Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2020 - 33

team members are working on and then
sharing it with the rest of the world. The
interconnected nature of Allgeier's work
also allows for the intriguing opportunity
to think of a production department as
a revenue-generating department for a
theatre, since so much of the media technologist's work goes into forming grant
proposals, fundraising drives, and motivating ticket sales.

Relishing the Design Component

Among the unique aspects of Allgeier's
position at ATL is that his position permits him to be a resident designer for
a theatre that has no other resident designers. That has been a big and fairly
recent change for Actors Theatre. "I
have worked here at a time when every
department had a resident designer," remembers Allgeier, "and I consider myself
very lucky to still be a resident designer
at a time when that is incredibly rare."
As almost all of ATL's productions
are designed by guest artists who may
or may not have any pre-existing relationship with the theatre, having Allgeier on
the team means that there is someone
involved in the design conversations on
an artistic level who, as Allgeier says,
"can also inform or be a part of the larger
theatre's conversation, which can be so
helpful to turn a design conversation
towards what's exciting and possible."
At the same time, many design teams
are formed through personal relationships, especially with the director, and
occasionally those teams may not know
Allgeier's work or fully understand his
role within the organization. "It's a tough
field because not every show needs video, and not every show has video. So
sometimes you work with other designers or directors who have never used video before," Allgeier says, recognizing not
only the newness of his area of expertise,
but also the complex team dynamics
with which he works.
Allgeier clearly values a collaborative and team-based approach to the creation of live performance and does not
have much ego surrounding his work.
Indeed, while many theatre technicians
can relate to the feeling of loss that results when a carefully crafted prop is
cut from a show before the first preview,
Allgeier takes it a step further. Some
shows really benefit from his work as
a designer, but not all of them require

Projection test image featuring Philip Allgeier used in preparation for Actors Theatre of Louisville's I Will Be Gone,
2015, directed by Kip Fagan. | Photo by Philip Allgeier, courtesy of Philip Allgeier.

his services. "I have done shows where
I came on to the project, developed a
system, loaded in projectors, built content, and then had a director change
their mind after the first preview, and
the whole design was cut. I packed up
my tech table and left. The process is a
little more fluid, especially with a new
play." The flexibility to cut a design at the
last minute is something that can be really advantageous to theatre with a resident Media Specialist or Technologist
who can scrap their work on that show
but not have to be paid out for a design
that does not exist; rather, the designer's
energies can be redirected into the next
job that needs doing, which may well be
a marketing project.
Allgeier's approach to designing

plays, and new plays in particular, starts
with the script. The script usually indicates fairly directly which projections
are necessary for the show, especially if
those projections are scene titles, supertitles for scenes that depict multiple languages, or specific images or videos that
the play references. However, the script
is not the only place where Allgeier looks
to find inspiration and guidance. The
director, scenic designer, and lighting
designer can all be critical collaborators
who may decide that a show requires
projections, even if the script does not
call for them directly. On new plays in
particular, as the script changes, sometimes with a few line adjustments, or
occasionally with entirely new scenes
or stylistic shifts, projections can be

WINTER 2020 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

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