It seems like easily half of the time, sound designs don't go where I expect them to. No matter where the overall show concept begins, where my own concept enters the picture, where rehearsals lead, and even where we begin when we enter the theatre - where the design sits on opening night is often completely different than where I started, or where I expected it to be.…

Collaboration. To collaborate.

According to Merriam-Webster:

Definition of COLLABORATE

My upper-level classes are all project based. I've written before about why I think project-based learning is important and the best choice for the kinds of material I teach ("It Depends," "Learning by Doing," "…

I am a high school TV Productions and Drama teacher and I am also working on my doctorate of computer science in emerging media with a concentration in theater technology. I chose this concentration because it only makes sense with what I do. Now I am trying to work on research and a dissertation topic.

I have become fascinated with projection designs while researching the tech theater world. I did not know much about it until recently when I decided to make my theater and studio…

or, put in a slightly nicer way: “Perfect is the enemy of Good.”

In theater (and life), a constant drive and want to improve is important. We work hard to hone our craft, to become stronger performers, stronger writers, stronger designers. We rehearse hours and hours perfecting our show, we take classes and workshops to sharpen our skills, we spend long hours wrestling with cable and punching the stupid computer to get our light and sound designs…

So...hopefully I won't get into huge trouble for this, but I'm going to share something that I tell all of the students in all of my upper-level classes on the first day: I don't believe in grades, and I find they disrupt the learning process.

"Egad!" you say? "Blasphemy!" Yes, I know. You're probably making the same face as some of my students the first time they hear me tell them how I feel about grades. Many react with panic, frankly, as the only measure of success they've…

Was watching Indiana Jones on TV tonight and caught a commercial for Hot Set on the SyFy network. I don't want to sound too much like a network shill, but I'll be tuning in. The show pits Hollywood set designers against each other in a competition style reality show. Sure, sure, I know -- Hollywood, not…

Coming off of Nanta is anti-climatic in it's own right... but facing a musical on my own in it's wake is a new level of daunting.

And that's exactly what's next on my plate: the proverbial soup to nuts design and engineering of the next ASF production: Putnam County Spelling Bee.…

I've come to the realization that I've now worked on 3 shows where I didn't mesh with the director for some reason. All have been women & all have been a complete pain in my butt through the process.

WoW saw the director nitpick me apart on one minute detail in 1 scene of the entire show. She beat me over the head over & over again over this one thing that she jut didn't like & wasn't willing to compromise on. In the end I gave her what she wanted but was so paranoid that…

The past two weeks I've been working (on and off, admittedly) with one of our graduate students, who is designing the set for next Fall's production of The Understudy. It has given me an opportunity to reflect on limitations, "challenges," and storytelling in ways that I don't normally have the chance to, so I thought I'd share.

For those of you who don't know the show, The Understudy takes place on the set of a fictional Broadway-style production, as the…

Accuracy in audio takes on a whole new dimension when staging a period work - especially when the period in question is within the memory of some (or all) of the audience.

There's no question when presenting a play set 10, 20, or 30 years ago that it's "period" - in that it's set in a period of time that isn't "now". For the moment let's settle on the 60's. The biggest difference between presenting the 1960's versus the 1860's, is that you're dealing not only with a time period people…

For the last several months, I have been working on a commission for Theater J in DC. This is a play that I've wanted to write for a long time, and that I began with great energy and confidence and excitement. And I stayed in that positive place for quite a long time, actually, until I found myself feeling as if something was just... missing.

I needed clarity about the story I was telling, and I knew…

I am a self proclaimed practical sound designer - who likes sound to be realistic as well as accurate as possible. I'm also interested in authenticity - I want shows to be presented in plausible terms. Unless your producing a work of science fiction, complete farce or a piece of absurd theatre, I want the details to add up, for the plot, the characters, the action, setting, etc. to be possible (if not probable.) Historical fiction doesn't necessarily have to be 100% accurate for me, but by…

It's the holidays. Like all seasons, there are icons. In the way that February has cupids, conversation hearts, cards, power ballads, and boxes of candy; July has flags, brass bands, green lawns, picnics, and fireworks; October has crisp leaves, black cats, pumpkins, the Monster Mash, and apple cider - December has eggnog, holly, carols, snowflakes (real, paper, or tinsel), a jolly old elf in a red suit, and wireless microphones.

What? What does December have to do with…

Happy Post Labor Day ya'll...

I'm posting this weeks blog several hours late - and I'm blaming it on my hang over. My hang over is NOT Labor Day party or football beer induced - it's from work. I spent my Labor Day laboring - not in typical holiday fashion on tech, or a a load in, or schlepping speakers, but in two days of concept meeting for a new play we're staging this winter.

I honestly can't tell you the last time I was actually IN a concept meeting, let…

Video Chat returns to TheatreFace.com this Wednesday, August 24 at 2 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Pacific as we go live with Lighting Designer Christian Epps.

Christian got into lighting design during his time at Northside School of the Arts in Atlanta,…

Unlike most of my contemporary sound designer colleagues, I didn't set out to be a sound designer. I ended up becoming one in a roundabout fashion.

When I began pursuing sound in earnest I discovered that although I was a capable designer, design simply wasn't my passion. What I was good at was live mix, maintaining a system, and running a crew. I wanted to be a mix engineer and an audio supervisor. While many of my friends were chomping at the bit to one day no longer have to operate…

Sometimes things go wrong and then sometimes things go very wrong. We've all had the experience of laboring like Hercules to get through one of those plays that has some kind of tech black cloud over it (or at least your portion of it). "Rock solid" software crashes or locks up, strange noises appear…

Unless you're a trust fund baby, work is life. Maybe particularly so for all of us in theatre who are putting in long hours on the job for reasons that have a lot more to do with romance than finance. We're here, often laboring in the shadows, because we love what we do. What we do often requires tools of the trade(s), so we're going to spend the next few columns looking at the nuts and bolts of what goes into putting on a traveling show…