Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1989 - 58

OLAF SOOT ASSOCIATES Pc.
9 TOInaha\\ k Lane. Green\\ ich. (T Ob830

Fields of Activity

Services

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Theaters and auditoriums
Multipurpose spaces
Theater machinery
Safety and efficiency

203-bbl-~522

Concept development
Design and engineering
Procurement assistance
Consultations

Olaf Soot executed the designs for the stages at the John F. Kennedy
Center in Washington. DC and was involved in major projects at the
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in ew York City. Empire State
Theater in Albany. Y. Indiana University Musical Arts Center in Bloom·
ington. I . Centro Civico Coquivacoa in Venezuela and many others. His
early designs of the lifting system for the chandeliers at the Metropol·
itan Opera House and of the movable acoustical ceiling at the Juilliard
School of Music in New 'lbrk City employed single failure proof principles
because audience safety was deemed paramount. Twenty years later
these designs are still functioning smoothly.

How many hours are our student assistants really paid
for? Do they deserve less than minimum wage because
they happen to be skilled in theatre? What about practicum or studiollab students? Do they earn higher grades
properly by producing higher quality work, or is an 'W' the
dubious reward for putting in double the studio hours
needed to earn a "e"? Do we really think midnight paint
calls are acceptable? What about working Saturdays and
Sundays? Such hours are union "golden time" payable at
double or triple the base wage. If we are teaching actors and
directors about good professional practice in their fields,
shouldn't we do the same for young designers and
technologists?
I suspect that answering such questions honestly will be
painful. The temptation for us is to begin with what the
theatre needs. But I submit that as educators our first
consideration should be what our students need. They do
not owe us more hours because we need them or because
our productions would be "better" if they worked longer.
We will probably have to acknowledge that present practice is often inconsistent with sound ethical and educational values. Faithfulness to those values will require that
we acknowledge limits we do not like to accept. We may
even have to develop the greater creativity that is needed
in the face of limitations.
Establishing the labor budget helps to set clear priorities
among productions and the degree of technical support to
be provided to each. This discipline and guidance should
be valuable to directors and designers as they evolve production concepts, and should protect the studio personnel
as well. Of course, decisions about the labor budget for
each season and production should be made before the
56

TD&T'

SUMMER 1989

season productions are underway. Such decisions must not
be left to the TD, but should be made as the season is
selected and should even be a factor in the selection
process.
Of course, the unexpected does happen, so we will need
to allow for contingencies in our season labor budgets. We
will also have to allow time for essential maintenance of
equipment and facilities. Once made, these decisions
should be established by the producer. The chairperson
and dean are then responsible for holding firmly to the
labor distributions. The TD and costumer should not be
vilified for operating within the labor budget.
Defining the labor budget may even be the key to handling certain senior designers who habitually overtax both
the studios and themselves. Many experienced designers
report fears of reducing amounts of scenery, costumes, or
elaborate detail. They are afraid of reprisals from directing
colleagues in the next round of promotion and salary evaluations. The labor budget would provide a clear, measurable limit by which all parties are bound. Ability to work
within the allotted labor budget should weigh heavily in
evaluations of designers, directors, and technologists. Regularly exceeding the labor budget should not be tolerated
any more than we tolerate exceeding the materials
budgets.
.
Another approach which might help technologists is to
regard their hours of studio supervision as hours of studio
instruction. The NAST Handbook specifies that a teacher
should be assigned a maximum of 18 hours of studio
instruction. 7 Few of us have professional technicians in
the studios. With students meeting laboratory/studio or
practicum requirements as well as young technologists
and designers in the studios learning about technology, our
faculty and staff technologists do teach during these hours.
They deserve as much credit for that instruction as any
director or teacher of acting. Of course, we might well find
our TDs and costumers teaching on overload, without
counting a single, formal course which they teach.
This approach does not negate the production aspect of
the technologists' work, since technicians commonly
spend many hours designing technical solutions, ordering
materials, managing the facility, and so forth. It is these
design and managerial facets of their work which most
nearly approximate the production contributions of designers and directors.
All professional services should be fairly compensated
by our institutions. Technicians should not be expected to
donate their expertise to the institution any more than the
accounting faculty donate their services to keep the books.
Surely none of us would agree that we should teach as
many courses as the institution might need taught. All of
us in academia work long hours and we are seldom paid for
each thing we do, but we ought to examine the equity of
work loads and production compensation policies in our
departments.
In terms of tenure, there is always the issue of publication. We in technical theatre believe that creative achievement should be accepted for all theatre artists in lieu of
publication, as it commonly is for musicians and visual
artists. In fact, there is more genuine research and innovation worthy of publication taking place in design and
technology than anywhere else in our discipline. The
fruits of such research can be seen annually at the juried
exhibitions presented at the USITT conferences. Yet our
journals are too often short of materials to publish. Quite

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1989