over to rigging, you know what I mean, a or over the costume or work on a collaborative process. Dennis Gill Booth 37:38 I've got a young woman and she is working on a thesis this year, is going to collaborate with one of our designers, uh, and they are going to design the designer is going to, to design as part of her thesis a scenic design and the technical director is going to use a medieval theatre solution to that design. So she's, she's actually, I think she's planning to take a trip to, uh, uh, to Italy to do a research for, for, for those processes, uh, you know, and uh, that, that kind of cross collaboration very exciting when it, when it works, right. And it's got nothing to do with production. Nicholas Day: 38:30 We’ve been here before but what is the lexicon that is actually used now what you're saying it's been drummed out of your school. It's the nomenclature over there is that everybody's creating Dennis Gill Booth 39:11 that notion that everyone is a creator is the kind of overarching theme. I think the terminology we use for that in
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production is the artistic team versus the technical team and that tends to be the lexicon that we're still kind of latched onto. Nicholas Day: 39:35 Yeah. Dennis Gill Booth 39:37 The designer is going to come up with what it looks like and the technical director is going to come up with the technical design that solves that problem. And so I think that's still the world that we live in and I think our employers are still locked into that lexicon as well. Dennis Gill Booth 40:01 We've already talked about that way North Carolina is supportive of the other streams but that it’s balanced amongst the other disciplines Dennis Gill Booth 40:33 There are, for example, our school produces operas, right? So I think we're fortunate in that our school designer production or our students get to work with each of these, uh, areas of specialty. So our school of drama produces musicals and straight plays or school of filmmaking producers, obviously films, uh, our school of dance does dance production, both modern and ballet. We're able to put creative teams and technical teams together that support that character of what that performance is going to be. There was something I haven't really talked about it yet. And there's, there's another and we've really started to focus on and all of our work. Um, uh, over the past two or three years we started focusing on the team or storytelling so that as collaborators, you're not only creating the truth, you're somehow telling the story and we find that so very easy common theme that works through all of these different venues and all of these different, uh, performance art forms, uh, that ultimately there's a theme of a story that needs to be told, whether it's told visually, physically, orally or through lighting. Dennis Gill Booth 42:03 Uh, you know, those sort of, those are all the, every area of specialty has an opportunity to amplify the story telling, Nicholas Day: 42:18 And um, do you think when it comes to the scope of that, when they decide what they're going to do Tosca and put parameters around what the production levels so that's doable within the school. Is that something that gets thrust upon the production department or is that something the production department arrives at in tandem with the school of Opera.
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Dennis Gill Booth 42:55 we're working to improve that as well. For example, is the producer of the opera, but we call it a co-production between the school of music in the school of design and production are, part of it is the physical production, uh, that, that works pretty well up to a point but the pedagogy that the school of music had. Well, let me use the school of drama. It's a better example, right? So school of drama in the middle of their spring semester may or may not know how many males and females, they have a to work with the following fall to cast. Right? So that drives their pedagogy of what shows are gonna select, right? On the other hand, in our school, we're thinking we've got x number of, uh, projects that we've got to provide to our scenic designers, x number of projects that we've got to provide to our costume designers and right on down the road, our technical directors, uh, everyone's got a piece of that so we can try to influence the other schools about what they may or may not do and the spokes are those projects. But at the end of the day, our individual schools have a pedagogy that is sort of dictated by their needs . Um, so that's a tough nut. Is the end of that story. Nicholas Day: 44:33 Do you feel sometimes perhaps the educational needs of your students on a sublimated to the educational needs of other schools Dennis Gill Booth 44:46 We try hard not to feel that way. But I think at the end of the day there is that, I think sometimes within design and production we've had conversations about, you know, what? We're not going to support that opera or that musical or that play. We're gonna find our own project to support and those opportunities actually exist here in North Carolina where I know they're saying, I don't know, we've got a scene designer that really need a professional opportunity for upper level students, uh, and we'll have them go work with one of the local, a regional theatres here in North Carolina, say, you know, go do a show with them. uh, and, and accommodate that as part of their production work. If it doesn’t work out, we tried, we tried to make the right choice for the education of the students first, right? Nicholas Day: 45:47 Are Industry internships, part of the degree then, Dennis Gill Booth 45:58 Not by design necessarily, but we certainly can accommodate that opportunity if that comes up. For example, a, I've got an undergraduate senior technical directors, senior technologist who uh, uh, is working this year for cfx wine effects and Kentucky this fall on an internship 336
instead of being here at doing a production with us, but he'll come back to a spring semester and the goal is to have him share what he's learned working for that company. It's rare that we can eat that at a level below a senior or graduate student. Typically. That would happen second or third year graduate student or a fourth year undergrad for us, if the student brings a proposal to us, we certainly will consider it, but the students got to be in good standing. They have to have all of their liberal arts component of their curriculum under control or satisfied all day before they go off to do an internship. So we try to accommodate that and it works out really well because they obviously get a foot in the door with the industry so the company gets to try them out. Right. And the student gets to try out the company. So, it’s a two-way street. Nicholas Day: 47:21 That’s been fascinating and very useful information for me. What I'll do is I'll transcribe this, I'll get my recording and put it through this website and get it typed up and I'll send you a copy of that so that you can have a look at it and make sure you're fine with me using the interview. I'll ask you at that point whether your mind me quoting you. So thanks very much for taking the time out to talk Dennis Gill Booth 48:03 I'm glad we finally got to connect. Coming to visit Sydney has always been, a goal of mine. I've been doing a little research into your, your school and it sounds like very interesting work there. Nicholas Day: 48:24 We are a conservatoire structure as well, so you know, with everybody from writers down to production. And so we do everything under the one roof, we’ve got five theatres within the campus, some of them hundred seaters, one 700 seat pros arch theatre. So we've got to range across things and we're like everybody were time and money poor, all the students have the biggest ambitions and you know, we try and struggle to accommodate everything, probably in much the same way as you guys do. So that's great to hear. And so one of the nice things about doing this process is just to recognize that you're not alone. Everybody has very similar problems, very similar landscape, you know. I hope it’s dried out in North Carolina. It looked like you’ve had a lot of water there two weeks ago. Dennis Gill Booth 49:23 Hurricanes come through our location in North Carolina, where we're far enough from the coastal areas that we really avoided most of that problem. Uh, this last one that came through, hurricane Michael was the one that affected
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us the most. My house here was without power for about 24 hours, but I've got people in my community here that still are without power and it's been almost a week, so it's not just the rain and the wind is the net effect of the hurricane. Michael was a fast mover and stayed very powerful all the way up through its, I'm trajectory, we are dried out. Nicholas Day: 50:21 So if you find yourself in Sydney, come out and have a look around the campus. Dennis Gill Booth 50:28 I'll do that. If you get to North Carolina I’m looking forward to showing the campus to you if you're over in our neck of the woods. Thanks very much. talk to you. Thank you. Take care. Dennis Gill Booth 01:04:45 Have a good day.
