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Playbill.com: From stage managers and makeup artists, to costume designers and sound engineers, it takes a village to raise a show. Still, there are some job titles in the Who's Who that even we don't recognize. We unearth the truth behind these mystery careers.
8 comments:
Jake Poser
said...
Since coming to school I read a playbill a lot more carefully than I did before. I learned that a dramaturg is for more than just fixing new works, even though that is a major part of their job. More specifically I learned that he or she writes the program note which serves as the first impression an audience member receives when seeing a play. This article is so awesome. It brings all of the creators of a production that actually make the production just that. I have never truly stopped to think about all of the phases music goes through before we see it on stage. It's incredible to think that one person is responsible for all of the sounds on stage from musical instruments to the voices of an actor. I guess in a way you could look at it or compare that job to a Technical Director, as they are responsible for all things technical on stage. The coolest part of this article by far is the new position as an Air Designer. Only would Diane Paulus come up with such a magical way to represent something on stage. The real question is when will CMU offer Air Design as a major?
Some of these jobs I already knew existed, I've met many people who have the music jobs but I've never personally met a air sculptor. Their job seems really cool, a mix between technical direction and sculpting in a way. There are so many different shows and venues that i think could utilize this type of designer/craftsman. Cirque du Soleil I'm sure has a few in order to create their spectacular shows. I also think that other festivals and opening ceremonies have them as well. I think this type of design would be a great class here at CMU, I'm sure many would including myself want to learn more about it so that I could apply it to my designs. These sculptures are so full of energy and heavy with emotion it could really add to the piece and create another depth into the story. The image reminded me of kinetic sculpture artists like Theo Jansen who makes many different art pieces that move on their own using physics. Although a lot of our industry focuses on free expression and what we think of art, to make something truly breathtaking often it takes precision and technical know how to make it happen.
With all of the jobs that are out there and available, it must be nice to have the one and only job as an air sculptor. Sometimes you just have to come up with your job. If you do that, you have to be good at what you do, and it looks like Daniel Wurtzel is able to do just that. I think it would be really cool to see it in person, watching the effect develop and progress. Watching the wind do its own thing is soothing. There is a difference between having to watch hurricane force winds, and comparing those with say something like leaves or snow doing some drifting. What were the different techniques he had to go through to get to the point that he was satisfied with how it looked. Using both glitter and a fabric must provide complications of its own to be able to keep them both from wanting to clump or get tangled.
It is cool to see an article written about jobs in theatre that aren’t well known but I’m sure there are way more jobs that weren’t listed. People do so much for theatre nowadays that there can be a job for every step of the way which is amazing. More jobs are becoming available and open for our economy and working in the theatre is wonderful feeling. I am intrigued by the air sculpture. It seems that this job will now be put into more and more shows and I think that is great. So interesting to see how inventions have progressed for live stage and using air effects to keep a fabric in the air for every performance is an amazing advance. I’m sure a lot of hours were put into that moment and a lot of fail safes were put into place as well but I am always up for new ideas and new ways to do things.
I am amused by the fact that this article is more or less “look at how many people go into making music sound good… also, there is that one guy that is an air sculptor!” I’d definitely like to learn more about air sculpting, it sounds like a really interesting process to come up with those effects, but, despite the title, to me that wasn’t really the point of this article. In general, the offstage world of theater is very mysterious. A lot of people, even though they realize it makes no sense when the stop of think about it, just sort of imagine that the sets appear, the lights are just there, and everyone just plays/ sings the music. I think this effect of not really understanding an industry is particularly prominent in theater because the behind the scenes structure of theater is so complicated, and the goal of most of it is to disappear or blend together to form a cohesive and immersive world that pulls the audience into the show and seems like its own reality. However, I think this is probably true for all industries. People within the industry understand all of the jobs that go into it, but the rest of the world has a simplified mental model that only involves the most notable or visible jobs, and without thinking about it, accidentally assumes that everything else just happens.
