Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2020 - 35

live camera operator, who was my intern
that year, and just being able to do a massive amount of video was a great experience." Deity required a combination of
Allgeier's skills as a projection specialist and his experience in video editing
and production in equal measure, and
it seems to have been uniquely suited to
his background and expertise.

Embracing the Technical
Component

Allgeier's media design work has been
seen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music,
the Mark Taper Forum, Syracuse Stage,
and other theatres across the country.
Perhaps the main difference between his
role at those theatres and his role at ATL
is his ability to delegate technical notes
to others when he's working outside of
ATL's doors. In Louisville, Allgeier has a
great deal more responsibility as he continues to design his shows. Whenever
outside media designers come to work
at ATL, which sometimes happens if
a project has a designer attached to it
in advance of a planned production in
Louisville, Allgeier supports them as
a technician and engineer, and builds

MFA

ACTING
COSTUME PRODUCTION
TECHNICAL PRODUCTION

Philip Allgeier at work recording footage in his Media
Studio, 2019. | Photo by Michael DeWhatley, courtesy of
Actors Theatre of Louisville.

the systems they design. "The job has
always included both artistic and technical elements, but I've tried to keep myself positioned in a way that allows me
to continue designing shows, because I
like doing it," Allgeier says. "Any media
designer is going to require technical
knowledge about the equipment needed

to accomplish their vision for the project
they're working on."
When Allgeier is the designer on a
project, he often works without the support of a technical crew assigned solely
to projections. Thus, he juggles his
design-related questions with engineering and programming notes, issues that
may come up with the backstage video
monitors in the booths and deck, and occasionally coaching the people assigned
to run projections during performances.
Allgeier's designs are often executed by
people without a background in media
technology. At Actors Theatre, projections have been run by deck carpenters,
lighting technicians on the lightboard,
sound technicians from the soundboard,
assistant stage managers (who may have
run frantically from a quick change just
in time to make the cue), production assistants, acting apprentices, or apprentices from other departments. In only
three of Allgeier's 11 years at ATL has
he been afforded a media apprentice
to run the shows, though he seems fine
with the lack of trained personnel. "It
would be lovely to have a second person
who could actually run video," Allgeier

THEATRE
THAT

MOVES.

drama.unc.edu

playmakersrep.org

Shanelle Nicole Leonard '19 Sense & Sensibility
Photo by HuthPhoto.
WINTER 2020 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

| 35

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Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2020

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