Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2021 - 57

permitting. It is indeed a " recipe book "
from which the reader or instructor may
tweak or embellish to achieve their personal goals.
Amy Cain is a professional costume
designer and technician working in
New York City as a tailor cutter for John
Kristiansen New York Inc., as well as a
sewing instructor at the New York Sewing
Center. She earned her MFA in costume
design from Illinois State University in
2014.

Collaborating Backstage:
Breaking Barriers in the Creative
Network
By Timo Niermann
Methuen Drama, 2019, 191 pages
Paperback $26.95
Reviewed by Mark Fossen
With a rich and varied biography, Timo
Niermann has experienced nearly every facet of building creative events.
Luckily for the reader, he has thought
deeply about how it all works. In Collaborating Backstage: Breaking Barriers in the Creative Network, Niermann
focuses on the most valuable asset
in any event: the people who make it

work. While the rules of effective creative collaboration can be ephemeral,
personal, and difficult to communicate, Niermann manages the complex
charge of being descriptive, but never
proscriptive.
While creative leadership and
collaboration have been explored in
works such as Tobie S. Stein's Leadership in the Performing Arts, Roznowski and Domer's Collaboration
in Theatre, and Knopf's The Director
as Collaborator, it is Niermann's variety of experience that gives a different
scope to this text and acts as the foundation of the book itself. Borrowing a
term from a 1982 Steve Jobs speech,
Niermann emphasizes that the disparity in any group's " bag of experiences "
is its greatest strength. He says, " Everything we have seen, lived, or consumed in our lives ends up in this bag
of experiences-our personal pool of
creativity. When we are working on
new, innovative projects, the gathered
components become our box of tools
to work with. " While Niermann's lived
experience defines the thrust of this
work, he backs it up with research that
is as varied culturally and socially as
his subject matter. From leadership
texts to cultural anthropology, from
psychology to genetics to directing, he
casts a wide net to bring in science,
data, and concepts that support his
ideas.
From a variety theatre outside of
Berlin, at the foot of the Giza Pyramids, on cruise ships, at the Feria
Nacional de Xmatukil, and the 2005

Dubai World Cup, Niermann's experience is deeply international in both
venue and collaborators. It is one thing
to address collaboration and leadership
in a culturally homogenous setting and
another to cross languages, cultures,
and disciplines. In the chapter titled Intercultural Alignment, Niermann pays
special attention to an understanding
of the danger of stereotypes, while acknowledging that differences between
cultures do exist. Collaboration involves
not only regional differences, but " social cultures " organized around a job
or shared social background. While a
French technician may share regional
cultural norms with the French dancer
on stage, that same technician may
share another set of social norms with
the British stagehand or the Japanese
stage manager.
One of the more eye-opening sections is focused on cultural perceptions
of time. Niermann points out one of
the most challenging aspects of intercultural collaboration can be a conflict
between American/European " monochronic " time which flows in a singletasked, linear, orderly fashion focused
on the clock and a " polychronic " time
seen in Latin America, Africa, and Asia
that values multitasking, personal relationships, and intuitiveness. He carefully examines each, providing examples
of their strengths and considering how
they can work together.
After laying out a set of principles
in well-organized chapters, Niermann
puts it all together in what he calls his
" T-I-M-O technique, " focusing on the

Whether it is designing organizational
charts and reporting responsibilities,
or hydrating while touring, the author
includes a well-labeled and concise
connection to a real-world example. These
snippets reinforce his ideas even as they
keep the book massively entertaining.
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Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2021

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