Jason Garabenis- WAAPA – Perth - Australia Interview with Jason Garabenis Lecturer WAAPA – Edith Cowan University Western Australia Production & Design (Stage Management, Lighting, Costume, Design, Props & Scenery, Sound) and Arts Management 14/9/18 – 17:31Hrs Nicholas Day 00:39 Okay, so I'll advise you that I am recording audio. Okay, well thanks for taking the time out to have a chat. Did you received the notes I sent you? That's the kind of area I'm covering and as I stated, it started off just with me contemplating the idea of how directing, designing and writing being referred to as the creatives and everybody else being referred to as technicians or actors, which never really bothered me in the industry, but then, within an educational institution I see it as a bit divisionary and might give students that are coming in a bit of a tilted idea of their place within the collaborative group. Jason Garabenis: Hmm Nicholas Day I guess the first thing that was with the survey that you took, creativity was seen as an essential attribute for theatre technicians. So, I’d like you to comment through your experience in industry and education how technicians engage with creativity. Jason Garabenis 02:28 Yes, I mean I guess from a theatrical, well from our area, we cross quite a lot of different areas. So, it will be teaching set construction we’ll be teaching props construction, scenic art as well as the technical side of
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theatre. So, you know, the making head mechanist and everything that is involved in the live entertainment side of things as well. So, I think you're just looking at the sort of live entertainment, the actual onset side of things? Nicholas Day: 03:05 When I'm talking about technical theatre, I’m talking about lighting, sound, costume, set construction, Stage management Jason Garabenis 03:14 Yeah. Okay. Um, yeah, well I think they are definitely. I think there needs to be more of it for us from my point of view, I think for the so called creatives to try and design and create in isolation is not beneficial to them, and I think the more they can involve, you know, the other side, the technical side of things into their creativity, I think then everyone's going to benefit from it. I was fortunate enough early this year, we had, um, Robert Lepage’s ‘Far Side of the Moon’ that came, down here and we went back and have a chat to the technical manager there, and he was explaining how, from the start of a kernel of an idea Robert Lepage would get everyone involved in the whole creative process, down to the engineers who are making it to the props makers, to the lighting, to the sound, and they are all involved from the very beginning in that creative process. Um, and yeah, I think that from my point of view, I think that that's an excellent way to go, and from here at WAPPA I think we probably could do more of more of that. Nicholas Day: 04:42 I talk to students from time to time, and they say, well, you know, I'm not an artist, you know, I know I chose technical because I'm not that way inclined. And you say, well, you know, you chose to work in the arts as a career, so to some extent you're going to have to wear that badge, you know, whether you like it or not, and you know, even as a set constructor, your choice of materiality and your choice of process has an effect on what the end product's going to look like. What people see on stage very much has an element of you and your choices and the decisions made by you. Everybody backstage has an effect of what the audience is seeing, there's, there's creativity involved in all those kinds of spheres as there is with all endeavours. In reading of the literature it suggests that when people are made aware of their kind of creative personalities, when people have an understanding of where they see themselves as a creative person, then they were more likely to have better outcomes when they are entering into collaborative environments where they may be may be expected to have some sort of 339
input into the direction designs are taking in their discussions with designers. Nicholas Day: At NIDA we use the word creativity a lot, we say everything we do is creative. We say it’s embedded in everything we do. We're out there creating theatre, were telling stories, but there's very little discussion of creativity as a thing, as a science, as a psychological study going on within the school. And so I was wanting to have your ideas about do you think that's necessary or do you think it's sort of something that students just pick up tacitly or, you know, through their kind of production work and so on. Jason Garabenis 07:45 I think it's intrinsic in a lot of what we do, by the time they're in third year, they do a couple of different units. I think one of them is theory, contemporary practice and performing arts and that specifically looks at creative arts and their role within that creative arts and how they sort of tie into that. Um, but prior to that, I guess for me a lot of the creativity would be in problem identification and problem solving. So even though it's technical, I think being able to identify what the issue is or what the problem is or what to do and solve that problem, that then is is a form of creativity, and I think that's often overlooked as far as trying to teach that you know. And again, sort of almost a chicken and the egg, which is first is the someone who is creative, creative, can then sort of problem solve and things outside the box or can you teach problem solving skills, which then leads to creativity. ason Garabenis 08:52 I think it’s a combination of both, the students for me who are able to go that one step further and think, okay, well this is a solution, but here's another solution. You know, this is what I think we should try are the ones who are probably more creative in their endeavours and what they want to do. Whereas there’s ones who are, here's a problem, you know, tell me how to solve it. So yeah, I think that problem solving for me in the earlier years for the first and second years for us, it's about, there's many different ways of building a flat. This is the type of flat we need to build. These are the, the problems, this is how we're going to solve them and if they can be creative in that, in that light. I think that that goes a long way. Nicholas Day: 09:47 With the notion of lifelong learning and sustainable careers, sometimes people might enter into like a technical area, and they might have a bit more of an entrepreneurial sort of soul and they might hook up with a performer and put together some festival thing, you know, like bouncing on a 340
stick or something and end up taking that around the world. So, what I’m wondering is, when students leave WAAPA, do you think they are entering into the workplace with an understanding that, I am an artist in my own right, and I can take this other places. Jason Garabenis 10:57 I'm looking at the diverse areas that graduates are going into, um, you know, uh, did they tend to and the way the course is structured for us. They can go into the theatre, they can go into a workshop or a scenic art workshop or conference work or film work or things like that. So I think it’s as you said, the lifelong learner, the skills to be able to think, okay, well I've learned a certain amount of skills within the time here, but you're still building on those skills and you're still learning as actually going out and we do encourage the student, we tell them all the time, we can only give you so much here, in your time here, but you're going to continue to keep growing and learning and experiencing different things. You know, the whole time. You're working to get the best examples when they go out and working on a secondment in a professional company and then they come back they say we know what you were telling us makes sense now. And you know, they learn new things Nicholas Day: 12:16 You can have design presentations that can range from a briefing on what the director or designer wants, and then it can be an open ended sort of invitation into a creative process, we're working in this world, give us ideas, give me kind of a response to throw in. When your student’s graduate, do they feel licensed to engage, even if they come from non-design role, to feed back into a collaborative kind of conversation? Jason Garabenis 13:12 I think it depend on the student, you know, there's the ones who get it and understand the process and, and they're sort of bought into the whole creative aspect of what they're working on. Um, and then there'll be the ones who will just, okay, here are your plans, this is what it is, this is your cue, this is your flight, whatever it is. And that's all it is. Dumb. They're just going to be doing a role I guess, but the ones that I find that are engaged in it and they understand that the whole creative process are the ones who, um, they do more and are more aware of everything else that's going around them, not just their role, they're not just taking the plan. They'll be looking at plan that we'll be asking questions. Okay, well how does this impact on something else and so on. I think we get a quite a variety of students, some are going to be happy just to want to work in the workshop and
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that's fine. Others school think I don't want to work in a workshop, then I'm going to do this and I'm going to go on and do other things as well. But yeah, as far as the design presentations, yeah, we get a varying degree across the spectrum. Yeah, there'll be very prescribed and then something will be a little bit loose as well and I think that depends on the nature of the production that they're working on. Some of the pieces here will be devised as they're going along and so the director is fairly loose with the ideas initially and see how that adventure awaits, others will be quite prescriptive and already be plotted and planned prior to the first meeting. So that kind of depends on that as well. But I find the designers who are able to clearly show us what they want. Then there’s the ones that get the product that they want, then there’s the ones who are perhaps a little bit unsure. And that's fine because they're all students, they're all learning. They're sort of finding their feet as well. Um, and so when that comes across in the model presentations in the DA and things like that, then it's, I guess it's up to us to sort of tease that out with the students to figure out exactly what sort of action did you want for this particular thing that's happening? Nicholas Day: 15:56 What is the structure I of your course? Jason Garabenis 16:03 Bachelor of Performing Arts? Yeah, well we start the first year under diploma, so we're in the system and first and second year. So we started diploma to an advanced Diploma in second year and in third year it converts to a Bachelor of Performing Arts, which then, that's usually about a year and a half depending. They get overload and get it done within that year as long as I've done summer school and it's a common subject taken care of as well. So, it's usually three and a half years by the time they graduate. Nicholas Day: 16:33 So, the first few years are quite general. You get to do a bit of everything. Jason Garabenis 16:38 We’re generalists in the fact that, yeah, you'll be doing set construction, whith all the metal work, all the timber and all that sort of stuff. You'll be doing scenic art, um, as well as props. So, you'll be doing all of those and then also working in a theatre, so we'll rotate them through. So, there'll be working on a set once we do three slots per semester. So, this feeds into your other question, is there enough time? And now there's never enough time for contemplation and reflection on what you've actually done because you just go from one to the next to the next. But um, yeah, so they're
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really busy. So yeah, they'll go from a sets production where they're working on that and then not go into the theatre with that show up. The next one they'll probably be on a show where they're just solely work on the props and then the next one will be a central props again if they're working on set. Jason Garabenis 17:34 So there'll be painting it as well. So then yeah, by the time they finish first and second year there'll be doing those. third year they're still be doing, not so much scenic art unless they want to specialise in senior year . Um, If they want to specialise in the property side of things. We'll steer them in that way if that's the side of things they want to go in. And same with the live entertainment, If they're interested in that side of things, we can sort of steer them in that way. They still get a few units are a few within each of those fields, but we can sort of cater to what you know because we don't have huge amount of numbers of the students then we can cater for their particular leaning or what they're interested in. Nicholas Day: 18:16 Okay. Do you work outside of discipline? Jason Garabenis 18:27 Um, yes and no. Um, probably first years, not so much. Second years because of had a little bit of experience. Some of them will go out and actively looked for, for work, um, third years because the loads are slightly different than. Yeah, they will be sort of working as well. I'm a, I'm not sure that night of it. Our students are here from nine morning through to six at night, five days a week. Um, there also, if they're on a show, they could be doing weekends and nights as well. So to be able to fit in work outside of that is pretty difficult. Forum. We're flexible enough. I mean we've got a guy come to me the other day. He's, he's been called up for a bump in Dannon is Manchester Theatre and um, you know, he's going to have to leave at 4:00 today, so, so yeah, that's another problem. Jason Garabenis 19:17 So we're pretty flexible in that respect and um, got a pretty good communication with, with the theatres and workshops and things around in Perth being small, small industry and so they all know that, you know, while they're at university, if they're called in for a shift and uh, um, you know, the students is, look, I'm sorry, I can't help because I got class where I got lectures or whatever. Then, you know, they're pretty, I'm pretty understanding about that sort of thing. Um, but yeah, we do stress to the students that are in a university in the work here comes first and anything else that can fit in afterwards, Nicholas Day: 19:59 you're in agreeance with that. Like everybody, I was kind of a common thing across all the schools really, that they didn't think
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students have enough time for reflection and analysis within that production programs. Jason Garabenis 20:15 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're, we're pretty much, you know, where the students are working on a current show, but they'll be planning for another one, you know, and then by the time they show finishes, then you know, they've already started on this next one so that there isn't a huge amount of time for reflection and I think the only way that you're going to solve that is for us to do to less shows. Yeah. Nicholas Day: 20:38 Do you ever think about what in your perfect world, in the Utopian world what kind of changes would you make, would it be less shows or a longer course? Jason Garabenis 20:52 Yeah, I think because we're tied into the entertainment training package for the VET thing. There's a certain amount of units and hours and things that we have to prescribe to in order to achieve that. Um, so ideally it would be good just to start from a three-year bachelor course. Then we could then shape it and picked and develop the units that we wanted, but at the moment that's not possible. Um, you know, it's almost a, a, I mean, it could be run as an apprentice and apprenticeship, you know, the course you know, the skills and that sort of thing would be, could be sort of operated like that, but um, or, or yeah, we do less, less productions or the students are involved in let's productions, but that just means then the acting students that their musical theatre students, our students are a music streams down students, you know, doing less productions or, or getting less support from us, which is an ideal as well. Jason Garabenis 21:56 Um, and then again, it's, you know, other, you know, say, I mean I'll take probably between eight and 10 students each year. Um, there's a few drop out through throughout the years, but you know, stage management might take up to 12 to 15 cost, you might take about the same. Um, and so they need the productions in order for them to fill the roles that they need to do. So, you know, it's a balancing act. Okay. We can support this as a full support and then there's ones that we don't support. Um, and it's only maybe lighting and sound, um, that will have a support on it. Um, so we're sort of leaning more towards that, seeing what we can support, what's good for the students, what's good for their students and sort of taking it from there. But definitely not enough time for reflection and um, you know, uh, we built, I built it into classes after production. We'll sit down and sort of do like a postmortem and, and a talk that everyone's roles, what worked, what didn't work and things like that. Nicholas Day: 22:59 In tutorial?