For some reason the only thing that stuck in my head after reading this article was how terrifying it would be to be blasted with a tornado of glitter every day, eight shows a week. Does it ever get in her eyes or mouth?
Glitter tornado aside, I agree with Julian in that this article was basically about different types of music coordinators and then also air sculpting. I did find it surprising, however, that there's only one air sculptor on Broadway currently. I feel like there are many different kinds of effects in which it would be helpful to have someone who can manipulate where things will end up, be it glitter or confetti or a scarf. I'm curious if there are many health and safety issues that he has to bring consultants in on. For example, are there any health regulations for small particles that could be accidentally breathed in by the cast and crew? I feel like whenever there are new unexplored areas of special effects there is usually a slew of health and safety issues that have to be dealt with before the curtain goes up.
I really like the idea of an air sculptor. I got to see Finding Neverland when it was still at the ART and the glitter tornado at the end definitely adds to the feeling of that scene. It was a really cool and different way to do a death scene, and it gave the scene a really nice feeling of magic that goes well with the sadness of the scene. I don’t know what you’d do to learn air sculpting (other than just trying things and seeing what works) but I think it would be really fun to learn more about it. We already control the shape and form of other materials, why not add air to that list. It could be a useful addition to plenty of shows, especially ones that use a lot of fog machines. Instead of giving one of the designers more things to worry about we could have a specific person who’s trained to deal with that part of the show and make it look as good as possible.
For those who have more experience working in theatre (or those who are just generally theatre nerds who want to find out what goes on behind the scenes), many of these roles aren’t too surprising. For that reason, I was a little let down. The article did, however, give good explanations to what it is “all those music people” do for a show. It can be quite confusing why there are so many names listed in the credits for a production. The one surprise in the article, the air sculptor, is apparently a very new role. Its inclusion in the article did remind me of the many people necessary for the theatrical special effects created on stage, though. These are the people the audience is not meant to know about, and they may not even be listed (at least obviously) in the Playbill of a show. But the duties of those responsible for automation and other effects that are meant to blend into the environment created onstage are very important nonetheless. Productions require something short of an army to be successfully mounted, with many people taking care of things the audience may never be made aware off.
8 comments:
Since coming to school I read a playbill a lot more carefully than I did before.
I learned that a dramaturg is for more than just fixing new works, even though that is a major part of their job. More specifically I learned that he or she writes the program note which serves as the first impression an audience member receives when seeing a play.
This article is so awesome. It brings all of the creators of a production that actually make the production just that.
I have never truly stopped to think about all of the phases music goes through before we see it on stage. It's incredible to think that one person is responsible for all of the sounds on stage from musical instruments to the voices of an actor. I guess in a way you could look at it or compare that job to a Technical Director, as they are responsible for all things technical on stage.
The coolest part of this article by far is the new position as an Air Designer. Only would Diane Paulus come up with such a magical way to represent something on stage. The real question is when will CMU offer Air Design as a major?
Some of these jobs I already knew existed, I've met many people who have the music jobs but I've never personally met a air sculptor. Their job seems really cool, a mix between technical direction and sculpting in a way. There are so many different shows and venues that i think could utilize this type of designer/craftsman. Cirque du Soleil I'm sure has a few in order to create their spectacular shows. I also think that other festivals and opening ceremonies have them as well. I think this type of design would be a great class here at CMU, I'm sure many would including myself want to learn more about it so that I could apply it to my designs. These sculptures are so full of energy and heavy with emotion it could really add to the piece and create another depth into the story. The image reminded me of kinetic sculpture artists like Theo Jansen who makes many different art pieces that move on their own using physics. Although a lot of our industry focuses on free expression and what we think of art, to make something truly breathtaking often it takes precision and technical know how to make it happen.
