www.thestage.co.uk: The school will work with both Bristol Old Vic and Tobacco Factory Theatres on its Technical Theatre Arts, which will be taught by industry professionals and aims to prepare students for roles in stage management, lighting and sound, and AV across theatre, festivals, and events.
5 comments:
Was super happy to see a sound design part of this program, as a sound design student I feel that our major is so under appreciated. We are frequently the most underfunded and least popular major at most schools. But I was pleasantly surprised to see this one get some nice love. I think that sound design is especially becoming one of the most difficult areas of technical theatre to learn without some form of education. There's so much mastery too it and I feel that it's only becoming more and more difficult to understand as the technology becomes more advanced. Obviously I have a ton of respect for those that pursue sound without a degree, but I definitely feel that I wouldn't be able to pursue it without learning not only sound design itself. But I am also pushing for a partial electrical engineering degree as well. Another foundational pillar to sound technology because sound is of course energy, and being able to understand electrically what is happening when you use sound amplification, is becoming critical.
One of the most difficult things in this industry is developing hands-on technical skills. You can talk about how to correctly hang a door but to learn how to see what needs to happen to all the parts involved takes experience and time troubleshooting similar issues. Based on the very brief explanation provided in this article seems like a good way to develop those skills. The skills you can only learn in the theatre installing the equipment and solving the problems that present themselves. I have frequently thought about technical theatre education and how much of it should be spent in a classroom versus installing or working on a show. I have come to lean into the idea that the more time an individual is in the theatre troubleshooting problems and learning how to get the show up is more valuable than the time spent in a classroom. The theory is important to understand so I still wholeheartedly believe that we need that aspect of technical theatre education. But frequently individuals will graduate with a degree in technical theatre and lack many of the hard skills necessary to be a proficient professional stagehand in their respective departments. We need time to struggle tying a knot in an awkward position. Knowing how to tie the knot is one thing but knowing when and how the knot is implemented and in what moments takes experience and time in space.
It is actually pretty nice to see that an organization felt the need to create a new technical theater degree track. As someone who is getting a degree in the field, and is looking to work in the industry in the future it is comforting in a way to know that there is such a demand for skilled people in the field that there was a need to create a new degree track to train new people to work in the technical theater. Some people with other degree across the academic world may struggle to find even entry level jobs that relate to their degree, but if this article is anything to go by we in the technical theater world will have a harder time finding the right job that suits us instead of a job at all. We will have so many choices and avenues within various fields that we will struggle to find a job in a completely different way then say a law or business major / masters student who will need to compete with other people to even get their foot in the door.
Theatre can be a hard industry to get into. If you go straight into the industry there is very little room for error and you’re expected to teach yourself many of the requisite skills. A full four year degree program on the other hand, while helpful for those going into creative disciplines within theatre, many who intend to go purely into practical disciplines find that despite going straight into the industry is more risky they can attain just as much success without having to take out expensive loans to go to college. A shorter program like this is a good middle ground. It gives those who would otherwise simply skip college a good way to get a crash course in a situation where failure is acceptable before going into the real world without requiring a full four years. I’m interested to see if similar programs become more commonplace across the world.
I think this is a great addition to theatre education. Especially that there’s a national shortage of backstage skills in the UK, creating accessible opportunities to allow for more support for productions is really great. Teaching students stage management, lighting, and sound seem like a good core three skills to improve upon. It’s unfortunate that it doesn’t provide more areas of theatre, but I’m glad for what it does offer. I’m also very glad to see that it lends the same amount of hands-on experience to the students as a three-year degree while being on a fast track. This is another great aspect of accessible education that I’m very excited about. I hope to hear more about programs
Post a Comment