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Jason Garabenis 23:02 yeah, yeah, yeah. Just, it's an informal sort of top will sit down with each year group. I'll sit down with them and talk about their roles and things like that. We do get them to reflect in a, in a, in a journal as well, depending on what role that they're playing, but they’ll right about that. Like get what they, what they did, what could make that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. Jason Garabenis 23:26 Um, with that, within the sort of, you know, sort of balance of the various disciplines within the school, well, you know, there's a relationship with the performing with the dancers and the actors and then requiring a certain of opportunities to kind of do what they do and then you know, you, you're, you're doing what you're doing costume or kind of doing what they do and everybody has a, maybe a bit of a push pull relationship as far as kind of what the greater plan of things is. Do you think it's an even see it as like a, an even playing field or do you find some people go, well, you know, in sometimes the students kind of feel like they're just in a kind of show factory or something or you know, I've heard people say things like that, you know? Jason Garabenis 24:18 Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. Like I mean production designer, you know, the whole thing together really without, without the production design course. And the rest of course is not going to be functioning as they are. Um, and you know, the, the acting or the director is only solely focused on that is one, one child, whereas, you know, we're looking at three or four shows within that same period. Um, so that was those pressures, are quite evident and, and they're not aware of it, um, because they have solely focused on, on, on what they are producing and monitor what their direct. Um, and it kind of goes along as far as designers as well, you know, the designers who are coming down and they're solely focused on their show and rightly so and that that's what they want. But um, you know, I guess other areas in the production design will then have to see the big picture and say, okay, well, you know, you've got that one shot within those three others who have got the same sort of one share with their budgets, with their, their scope that we've got to sort of tie into as well. Jason Garabenis 25:21 Um, so yeah, it's, it's, um, and I think, yeah, the other departments have some more so than others. But yeah, a lot of them tend to be quite unaware of, of what happens sort of backstage and all those other areas. You just think, oh, hang on, there's a workshop next door to the theatre. Where would that come from? How did you know how to do that sort of stuff where we've been studying for three years to be able to do it. Nicholas Day: 25:53 Within WAAPA do the students have any opportunities to move around other disciplines. Like a student led production or anything where the set student might decide he wants to do some 345
lighting or sound or where there's any kind of cross discipline activities? Jason Garabenis 26:22 Not for my area not for production design. We've got a course Performance Making where they do a lot of that creative things, they'll look at lighting, they'll look at set, they'll look at things like that. But it's a specific course for that. Some of the smaller shows tend to not have bigger crews on them. So then they will be a little bit of crossover there and they're the ones that I actually think the students get up quite a lot out of you know, we’ve got a black box studio sort of set and lighting designer will be working with to set designer and things like that because there isn't a lot of support for them. So these small, yeah, they tend to cross over a little bit more. Um, but it's, it's informal. It's not going to happen on every time we're in there. Jason Garabenis 27:13 I think the students who are interested in those other areas will seek it out and think, okay, well what's going on? How are you doing this? Why are we doing this? Um, and they'll, they'll sort of get involved in that way, but it's not a, they don't really have that opportunity. A formal opportunity to sort of crossover which, you know, I guess you'd go back to your ideal sort of course. I think maybe there is a need for, um, a foundation course where technicians are looking at, um, sound looking at lighting that looking at construction, they're looking at, um, sort of live entertainment. They're looking at all those areas in the foundation sort of course, and then sort of branching off into areas that they're interested in. Nicholas Day: 28:09 We often think it would be great to get the actors into the workshops. Just to be are aware of where all this stuff comes from and what from that what the decisions you make about a prop or something like that. Jason Garabenis 28:28 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We were in the studio just then. The students had done a markup and the director is going, ‘Oh my God, that's so close to the audience’. And it was like, ‘Well, it's on the plan. It's in the model. That's how it's always been you know’. Then it's okay, well if you want us to move this back then this is going to have, the impact is going to be this, this and this. But you know, it's just a comment as to, as to close. It has a huge effect on, on everything else, but again, they were more aware and crossed over then. Likewise, if there's for our students to the pressures and the stresses and strains on performance in our students are working backstage so they'll see a certain side of it. But, um, you know, just, um, with, with the performance in that space is kind of, you know, it was just going to be aware of the signs, of where each one is coming from.