With all of the jobs that are out there and available, it must be nice to have the one and only job as an air sculptor. Sometimes you just have to come up with your job. If you do that, you have to be good at what you do, and it looks like Daniel Wurtzel is able to do just that. I think it would be really cool to see it in person, watching the effect develop and progress. Watching the wind do its own thing is soothing. There is a difference between having to watch hurricane force winds, and comparing those with say something like leaves or snow doing some drifting. What were the different techniques he had to go through to get to the point that he was satisfied with how it looked. Using both glitter and a fabric must provide complications of its own to be able to keep them both from wanting to clump or get tangled.
It is cool to see an article written about jobs in theatre that aren’t well known but I’m sure there are way more jobs that weren’t listed. People do so much for theatre nowadays that there can be a job for every step of the way which is amazing. More jobs are becoming available and open for our economy and working in the theatre is wonderful feeling. I am intrigued by the air sculpture. It seems that this job will now be put into more and more shows and I think that is great. So interesting to see how inventions have progressed for live stage and using air effects to keep a fabric in the air for every performance is an amazing advance. I’m sure a lot of hours were put into that moment and a lot of fail safes were put into place as well but I am always up for new ideas and new ways to do things.
I am amused by the fact that this article is more or less “look at how many people go into making music sound good… also, there is that one guy that is an air sculptor!” I’d definitely like to learn more about air sculpting, it sounds like a really interesting process to come up with those effects, but, despite the title, to me that wasn’t really the point of this article. In general, the offstage world of theater is very mysterious. A lot of people, even though they realize it makes no sense when the stop of think about it, just sort of imagine that the sets appear, the lights are just there, and everyone just plays/ sings the music. I think this effect of not really understanding an industry is particularly prominent in theater because the behind the scenes structure of theater is so complicated, and the goal of most of it is to disappear or blend together to form a cohesive and immersive world that pulls the audience into the show and seems like its own reality. However, I think this is probably true for all industries. People within the industry understand all of the jobs that go into it, but the rest of the world has a simplified mental model that only involves the most notable or visible jobs, and without thinking about it, accidentally assumes that everything else just happens.
For some reason the only thing that stuck in my head after reading this article was how terrifying it would be to be blasted with a tornado of glitter every day, eight shows a week. Does it ever get in her eyes or mouth?
Glitter tornado aside, I agree with Julian in that this article was basically about different types of music coordinators and then also air sculpting. I did find it surprising, however, that there's only one air sculptor on Broadway currently. I feel like there are many different kinds of effects in which it would be helpful to have someone who can manipulate where things will end up, be it glitter or confetti or a scarf. I'm curious if there are many health and safety issues that he has to bring consultants in on. For example, are there any health regulations for small particles that could be accidentally breathed in by the cast and crew? I feel like whenever there are new unexplored areas of special effects there is usually a slew of health and safety issues that have to be dealt with before the curtain goes up.
I really like the idea of an air sculptor. I got to see Finding Neverland when it was still at the ART and the glitter tornado at the end definitely adds to the feeling of that scene. It was a really cool and different way to do a death scene, and it gave the scene a really nice feeling of magic that goes well with the sadness of the scene. I don’t know what you’d do to learn air sculpting (other than just trying things and seeing what works) but I think it would be really fun to learn more about it. We already control the shape and form of other materials, why not add air to that list. It could be a useful addition to plenty of shows, especially ones that use a lot of fog machines. Instead of giving one of the designers more things to worry about we could have a specific person who’s trained to deal with that part of the show and make it look as good as possible.
For those who have more experience working in theatre (or those who are just generally theatre nerds who want to find out what goes on behind the scenes), many of these roles aren’t too surprising. For that reason, I was a little let down. The article did, however, give good explanations to what it is “all those music people” do for a show. It can be quite confusing why there are so many names listed in the credits for a production. The one surprise in the article, the air sculptor, is apparently a very new role. Its inclusion in the article did remind me of the many people necessary for the theatrical special effects created on stage, though. These are the people the audience is not meant to know about, and they may not even be listed (at least obviously) in the Playbill of a show. But the duties of those responsible for automation and other effects that are meant to blend into the environment created onstage are very important nonetheless. Productions require something short of an army to be successfully mounted, with many people taking care of things the audience may never be made aware off.
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