Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2024 - 25

studio-based learning, PBL techniques
and elements of studio-based learning
still can be used in the many academic
settings where a lighting lab or equipped
studio is not available. In lesson plans
that Studio School of Design has been
developing for use in schools without
labs, effective problem-solving can be accomplished
with very inexpensive and
easily obtained equipment like clip-lights
and ladders to stand in for a full studio
with theatrical lights. More important
than fancy theatrical equipment, a facilitator
should create an environment where
students can work with light on human
performers at full scale. This can be accomplished
in almost any classroom,
and it is more effective than a computer
simulator because it more accurately
models
the
future working
environment.
Real-world problems of extreme
import to a lighting designer, like working
with different skin tones, costume
fabrics, and scenic treatments, are all
nearly impossible to simulate effectively
in a computer-based environment. While
pre-visualization in the computer-based
environment has an important place in
theatrical lighting and lighting training, its
proper place is at an advanced level when
learners already have experience in real
theatrical environments to transpose and
contextualize the experience of the computer
simulation to an actual stage with
performers.
Additionally, PBL can help to address
the reality that many instructors are not
experts in all areas of theatre, particularly
at the high school level. Studio School of
Design (SSD), a non-accredited theatrical
lighting design school in New York, has
begun offering professional development
workshops for high school theatre educators
who are not subject-matter experts in
design (Studio School of Design 2022).
The target participants are schools with
one, usually non-technical, theatre teacher.
Designing PBL prompts for non-expert
facilitators is crucial for the success
of this program because many schools
use theatrical lighting in their stage productions
and have learners interested
in theatrical lighting but lack the means
to employ a technical theatre teacher.
The SSD program empowers teachers
without technical theatre experience to
facilitate lighting design learning in their
classrooms and school play productions.
SSD has written the course materials to
meet New York and New Jersey learning
standards. These experiential initiatives
have benefitted teachers and learners in
Title 1 high schools with little access to
any other theatrical lighting design training
(Studio School of Design 2022).
Knowing by Doing
The 3C3R model can be used to refine the
processes and design of problems in theatrical
lighting design education. Benefits of
problem-based learning in theatrical lighting
design training include better modeling
of the profession, increasing " knowing-bydoing "
(Schön 1985, 22) in a scaffolded
and ordered environment, increasing social
and collaborative skills, and increasing
general problem-solving skills.
In other fields, educators have worked
together to create commonly accessible
repositories of PBL problems. Currently,
there are no such repositories of problems
for TLD. However, much of this
work is already being practiced informally
in TLD programs. Many programs may
benefit from better problem designs afforded
through rigorous analyses across
all the parts of the enhanced 3C3R model.
Well-designed PBL has the potential to
democratize design learning, an original
goal of Gropius and the Bauhaus school,
to center it on learners' experiences. TLD
as a profession arose from a practice of
craft less than 100 years ago (Rosenthal
& Wertenbaker 1972). The profession's
strengths have always been this history of
craft and learning by doing. The evidencebased
application of SBL and PBL can
invigorate and nurture learners within the
classroom and open the profession to a
broader group of practitioners.
Clifton Taylor is a practicing
theatrical designer and an
associate professor of lighting
design at UNCSA. He is also
one of the founders of the Studio
School of Design in New York, a 501c3
organization dedicated to providing costeffective
and no-cost design training to a broad
population of educators, secondary-school learners
in Title 1 public institutions and early and midcareer
professionals. Taylor received a BFA in
theatrical design from New York University and
has 35 years of internationally recognized
professional practice. He is the author of the book
Color & Light: Navigating Color Mixing in
the Midst of an LED Revolution, A
Handbook for Lighting Designers.
Works Cited
Barrows, Howard S. & Robyn M. Tamblyn. 1980.
Problem-based learning: An approach to medical
education. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Bayer, Herbert, etal. 1938/1959. Bauhaus, 1919-1928.
3rd. Boston: Charles T. Branford Company.
Blumberg, Phyllis. 2019. " Designing for Effective
Group Process in PBL using a Learner-Centered
Teaching Approach. " In The Wiley Handbook of
Problem-Based Learning edited by Mahnaz Moallem,
etal., 343-366. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Boling, Elizabeth. 2016. " How I learned, unlearned,
and learned studio again. " In Studio Teaching in
Higher Education: Selected design cases edited by
Elizabeth Boling, etal., 88-100. New York: Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315697420
Brandt, Carol B., etal. 2013. " A theoretical framework
for the studio as a learning environment. "
International Journal of Technology and Design
Education 23(2): 329-348. https://doi.org/10.1007/
s10798-011-9181-5
Cennamo, Katherine. 2016. " What is Studio? " In
Studio Teaching in Higher Education: Selected
design cases edited by Elizabeth Boling, etal.,
248-259. New York: Routledge. https://doi.
org/10.4324/9781315697420
Cennamo, Katherine, etal. 2011. " Managing the
complexity of design problems through studio-based
learning. " Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based
Learning, 5(2): 12-36. https://doi.org/10.7771/15415015.1253
Cennamo,
Katherine & Carol B. Brandt. 2012. " The
'right kind of telling': knowledge building in the
academic design studio. " Educational Technology
Research and Development 60(5): 839-858. http://
www.jstor.org/stable/23271648
Cheung, Ming. 2011. " Creativity in advertising design
education: An experimental study. " Instructional
Science 39(6): 843-864. https://doi.org/10.1007/
s11251-010-9157-y
Dewey, John. 1933. How we think: a restatement of
the relation of reflective thinking to the educative
process. United Kingdom: D.C. Heath.
Diedrich, Lisa & Mads Farsø. 2019. " Teaching
the unpredictable, critically engaging with urban
landscapes. " In Teaching Landscape: The Studio
Experience, edited by Karsten Jørgensen, etal.,
186-200. New York: Routledge. https://doi.
org/10.4324/9781351212915
ISSUE 1, 2024 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | 25
Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2024