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Nicholas Day: 29:26 I'm just looking through my notes here and we've we've talked across from one to the other to the other, the other. Also there's one little thing about, curriculum development, and the notion of creativity. When you sit down and you're talking with your colleagues about course design and project design in a pedagogical sense, do you take the notion of creativity and enhancement of creativity into consideration? Jason Garabenis 30:30 Probably not enough. I don’t think it kinda happens. It does happen, but it's not a lot, not from our end. Maybe some of the others, maybe in in design. I'm sure it would be a more tied into it a lot more. For us, probably not, as I said it does happen, but not in a formal sense. And again, because of the nature of the VET, the units that we were just sort of tied into, there isn't a whole lot of creativity in it, it's quite prescriptive. In the units of choice of that we have, you know, making sets, operating fly systems, you know, using mixed media to create something, so there are ones. I mean we do scenic art, there's a creativity there, you know. From our course, students will work with a designer to realise their designs, and I guess that then our creativity would then be to interpret that and then, to be able to deliver what they want. Jason Garabenis 31:54 And then in their education, in the classes, then there's creativity in projects that they work on. They'll choose projects that they find stimulating for them or things that they're interested in or creating. and their creativity will come across there. I guess Nicholas Day: 32:15 To that end I know sometimes we find ourselves looking at projects that are about the support of another department. And you kind of look at it again, but there's no learning outcomes in this that really relate to my cohort, once you’ve built a number of flats, you don't need to build another hundred. And so to that extent do students get the opportunity to do projects where they develop a work, to decide the nature of what it is they're actually making and put into the aesthetic of the product as well. Jason Garabenis 33:15 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, by the time they're in third year, they'll be working on a major set construction project. So it tends to be a mechanical set item of some sort, um, or a major sort of props item as well and that's few purely their own devised piece based, they're in charge of that. They can choose what they want to do and they'll choose the materials, they'll go through that whole thing. So yeah, by the time they're in third year they're there in that and even through the first and second years they will then still have opportunities, they'll be doing a painting exercise, so they'll choose their own image that they’ll be reproducing, props will choose their own weapon that they're going to be recreating or design their own. Things like that. So, they definitely have avenues for their creativity, their own creativity, not taking someone else's on. 347
Nicholas Day: 34:14 Well, I think we've made our way through Jason Garabenis 34:21 what sort of answers have you had for the future of the industry in 20 years-time? Nicholas Day: 34:28 Lots of people are talking about virtual digital spaces or we've kind of done shows here that rely on internet connections, mobile phones, all sorts of technologies that are interactive with the audience and what not. And they're bound to change the way, and the kind of things we're teaching them. Whether we kind of broaden the skills base or make a bespoke department, what might be the AV department now, might become a theatrical IT department, do you have any kind of thoughts about that? Jason Garabenis 35:48 I’m hoping it doesn't go too far for me, that it remains human interaction with the performers within the space, you know, some of the best theatre I've seen that I've seen is just one person on stage interacting with the audience. So if it goes too far into the use of technology and things like that, I'm sure it's going to be entertaining, but maybe it doesn't have that same effect. Um, so I think there's a, hopefully there's going to be a place for, for both. Nicholas Day: 36:19 You mentioned Robert Lepage earlier who uses technology well and I’m of thinking even within traditional workshops these days we’ll be using CNC a lot more. People start thinking about the design of set elements with CNC in mind and we’re also 3D printing a lot more and so I find our students are using technology and this is pre-empting what the end product's going to be to a degree. And that's just going to be evolving a lot of faster. Jason Garabenis 37:24 I mean that technology for us, I guess it's a double edge sword. I mean we've been using CNC here, but the students are going to go out and be building or working in a workshop or we're it’s not necessary to have those skills. So, they’ll get handed the Jigsaw and they go, ‘what is this?’, ‘what I do with this?’ sort of balancing act, you know, and the same with designing. We draw on CAD or Vectorworks, it's just as quick and easy if you can sketch on a piece of paper, the dimensions, sizes or whatever I need rather than sitting down the computer, drawing it, printing it out and taking it to you and that sort of thing. So, I think, yeah, there's got to be balance between both sides. Nicholas Day 38:11 With the designers here, you know, they go straight from CAD into the laser cutter, put the cardboard down, stick it together, and then obviously once they leave here they've just got a scalpel. Nicholas Day: 38:27 Yeah. Is there anything that you want to talk about Jason Garabenis: 38:37 Yeah, my colleagues around here in their disciplines of creativity. I think it's just that that the students who are wanting to engage in that process are the ones who understand it and feel that
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they've got something to add, in all areas, production management, stage management, construction, all of that. I think if they've got that creative slant, I think that they're the ones we want to keep hold of. Nicholas Day: 39:14 Okay. Well Great. Well thanks for chatting and Jason Garabenis 39:18 Good luck with the rest of it. Nicholas Day: 39:20 Okay. I'll shoot you over a transcript as soon as I get it back from software. Jason Garabenis 39:26 Yeah, sure. Nicholas Day: Alright. Thanks very much. Cheers. Jason Garabenis 40:11 No worries.
Neil Fraser – RADA – London - UK Interview with Neil Fraser Director of Technical Training & Head of Lighting RADA - 18/10/2018 – 18:30Hrs AEST Nicholas Day: 00:06 Hello Neil how are you? `Neil Fraser I'm good, how are you? Nicholas Day: Sorry about the rude awakening. I'll get these time differences worked out at one stage. `Neil Fraser ` 00:18 I'd set my alarm to wake up. Anyway. Nicholas Day: 00:26 Well thanks for giving me your time. I don’t know if you remember a while back to when you completed the survey I sent around but I thought I'd start off with just talking about the context, I guess, how I sort of came to this point, so initially, I was thinking about the custom, here in Australia at least, where the writers, directors and designers are referred to as the creatives and then there's the technicians. It's never really bothered me professionally, but when I came to work within the education environment where students were forming their understanding of their place in a creative collaborative environment, I thought it a divisive nomenclature that might give the students a skewed idea of where they sat within the process, and it also occurred to me that we here at the school use the word creativity all the time but we never really enter into any discussions about creative types or creative process in a pedagogical or curricular kind of sense, and it appeared to be assumed that because we were creating things all the time within a play production processes and in projects that we learned about creativity in an osmotic way, we create therefore we’re creative. This idea was kind of born out by both the students and educational institution surveys where respondents commented that it was
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inherent in the production process. So anyway, so here I am writing a paper about the culture of creativity and technical theatre, the way it's taught and even if educators think it’s necessary to investigate the psychology of creativity in order to enhance it within their schools. So that's the context and then the first question I've got here is that, it was overwhelmingly agreed that creativity is an essential attribute for theatrical technicians, would you be able to comment on that and the manner in which you think technicians engage with creativity? Neil Fraser 02:53 Yeah, sure. Yes. I think I agree with what you’re saying and certainly we teach a philosophy that everybody is an artist in the production process and we try and get our students think of themselves in that way and be creative and think outside the box and use initiative and whatever else in order to put a production together. That’s how we introduce the world of theatre when we were inducting new students and we talked to them in that way. However, as you’ve just been saying, it's not always perceived in that way in, in a production process where you have, as you said, directors and designers and writers, calling themselves creatives and separating themselves from the people they obviously think are not creative in their eyes. So, what we try and do in our teaching, is to give our students opportunities to put down these labels really, to not think of themselves as technicians or lighting technicians or stage managers or whatever it would be as to make something creatively. So actually give our students opportunities outside of a production process to be creative together in small groups and make some work. I suppose we do that in order to feed the aspect of the work that we're talking about where it might not be as apparent in a traditional production process or with people of a certain generation leading them. Um, so we acknowledge what you're saying I suppose. Nicholas Day: 04:40 Right so you try to use a language which ignores that culture if you like. Neil Fraser 04:50 Yes, it goes both ways of course, because as much as we might try and use a language, the people we bring in to work on productions have their own vocabulary. Nicholas Day: 05:02 Yeah sure. And I mean, given that, with all this, when you go out into the industry, you'll find yourselves yourself in many different cultures. Just one crew, collaborative group to another, how that power applies itself will vary, and so, when graduates enter the workplace, do you think they do that with the understanding that they’re creative practitioners. ` Yes but I think there’s an inevitable cynicism arises during the training before they enter into the workplace that says
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‘that’s what you say, but that's not how I'm being treated’ and as you say, it depends on who they're working with, at what, of freedom of creativity they’re given within any particular role, the obvious one is for me is the deputy stage manager who you could say is sitting in the rehearsal room receiving information and passing it on, or is part of a collaborative process of creating that work in the room and often when the director is the only person they turn to. They make a separation between the actors and everybody else. The only other person in the room to talk to is the deputy stage manager. So it depends on who you're working with is what it comes down to. I suppose what we're trying to incubate into the students during the time with us is that they should be looking for those relationships and those opportunities to, if they want to be part of the collaborative creative process rather than just ticking boxes and functioning. Nicholas Day: 06:50 You mentioned just a little while ago that you have projects outside the productions that are more open ended in their design, that students are free to …. Neil Fraser 07:08 Yes, they have an unwieldy name, they’re called, cross- course portfolio events. Cross-course meaning people from various programs are coming together and that tag portfolio because one of the things they do is they meet every six weeks looking at each other's building portfolios in terms of, the standard questions when they meet every six weeks, ‘what have you been doing in the last six weeks?’ and therefore what they show the work that they'd been doing. We split into groups of 12 students. So in those 12 students you've got students studying acting, lighting, stage management. We've got text and performance course, we’ve got a lab course and you've got to two students from all of those courses in the group, so you've mixed all the courses up and once or twice a term, so not very often during the year, four times in fact, they come together and we set them a task in those groups, respond to a headline to respond to a piece of oration, to create a production suitcase. We'd give them a suitcase with objects in it and tell them to create something. And the fourth one is installation. So there's not an emphasis on performance, that what we're asking them to do is to respond to a stimulation, and to create something and then they look at everybody else's creation. Some makes short films, they make a short film where they’re only allowed to use their phones, and then we give them an editor at the end of the process to help them put together. Often they can do that, so no worries. Nicholas Day: 09:03 Great! So this is an assessed project? Neil Fraser 09:08 No, it’s not assessed, the emphasis is to leave your lable at the door and what we find is lots of technicians end up in front of the camera, and lots of the actors ended up behind the camera. So 351
you, you ended up with a whole mix of people just playing to their strengths, I suppose. Nicholas Day: 09:30 What were the key learning outcomes for your graduate student? Oh, sorry. What were the key learning outcomes for your graduates leaving the school? Neil Fraser 09:50 We haven't got a set of learning outcomes for the entire course, but ultimately the ambition is that they are capable of getting a first position role in their first job in the particular areas that they specialised in, and then doing that job well and pursuing that through to a career. So we're training them for first destination employment, but also with a background of understanding to take that job on reasonably quickly through to any kind of career and be successful as one does from specialization in the sense that we expect people to specialize by the end of their time with us and therefore be ready for a stage management or lighting career or whatever that might be so we do end up boxes a bit I suppose because that's the world of work. Nicholas Day: 10:49 right Neil Fraser 10:51 We also, I should say, we also emphasize that we're increasingly trying to develop the person to some extent as well, so there's the professional development and sort of personal development, so we want to be thinkers and we want them to be connected the society and the world around them. It's very easy to forget that there's a world connected to what we do Nicholas Day: 11:19 What background does the majority of students come from, are they straight out of high school or are there a number of post- graduates, people going from arts, other arts courses or…. Neil Fraser 11:30 We have some post graduates we have some graduates. They don't have to have any qualifications come to us. Nicholas Day: 11:38 Is it an audition to get in? Neil Fraser 11:42 It's an interview for a technical position and an audition for acting. So it's always been a good career for people who haven't done very well academically at school. I think for people who want a different direction or different way, a different place. Nicholas Day: 12:01 Is creativity dealt with as a subject within your courses at all? Within any contextual studies or. Neil Fraser 12:12 Yes, we have some ways of seeing classes. We'll have all students do design as as a strand, so they will have to put themselves in the position of designer, we don't cross crossover into directing. We teach them how to look at things, how to contextualize things and understand how to respond to texts, how to respond to drama and the designer more than anything, in
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lighting, sound, sets, props, costume. The largest of our courses, the 2 year foundation degree all students go through that creative process. ` 13:01 and the final year. That's the specialization in the honors year is that the case? Neil Fraser 13:06 We have a two year main programme - So you can leave after two years fully tested - and many people do. We also have what's called a completion year, which you have to re interview for to get the full bachelor of Arts degree at the end. Students do all technical subjects in their first year, plus other ancillary things - like the cross course portfolio projects, theatre history, etc. In the second year they specialize in a subject and some of them go on to specialize further in a third year. So it's good to explain that really, because you can complete your training at two points - second year or after your third year. Currently only scenic design is NOT offered as a subject in the third year. We are currently reviewing our options in this area with the intention of offering training Design once more in the not too distant future.
