Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2009 - 14

what are we teaching?
This is a fundamental question, and one without an easy answer. As Bob Bovard indicates, the employment field our students are entering is huge: "the problem has become that the
world has really expanded, and you're getting all of these...experts, who bring all of these parts to it." Randy deCelle agrees:
"I wanted to expand [our program] a little more to give people
the thought that 'Okay, you can do this, or you can do this, or
you can do this,' because there are so many paths for a technical director [student]. There's traditional technical direction,
and then project management, or, you know, any of those kinds
of things."
The size of the employment field means that there are almost limitless possibilities for our students when they graduate; however, it also means we need to figure out how best to
prepare them for whatever opportunities might present themselves. For many, this means you try to cover as many of the
"basics" as possible. Bob Bovard says, "Everyone organizes
their theatres according to their missions, according to their
personalities, and we're putting people out there who I hope
are broad-based...we do broad-based, because we can't know
[if you're] going regional theatre, or going academic-very
small, underfunded-or [if you're going] high-end, research
oriented. They're all out there." Randy deCelle agrees: "We use
theatre as a training ground. I'm not necessarily saying that
we're training for theatre...It just so happens that three or four
graduate students that graduated [last year]-and even coming up this year-most of them are going commercial. Most of
them are going to project management type jobs, theatre consulting type jobs, things like that, versus the educational path.
So it was giving them the ability to get those basic skills."
For programs like Professor Bovard's or Professor deCelle's, these basics break down into traditional theatrical
construction skills-carpentry, metal-working, welding, etc.-

The size of the

employment field

means
that there are almost

limitless

possibilities for our
students
12

theatre

when they graduate...

design

&

technology

W I N T E R

2009

and complex scenic technology skills; Professor Bovard says,
"Things like automation, like what for a while were called
'higher-end technologies,' are becoming common things that
are listed in job descriptions. So for us, we're just giving students at least a little taste of, a little experience in, automation,
or hydraulics, or those kinds of things, mostly so they won't
be afraid of it when they get out." The more complex skills
get taught in the classroom, while the basics get picked up as
part of the assistantship work; Professor deCelle: "The way I do
things, their assistantship keeps them in touch with traditional
training. Working in the scene shop, that's where they're going
to learn their engineering techniques."
Professor deCelle continues: "I've got a new student in
right now, who's like, 'When do we learn to build with steel?'
And I'm going, we can teach you structures, but how do you-
if they've never done steel construction-how do teach them
to build with steel and engineer with steel, beyond 'safe structures.' 'How do you build with steel?' Well, you go down to the
shop, and you pick up that stuff."
While one could add courses in the traditional skills as
well, one of the drawbacks of this, of course, is trying to cover
the sheer volume of material. Again, Professor Bovard: "I taught
twelve different classes over three years-and there were other
people contributing. It was difficult to cover all of the material:
[the students] couldn't ever get sick; I couldn't get sick." One
solution to this problem, pointed out by Professor deCelle, is to
leverage other disciplines at the college or university: "I think
of the student we had that wanted to do architectural consulting. Well, we have a big architecture school [at University of
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign], so as part of his program we let
him take architecture classes. We're structured with some core
classes, and then they have a set of credits that they have to
discuss with their advisor."
Another solution to this proliferation of courses, as Professor Bovard refers to it, is pushing students to work outside
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2009
