Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2022 - 31

with playing with power tools (Wright
2016). Exactly zero of the Broadway
stagehands I interviewed see their job as
a consolation, and it is increasingly frustrating
to hear Wright's reasoning echoed
in educational settings after hearing the
voices of technicians whose passions for
and curiosity about stagecraft provide a
persuasive counter-reasoning for learning
technical skills-skills learned not
as a supplement to other artistic pursuits
but as a holistic complement to a
student's social and intellectual development.
Skills that shape new perspectives
and provide alternate, legitimate ways of
knowing theatrical performance.
In the commercial theatre, the direct
actions of unions confront the social and
economic hierarchies that devalue the
work of technicians; when the same hierarchies
influence production work in educational
theatre, faculty need to dedicate
resources and adopt pedagogical strategies
to confront similar devaluations. I
began Working Backstage by expressing
the pride I once felt performing technical
work in a university theatre department,
and I witness a similar pride expressed
by my students learning the same skills.
But I am also concerned by their seemingly
endless exhaustion. Students who
identify primarily as technicians feel
pressured to take on more backstage
responsibilities because fewer of their
peers are willing to engage in work with
little recognition. The resentment that
wells up from technicians-that " shop
floor " feeling as identified by Knowles-
comes from hundreds of unintentional
slights by student collaborators and faculty
(Knowles 2004, 29). While it is unlikely
that we can substantially change
the production practices cemented in
our existing spaces, tools, and technologies,
we can confront the hierarchies we
have inherited from the commercial industry
by giving intentional value to all
department work practices, bridging departmental
work divides, and helping students
experience the creativity of a wider
range of skills.
Christin Essin is an associate
professor of theatre history at
Vanderbilt University. Her
book, Working Backstage,
was published by the
University of Michigan Press last September,
and her first book, Stage Designers in Early
Twentieth Century America (2012), won
USITT's 2015 Golden Pen award. She
previously served on USITT's publications
committee and has written numerous essays
on theatre design artistry, technology, and
backstage labor.
Works Cited
Breithaupt, Fritz. February 6, 2017. " Designing a Lab
in the Humanities. " Chronicle of Higher Education.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/designing-a-labin-the-humanities/
Greguska,
Emma. Feburary 21, 2019. " Confronting
Grand Social Challenges with Humanities. " ASU
Now: Access, Excellence, Impact. https://news.asu.
edu/20190221-solutions-confronting-grand-socialchallenges-humanities
Knowles,
Richard Paul. 2004. Reading the Material
Theatre. Theatre and Performance Theory.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wright, K. C. March 29, 2016. " 5 Reasons All Actors
Should Do Stage Crew. " Backstage. https://www.
backstage.com/magazine/article/reasons-actorsstage-crew-7006/
WITH
THE AWARD WINNING G e t t h e I d e a l
F u s I o n o F
P e r F o r m a n c e ,
F e a t u r e s
a n d V a l u e
WINTER 2022 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | 31

https://www.chronicle.com/article/designing-a-lab-in-the-humanities/ https://www.chronicle.com/article/designing-a-lab-in-the-humanities/ https://news.asu.edu/20190221-solutions-confronting-grand-social-challenges-humanities https://news.asu.edu/20190221-solutions-confronting-grand-social-challenges-humanities https://news.asu.edu/20190221-solutions-confronting-grand-social-challenges-humanities https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/reasons-actors-stage-crew-7006/ https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/reasons-actors-stage-crew-7006/ https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/reasons-actors-stage-crew-7006/

Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2022

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