Neil Fraser 14:05 The ‘ways of seeing’ that’s about analysis, like text analysis and aesthetics? Neil Fraser 14:20 It's more to do with looking at, history of objects, responses to objects and what objects say about culture or character. Same with costume. Um, it's more about things than text, it’s not text based at all. It is based on John Burgess’s book, Ways of Seeing. Nicholas Day: 14:46 And so there's no kind of discussion about creativity in the psychological sense and as a topic Neil Fraser No, no, not really, no Nicholas Day: 14:59 We do a subject when they first entre the school called Introduction to Collaboration which is more about conflict resolution and how to kind of get on with people within a collaborative group. Neil Fraser 15:23 Yes we do that, conflict resolution, dealing with different problems and dealing with people and teamwork. Strangely, creativity as a word doesn't feature though, even though it’s a very creative part of the process. Nicholas Day: 15:40 Yes, and it’s suggested by some of the writing, if you're aware of your creative type, then that can enhance your ability to move into a group and find your space within a group, you know. Neil Fraser We don’t talk about it in that way. Nicholas Day: 16:05 As I may have mentioned before, a design presentation can range from a briefing as to what the director and designer want to
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an open invitation to come in and collaborate, give us some ideas, in that kind of European socialist company way where everybody does everything theatre scenario; and everything in between I suppose. So, I'm just wondering, do you think of the graduates, your graduates are prepared to respond to briefs around creative development? even if they're people who are in traditionally non- design roles. Neil Fraser 16:53 but yes, I would hope so, but I think by the time that during their second year training is bespoke to them as individuals. We get to know him very well as individuals and therefore we are talking to them about what they want, in a sense of what they want to have in their career, what they want to develop. So it will depend on the individual I think is the answer to that. So those people who want to talk creatively have opportunities to do project work or to work which is not working on a text. We do a couple of installations in the year, which is a very general term for a piece which is non-text based, and they can be different, different each time we do a project and they're kind of designed for people who want to be creative and not bound to either a text of these words, um, or bound to a traditional production process with a director, designer, person calling the shots. So you've got opportunities during the course to allow individuals to express themselves and to develop their ability to be creative team and to contribute creatively Nicholas Day: 18:14 In the professional context or do you think technicians are thought of as creators or facilitators? Neil Fraser 18:25 I think generally they’re thought of as facilitators, think there's a certain lip service paid to the idea that we're all creative, but when it comes to the limitations of time and budget is less commonly observed. I also think it does get confusing in my background as a lighting designer I think it does get confusing if there's too many creatives. I think it pays for a director not to want creative input from people in order to not have too much confusion, as a lighting designer, I've found occasions where I'm very much part of the team and then cases were I’m not part of the creative team, like the director and the design have enough on their plate already without another set of inputs and I've actually felt resistance to be more creativity because they're trying to unknot the problem they've already given themselves. So I think it depends partly on the project as well as on the people. Nicholas Day: 19:27 Do you think that has anything to do with gestation? Neil Fraser 19:36 Yes and that has a lot to do with budget, money. I despair still slightly that theatre in this country is the last refuge of the amateur and it's held in that place really by lack of funds so that you haven't got time to have a long gestation period necessarily. You've
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got to get onto your next job in order to live, and I think it's very rare that people have a lot of time. The big companies like the National Theatre have the luxury of being able to develop some things, whereas most companies just haven't got that time. And therefore it restricts Nicholas Day: 20:20 Within the educational context, whether they be in the US, the UK they seemingly have a similar structure. Skill development, production process, skill development, production process, and the students take on more advanced roles as they progress through the school. And it was agreed through that survey that most people thought there wasn't really adequate time for analysis and reflection through the production process just because of that time addressing nature of production on the opening night and the pressure to come up with solutions. I'm just. Do you think that's a true thing in RADA or do you have a way of dealing with giving students a space for…. Neil Fraser 21:23 We do have the same challenges, the same challenges. We try and have created some ways we hope to make the student reflect on what they've been doing and think through. The students have various forms of feedback they have to respond to, which is designed to make them reflect on the work they’ve just done and bigger picture if possible. But no, you're right though. It's always a huge pressure to pack more into the course, which means you got less time to think about what you're doing, so yeah, the pressure's the same with us. I think to the extent that we need longer, longer courses to do the work. Nicholas Day: 22:08 So in order to deal with that, at the moment you deal with it through tutorial, through the process? Neil Fraser 22:18 Yes, one to one tutorial, but also written feedback. The only writing really they do in an academic sense, they respond to feedback questions which are all designed to make them think about what they're doing and how they're doing it, why they’re doing it and what aspects were worth doing and so on. Nicholas Day: 22:41 If you had the capacity to change how you go about teaching technical theatre in any way. What would you think you'd do? Neil Fraser 22:50 It's interesting, I teach in a National school in New Deli every year. I've been doing that for a while and they put all their students technical acting and otherwise together for the first year. Don't give them any titles as such and they've taken through an education that education they design, they before they create things, they make things. They learned skills to do that all together as a group and I think that's a fantastic model. And then after the first year they divided them into actors and non-actors, and they call the non- actors, designers, regardless of what they're doing. And the attitude
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over there is that the lucky ones become the designers and the unlucky ones only get to act, a refreshing way of looking at it. In the designers pool because of the way the Indian market works where the actors make less money, the designers have to build to design to light, to write and direct and do all of those things, you have to be really able to multitask and so that's what the directors and designers in that group inherently, so there's, there's a much more of a blur between you as a writer or director or designer or lighting designer or stage manager you're expected to do all those things. You will do these things at various points in your career. Even within a few months you could be writing a script one week and then directing the next. So it's a much different way of thinking about things and I think the fact that they start with all the students as one big group, it's a great idea. Neil Fraser 24:40 We often talk about technicians respecting what performers do, when we say,’ they should be able to cope with that’ and making them aware of what they're thinking of and the converse with actors, how to to use props without breaking them, that kind of thing. Neil Fraser 25:05 We do a little bit of crossover training like that and get the to tech and get the technicians to understand what it's like to deliver live on stage. Neil Fraser 25:13 Do you think I'm going forward with interactive media and you know, heavy use of kind of projection and not these days that the technical courses is going to change greatly in any particular way going forward. Neil Fraser 25:35 Well, I think that's it. We've just created a video and digital video and digital design department and we did that in response to what's happening in the industry. Describing it as the heavy use of video is a good way of describing it, and we did it and then I stepped back and thought we just made the first new technical department in RADA in decades and decades. So, we've been embracing the technology partly because it's in the industry partly because we don't want to look old fashioned, but mostly because we want the education to be relevant. But in doing that, that's also made it more obvious that actually there's a lot of work that could be done without a performer at the middle of it. And that's one of the reasons why our installation projects have grown, partly that we have somewhere to invest in video because every have that with every show has lighting and shadows costume. Every show doesn't have video say as a specialising area. You need something to work on. So we need to create some of these projects. But the projects themselves have become great vehicles for people expressing themselves in alternative ways really, politically in front of an audience that isn't starting with a text or with a performer at 356
