Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2022 - 42

Jo Mielziner working with students at The University of Utah. | USITT Archives.
In any given theatre program, whether
a liberal arts bachelor's program (BA)
or a professional training bachelor of
fine arts (BFA) school, there is a significant
imbalance between those who
identify themselves as a future performer,
only wishing to be onstage, versus
those who aspire to remain behind the
curtain working diligently backstage.
This percentage of those pursuing design
and technical studies is often no
more than 20 percent of the undergraduate
student population in any program,
yet in most commercial production situations,
and particularly in film and television,
the obverse is true. Read through
any program prior to the curtain going
up or sit through the credits at the
end of any streamed series or movie
and count of the number of individuals
listed in performance roles versus
those involved in enabling the resulting
production. Designers and technicians
frequently exceed the number of performers
by tenfold or more. I have often
used this evidence to help allay the fears
of a concerned parent about their newly
enrolled student's choice to pursue
technical theatre as a major. However,
the production atmosphere that greets
Productions
should be
selected
with clearly
articulated
academic
goals front
and center.
those few who enter, passionately pursuing
an education or career in theatre
design and technology, can rapidly undermine
their educational journey.
As Essin states: " Faculty and staff
need to be sure that labor theorized
and justified in curricular programming
and syllabi translates to everyday shop
practices, regardless of looming deadlines,
fewer resources, and students
with undeveloped skills. " Yet experience
42 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | SUMMER 2022
suggests that such an approach is either
extremely rare or possibly non-existent,
for design and technology needs and
limits are seldom given the same relative
weight in educational theatre season
selection compared to criteria such
as box office appeal, number of roles,
traditional gender breakdown, educational
demands of period or genre, and
personal desires of available directors.
While serving as a producer, leading a
selection process, and ultimately deciding
the season for the following academic
year, my goal was always best
described as hoping that all involved
would be equally upset when the final
decision was announced. Compromise
is the name of the game when projecting
a production season, but such a
challenging process begins with a full
acknowledgement of competing demands.
Once the challenge is named,
success is much more likely.
So how do theatre programs respond
to the conditions that Essin has brought
to light? What are tangible changes that
could be made to help students better
experience the true nature of backstage
creativity and work? Put another way,
are there ways in which production
practices can be changed for a better
educational and production experience
for all involved? While fully admitting
that my own success rate with these
suggested approaches may well be below
.500, I offer the following for your
consideration.
Focus on process more than product.
A cohesive and artistically solid
production should always remain as an
aspirational goal, but the true purpose
of a college show is to enable student
learning. Productions should be selected
with clearly articulated academic
goals front and center. Campus productions
are presented to a most forgiving
audience who value the personal and
professional development of students
involved often far more that the positive
critical review by the local arts reporter.
Link all production activities to the
whole. When students arrive to " put in
their mandatory shop hours, " provide a
basic orientation to the script, the design,
the production personnel involved,
and the calendar. For my first collegiate
production, my primary contribution
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