the centre of that. So yeah, that development has been very interesting and we're building on that. Nicholas Day: 27:15 I think you were saying the cross-course portfolio project could be everybody swapping disciplines, is that encouraged or is it something they kind of tend to do off their own bat Neil Fraser 28:01 Forget your specialisation, play to your strengths but, but don't offer yourself as an actor or a technician, just be part of a group making something and just see how it pans out. We actually do actively encourage them not to fall into the trap of just being their specialism in those exercises. And that's the idea being that that's how we should think generally that we’re part of the team making a product. Nicholas Day: 28:40 So within the greater school, do you do feel that the technical department is a support to the acting department, is the curriculum design more driven by the support of the acting stream than the needs of technical production or is it of even importance? Neil Fraser 29:18 It’s fairly even now, it hasn't always been so. I’ve been here a little while. It's been, it's been progressively more the case that it’s even handed because I can say to the director ‘that project or that thing does not serve the learning outcomes of my students, therefore it's not of as great an interest to me as to the acting side’. So we, we do use all productions as vehicles for training. The productions the final year actors are in are very key to the training and we need them and we focused on them a lot and therefore the traditional standard or traditional participation in production that's centre to the training, but we increasingly have budget, ability and space to say we're doing our own thing now, and yes, students increasingly have their own, once passed the first year, they can choose their own options and those options can include not to be part of the production process. For a number of options where they do their own project work, where they do installation, where those of them who wanted to direct or design this becomes more focused to them. So I think, from your question is inevitably the history as well suggest that we started as acting schools and then began to add the additional supporting courses on, that we've come a long way from that now. And I think it's fairly evenly balanced at RADA now. You know, I think it's probably just because I've been there for so long, I've been able to establish a greater authority than someone who's just walked in, so I’ve been working on that for 20 years now. Nicholas Day: 31:10 Right. It sounds like you’re in a good place. Neil Fraser 31:14 Yeah. I mean it won't be doing this job since 2002 and I was already the Head of Lighting at RADA for a period of time and so that was just, you know, you take your dig your heels in and you
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talk the talk and gradually it changes. I think there's no one is deliberately trying to put you in a pigeonhole. I think it's just if you’re lacksidasical in your thinking it just happens. Nicholas Day: 31:46 Everybody wants the best outcomes for their own courses and the Head of Design will want lavish sets of whatever and sometimes scope can kind of grow beyond bounds. Thanks very much. I've got to the end of my list of questions now, so thanks very much for taking apart. Neil Fraser 32:26 good to talk about these things I think. Nicholas Day: 32:30 Well one of the lovely things about this is no matter who I've called in three continents so far, the story is very similar and it makes you feel not alone and we’ve got the same problems. So, what I'll do is I'll transcribe this conversation from the recording and I'll send you a copy that you can have a read of to ensure that I haven't thrown anything that you don't want said. And I thanks very much. Again, you have a lovely Thursday. Neil Fraser 33:19 we've got one more week of opening and then we can rest a little bit over the weekend. Nicholas Day: 33:30 Thanks very much. Cheers. Neil Fraser 33:33 Bye Bye. Bye
Shane Kelly - De Paul – Chicago USA Interview with, Shane Kelly Chair of Design & Technology, Head of Theatre Technology, Head of Projection Design, The Theatre School at DePaul University – 13/09/2018 – 09:07 Nicholas Day: 00:00 Yeah Shane Kelly: 00:02 Oh yeah. I'm happy. You're happy. Cool. I can see me. So, I want to try and flip that around. Yeah, I'm just looking at me now. I got to do that. Anyone, no matter, it's very kind of choppy connection I've got here. Nicholas Day: 00:39 I thought I'd start off initially by giving a little bit of a background to all this. Some time ago, preceding the survey that you filled out a while ago, I was thinking about the kind of culture in Australia and the UK, not too sure about the US whereby the writer, director and designer are referred to as the creatives and then there is the technicians and the actors. Oh, I've lost you. Um, um. Shane Kelly: 03:53 Okay. No. Okay. Nicholas Day: 04:57 I'm just trying to find somehow a bit more bandwidth. Shane Kelly: Yeah, totally understood. I think I had this same problem, okay.
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Nicholas Day I'll tell you that I'm recording this call, I'm recording the audio on this conversation. So, I was giving you a little bit of background. In Australia and the UK, I'm not sure about the US. There's this culture, where the designers, directors and writers are referred to as the creatives and everybody else are technicians. And then there's the actors. So you know, professionally it was an amusing thing I guess, you know, it's ‘Well you can be creative, fine. But when I started working in an educational institution, I found it a weird divisive kind of nomenclature, you know, and something that might for students who are coming in to be trained as technicians might give them a skewed idea of where they might sit in a collaborative group. So my first talking point is that, in the survey which you completed, all the institutions all overwhelmingly agree that creativity is an essential attribute for theatre technicians. So, I was wondering if you could just talk about the manner in which you think both professionally and within an educational context, technicians engaged with creativity. Shane Kelly: 06:47 I think really both professionally and in education, technicians, whichever part of it they're working on, part of their creativity is problem solving for the designer or the director or the playwright who has come up with this idea. I need to solve it and there's never, almost never a straightforward easy way to do it. You have to be creative, you have to come up with some solution that hasn't exactly been done before, and I think as well, like it's really thinking part of the creativity for technicians and something I work on a lot with my students is trying to get them to understand that they have creativity, they have artistry, and part of that creativity and artistry is figuring out how and what they're doing and how they can help make what they're doing contribute more to storytelling, because, as an example, I just talked with one of my students yesterday, it was like, oh, the designer wants this traffic light and this light pole. And it's like totally in the way of everything. I was like, great. Okay. So like, why is that there? Why does that exist? Why is it telling the story? Shane Kelly: 08:17 And then what else can we do. Okay, so how can we do something else and still tell the story, how can we do that without, you know, taking away the storytelling element of the show and make it work and make the lighting designer happy and make everybody else happy. So I think, you know, right, there's a lot of creativity in how you come up with solutions and that, you know, I think while we may not be as technicians, generative artists, I still think there's a lot of creativity in taking the work of the generative artists and adapting that to real life. Shane Kelly: 09:00 Within an educational circumstance. We're teaching teaching people for lifelong learning and they can take this education we're
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giving them and go wherever they like with it and it does occur that students may enter into technical zones and then, the entrepreneurial side of their character takes off to develop festival works or installation or you know, non-textural art forms in their own right. So, in the literature there's a lot of talk about how if people are informed as to their creative type and their personality, how it works creatively and how learning types work creatively and how those given creative types work within groups, there can be a communicators, knowledge people and sales people and different kind of personality types. Shane Kelly: 10:25 They get ideas across the line or go, ‘Oh, I know the person you should talk to’, which I see happen all the time in production collaborations because as the production group get together and that group knowledge if you like, help solve those problems. Like the stop light you talked about, totally masking an actor or something, you know, the answer to that might come from the sound technician or somewhere left field. So I was going to ask you, teach creativity as a stand-alone topic as a subject or a module within your course or do the students interact with creativity solely in the terms of doing Shane Kelly: 11:29 sure. I think for us it is in terms of doing although, we do have a course that all of our first-year undergraduates in design and technology take called the principles of design and that really could be called creativity 101, because they don't ever actually design any scenery or lights or anything like that. It is really about creating things that in some way tell a story in some way, communicate something. For example, one of the projects is that our instructor who teaches that has them do something called an idea container. And so it's like, go make an idea container, Yup, that's, that's the extent of instruction, and so then it's like, what did you make and why did you make it? And there's a lot of both being creative and then talking about in justifying your choices Nicholas Day: 12:52 So you're a four year bachelor course. Yes. And the first year being a foundation year, and then the students specialize in their particular streams, would that be true? Shane Kelly: 13:15 Yeah, I mean it’s not quite as clear cut as ‘at the end of your first year or once you encounter your second year, you now specialize, but there is a little bit of crossover in the first year, but there's a lot of that sort of core competencies like principles of design class, history of dramatic literature, drafting and then they start to go into their own areas. And we have in our program seven, soon to be eight, a BFA degrees, individual degrees, that they may specialize in. And when they come to us, when they start with us, they are already dedicated as like, yes, I am a costume design
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major, I'm a stage management major, whatever, whatever, whatever. Nicholas Day: 14:07 What, are the key learning outcomes do you think when they graduate? What were the most important attributes, graduate attributes to you? Shane Kelly: 14:31 For us, what we’re really focused towards in the learning outcomes at the end of the four years, It's really like, how do we say it? We said having a design perspective or a creative perspective, you know, something that is of your own style, your own way of working. That's certainly one of them. And of course, another one of the big ones is being able to be collaborative, to work in various collaborative environments and then like take ideas and stories and other suggestions and create those into something that you will share with other people. One of the things we don't necessarily say succinctly, but we make it very clear to our students over the years is this is just the beginning. This is just the foundation. Like you will continue learning. We know that honestly, some of you will leave entertainment altogether. Some of you will leave the theatre, but it's like if we are succeeding, we're making you good collaborators and good problem solvers and good communicators, creative folks who can work with others no matter in what field. Nicholas Day: 16:04 Yeah. Okay. Nicholas Day: 16:12 Sorry, did I lose you? In industry I’ve found a design presentation can range from being a briefing of what the director wants onstage to, an open invitation to collaborate, you know, he is my world, give me some ideas. And so I was just wondering, pursuant to kind of what you just said, to what degree you feel when your students graduate feeling empowered to enter into those kind of situations even if they're not in a design role. Shane Kelly: Right. Yeah. I think the, you know, Shane Kelly: 17:21 How empowered do they feel? I think, I think right by the time they graduate from our program, they feel quite empowered and quite open to having these conversations together. Um, I know, right, for many of them it changes, changes when they get out to a, a first sort of job out there as they start to try and navigate. Shane Kelly: 17:45 But I mean I do think, you know, we make them, we make them practice many times while they're in school and usually that starts somewhere in there beyond the principles of design class. It's usually start somewhere in their second year and so they've got at least three plus years of right, of giving feedback, contributing and discussing and trying to talk about how they can ideally support other people's ideas. Nicholas Day: 18:17 Oh, you,
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Shane Kelly: 18:20 yeah. Nicholas Day: 18:22 Okay. I'm going to have to move again. Can I call you back in a couple of minutes? So just got to move locations. I jumped into somebody else's spot apparently Shane Kelly: 18:37 I'll get back to you and said, yeah, no worries. Okay. Nicholas Day: 18:43 I'm in search of a bandwidth. Hopeless. Nicholas Day: 19:29 Hi again. Again, I called my first. My first place didn't work at all and the next one I walked into was already booked by somebody else, but I think this is safe. We're on semester break and this is the student's studio. So with any luck it'll work. Um, where, uh, where was I up to? Oh yeah. So when, when you're with your colleagues and you're talking about curriculum and pedagogy within your course designs, does the subject of creative personalities come into the conversation. Where I'm trying to get at is a lot of respondents in the survey kind of said, we don't deal with creativity per se as a subject within our course, but it's inherent in everything we do, which is fine, which is good. I'm doing something that's creative, therefore I am creative, but you know, the literature makes you think that the more you know about your own personality, your own sort of creative type and the types that other people might be around you, the easier that kind of collaboration can be, the easier it is to find your way within a group. I was just kind of wondering within it within your curriculum, whether you steer people in any kind of way or in the design of projects etc. Shane Kelly: 21:31 Yeah, that's a great question. I think it's really the answer is no, not really. Not that I can think of. I think a lot of the respondents as you referenced, a lot of conversation about this is what we do and we sort of fully believes that there is creativity at the foundation of all that, but we don't talk about it that much. We don't talk about these creative personalities or creative types, though it's an idea I'm probably going to do some more investigating in and use for my collaboration class. Nicholas Day: 22:12 So it's, well, you know one of the things that interest me too is that a lot of the research in the creativity came out of Harvard and Berkeley and there's all these people out there, who are teaching MBA’s. They have creativity at the core of their research, but you know, within environments like ours we see it as this thing, we're all, we're all just creative, you know? Shane Kelly: 22:49 right. And doing the business part of things. Nicholas Day: 22:53 So you guys are a four year, we're a three year here and in the UK it’s a two year and then honors structure, but they're all
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similar in the sense that there’s learning of skills, learning through production work, do some more skills, more advanced skills, more production, more advanced skills, more production and then, and then your role within those predictions, productions steps up until you're like in a lead role upon graduation. Now with the timing of those productions, it was acknowledged that within the production timeline, especially with performances that are going to a public audience. Nicholas Day: 23:57 So there's all the inherent pressures of an opening night there. So, the time addressing scheduling of a, of a production and the need to turn around all these kinds of creative solutions within that within that timeline, which as an educational event is, fantastic in that when these people get into the industry, they won’t be totally overwhelmed and shocked by it. However a lot of people felt that there isn't really adequate time for reflection and analysis, how things went, in a really detailed way. I was wondering if you felt that was true and if you any thoughts about, in an ideal world, what would your structure be? Shane Kelly: 25:06 Sure. Yeah, I mean it, uh, yeah, certainly, uh, certainly for us there's not there. There's a sense that there's not enough time for reflection and review and, and, and discussion afterwards. It's something we actually talked quite a bit about a and trying to find other ways Shane Kelly: 25:27 I think it all, it's hard. It's like many of our students start to feel like they are just part of a production machine and getting feedback or response. I think for one of my students right now who I was talking about the traffic light, we're like, right, that's the cost out for her second show of the year. Her first show of the year hasn't even been loaded in, hasn't even been put in. It's still getting built. And so that sort of overlap for our students because of our schedule, also makes it really challenging because it's, by the time, by the time you had the experience, learn the lessons, had some feedback or conversation about the lessons you might be moving on. And so we've talked about for us, trying to do, trying to actually modify our planning and our schedules and our requirements for the students to try and Shane Kelly: 26:44 give them a little more time off in between things that you used to be for some programs that students do three assignments per year, so they worked on three different shows in that year, even the lead technicians or lead designers might do two or three shows per year in that role. And so we've talked about trying to eliminate some of that. Shane Kelly: : 27:17 and we've also been trying to,
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Shane Kelly: 27:22 trying to sort of individually, each of us, those design tech faculty work on finding ways to have more conversation and feedback in the moment and not have to, you know, trying to like help ourselves and help our students understand that like, right, we don't need to like get to the end before we can have have reflection. Nicholas Day: 27:47 Okay. So ongoing tutorial throughout the process. Shane Kelly: 27:56 Yeah, that's what we're striving for. We're certainly not there yet, but that's, I think we are working towards. Nicholas Day: 28:03 Okay. There’s people out there looking at virtual performance spaces and all kinds of interactivity etc. How do you see the training technical training changing in the next 20 years or so. I do kind of have any concepts on that? Shane Kelly: 28:34 that's really interesting. It's like a good colleague of mine in Toronto is into a lot of this sort of virtual performance research and that sort of stuff that's really awesome and it's really cool. But I also am like, Ha, I still don't quite see how we're going to fully incorporate that into our work. And I think there is still a, I'm still in many ways betting on, banking on, and I feel like, uh, I'm seeing an upswing in some ways in the United States here. A desire or a push towards being in a space with other people. There's still this sort of like push that direction and I, sorry about that. Uh, even some in that realm in the last few years of like where it was like, yeah, I'm going to stay home and watch netflix. There's become a bit more of like I want to. It's important for me to be in this community space to people. Shane Kelly: 29:42 And so while I think like some virtual work or even these disconnected and stories where you're on a headset and you're being guided through the city all by herself. I think those are certainly part of the part of the game in the future, but I don't think we're going to fully divest ourselves of our traditional work at this point. But I do think it's important for technicians especially, and really for everybody in the industry to keep up with what's out there for technology, what’s possible. Now I think it's a shame, I cannot right now find the money to deal with drones or virtual reality equipment or any of that sort of stuff, and that's what is cutting edge right now and we just can't find our way to that cutting edge. Nicholas Day: 31:02 Um, I was wondering, In your institution. Do to the students to have opportunities where they can kind of work outside their own discipline. So, you know, do they have like um, a student led things where they kind of swapped around roles and stuff like that or you know, Shane Kelly:: 31:24 we're actually just starting that, this fall is our first a student produced theatre festival. So we're doing festival weekends, a one
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each of the three quarters that were in school. Um, and the idea, a lot of the push is this is a place to push yourself outside of what you normally do, or explore something else or try something else, but it's, it's brand new. We've had like two rehearsals in that realm. So we're really, really, really have no idea how well it's going to work or if people are going to fall back into their normal spots. Nicholas Day: 32:14 Is the school of Performing Arts within De Paul, is it a totally isolated from the rest of the university or are the students free to choose electives from the greater institution? Or is everything studied within the performance school. Shane Kelly: 32:43 Yeah. So all our undergraduates, the majority of our students are all required to take nine or 12 core courses that are outside elsewhere in the university, so there's a requirement for them to do that, and at time, and we do encourage them to explore some things outside. But we really are in isolated space from a physical standpoint, we're on the edge of campus. There's not really any other academic buildings directly next to us except the school of art media and design, so we do a lot of swapping with them, but we've also, in recent years there's been a number of students who have sort of found interest in this and pushed to make some connections with our digital cinema department, and really, and so now we've recently, it's like the third year of a, um, a production design concentration. So our scenic design students can take some production design courses at the digital cinema school and the digital cinema students can take some scenic design courses here at the theatre school. And so, that's been a, great a crossover and it's nice to have. It's nice for us to have different faces and different folks and different perspectives in our classrooms because right from many of my first year here, it was right. I just teach the same folks all the time. Nicholas Day: 34:51 Okay, great. And where, where do you feel technical theatre sits within the school? Do you think the technical stream is on a level playing field with everybody else? Or does it support the acting stream. What's the dynamic there with your school? Shane Kelly: 35:35 Sure. I think, uh, I think there's a, there's a feeling among several folks in the design and tech department that right design tech is serving performances needs, often times. Even in recent discussion about where and when in our season that we’re fitting in new plays, and that in particular was something that was just sort of decided upon by the folks in performance and we were just told to make it happen. There wasn't any kind of conversation about, okay, so like what does working on new plays mean for designers and technicians? While that's it, we know it's important that we agree it's important, but you decided to do a new play in a place where we assign our second year students to do their first sort of thing. That's 365
not a, that's not awesome for them. And so I think there's certainly some feeling about that. But I also know that there some feelings elsewhere in the school about design tech and theatre technology in some ways that we're sort of running things because all of the production staff, all or you know, all of this theatre, technical directors, production managers, master electricians, all that. Although professional staff sort of fall within the design tech department with me. And so we have a little bit more interest and sway in some things because we're dealing both from an academic standpoint and from a production practical standpoint. Nicholas Day: 37:32 Well, I've gotten to the end of my list. Shane. Thanks very much for taking the time out and chatting with me. What I'll do is I'll transcribe this and I'll send you the transcript so that you can read this to make sure that I haven't made stuff up and I'll ask you at that point whether you kind of mind being quoted or whether you’d prefer to be totally anonymous. So thanks very much and uh, have a lovely evening. Shane Kelly: 38:15 Thank you. Have a great day, Nick. It's been a pleasure. Nicholas Day: 38:18 Okay, thank you. Cheers. Bye.
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RESUMÉ
Nicholas Day 2/12 Burge Street Mbl - 0417 248 697 Vaucluse NSW 2030 E-mail - [email protected]
Education 1975 - 1976 National Art School Sydney NSW Graphic Design Diploma (not completed) 1977 - 1980 Alexander Mackie C.A.E. Sydney NSW Diploma of Arts (Painting, Photography, Electromedia)
Developed Skills Extensive project management and organisational skills. Excellent conceptualisation & interpretation of strategies and objectives. Computer literacy in both PC & Mac environments, incl. CAD drafting. Competency in undertaking projects with minimal supervision. Effective oral and written communication and interpersonal skills.
Accreditations Class HR Drivers Licence RA – Advanced rigging ticket Fundamentals of Learning and Teaching UNSW WP – WK Platform over 11 metres LF – Forklift trucks Workcover NSW: OH&S Consultation RHOHS204A Work Safely at Heights CPCCWHS1001 White Card NSW Fire Brigade: First Attack Firefighting
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Professional 2006 until present National Institute of Dramatic Art experience NSW Production Manager / Course Leader Scenic Construction and Technologies Production management of NIDA’s Play Production program. Oversight of three BDA courses 2006 – 2012 Wrote BDA Staging 2011 Head of Scenic Construction and Technologies 2012 - present Member of NIDA Directorate & OH&S Committee (Management)
2005/6 Urban Theatre Projects NSW Production Management ‘Back Home’ site specific production for The Sydney Festival
2005 Theatre of Image NSW Production Management ‘Go Pinocchio’ Theatre production
2005 Theatre of Image NSW Production Management ‘Stella and the Moonman’ Theatre production
2005 Sydney Dance Company NSW Construction consultant / drafting ‘Mulan’ SDC – Shanghai City Dance Company co-production
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2005 Sydney Dance Company NSW Construction management ‘Grand’ 2005 touring production
2004 Sydney Theatre Company NSW Mechanical design ‘The Miser’ Drama Theatre Sydney Opera House
2004 Sydney Theatre Company NSW Mechanical design ‘The Unlikely Prospect of Happiness’ Sydney Theatre
2004 Sydney Dance Company NSW Construction Management ‘Shades of Gray’ Touring dance theatre production Sydney Opera House, Victorian Arts Centre, Canberra Playhouse QPAC Brisbane
2004 Sydney Theatre Company NSW Mechanical design ‘Amigos’ Sydney Opera House – National tour
2003 / 4 Legs On The Wall / Sydney Festival 2004 NSW Production Management ‘Eora Crossing’ Outdoor aerial / theatre festival event, Museum Of Sydney
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2003 Sydney Theatre Company NSW Mechanical Design ‘Myopia’ Sydney Theatre
2003 Legs On The Wall Inc. NSW Production Management ‘Flying Blind’ Australian tour
2003 JAK Pty Ltd NSW Construction ‘Star Wars’ feature film
2003 Canute Productions NSW Production Manager Production of ‘Soldier Boy’ Theatre Production
2003 Sydney Theatre Company NSW Mechanical design ‘Major Barbara’ Theatre Production
2002 Marrugeku Company (Arnhem Land) Brazil Tour Production Manager ‘Crying Baby’ Outdoor Physical Touring Theatre Production
2002 Burley Man Productions NSW Set Decoration ‘Matrix 2 & 3’ Feature film. Fox Studios
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2002 Sydney Theatre Company NSW Mechanical design ‘Volpone’ Theatre Production
2002 4D International NSW Site Manager ‘Opera in the Vineyards’ Outdoor music festival, Wyndham Estate
2001 Sydney Festival NSW Event Manager ‘Kayassine’ Les Arts Sauts - The Domain Sydney
2001 Cambridge Events / Fox NSW Production Manager ‘Moulin Rouge DVD Launch’ and touring exhibit
2001 Sydney Festival NSW Stage Supervisor ‘Mitridate’ Staging of Covent Garden production
2001 Very Quiet Productions NSW Construction ‘The Quiet American’ feature film
2000 Dilchatahai productions NSW Construction Manager ‘Dilchatahai’ Australian segment of Hindi Feature Film
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1996 - 2000 The Bell Shakespeare Company NSW Production Manager Management of all aspects of production and development of company policy
1990 - 1996 Sydney Theatre Company NSW Realisation from model ‘Tap Dogs’
1990 - 1996 Cameron Mackintosh NSW Props Buyer ‘Phantom of the Opera’
1990 - 1996 Sydney Theatre Company NSW Realisation from model ‘The Fall Of Singapore’
1990 - 1996 Sydney Theatre Company NSW Head mechanist Numerous national tours and house productions
1990 - 1996 Film Australia NSW Art Direction 2 x Short films featuring Ernie Dingo highlighting cultural awareness
1990 - 1996 United Distillers Australia/Verve Cliquot NSW Event Design & Production ‘An Evening In Champagne’ Corporate launch
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1986 - 1990 Lynn Franks PR / Courtalds UK Event Design & Production ‘Tricel Fashion Awards’ Marble Arch, London
1986 - 1990 Lynn Franks PR UK Event Design & Production ‘Life Begins @ Forty’ Fashion Event, Shepherds Bush, London
1990 - 1996 Jonathan Sceats Eyewear NSW Event Design & Production Season Launch, Grange Stables RAS Showground Sydney
1990 - 1996 Belvoir St. Theatre NSW Construction management ‘Hamlet’ Theatre production
1985 - 1990 Dennis Smith Promotions Aust/UK Set Design & Production Management Five Australian & International touring productions for Barry Humphries
1984 - 1985 Reg Grundy Productions NSW Series set dresser ‘Possession’ series television drama
1983 - 1984 Australian Broadcasting Commission NSW Stand-by props / set dresser ‘AFI Awards, Sweet and Sour, Displaced Persons, Palace of Dreams
373
1981 - 1983 Sydney Opera House Trust NSW Mechanist, Machine desk operator Various productions for The Australian Opera, Australian Ballet, Sydney Dance Company, Sydney Theatre Company
374
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