Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1994 - 56

RUSE

PERSONAL

IN THE PERF

NGARTS

by Patrick Gill
hile it seemed obvious in 1990 that there was
an ever-growing number of computer-literate
people in the performing arts production industry (Patrick Gill, "Personal Compurer Use in the
Per orming Arts," TD6T Fall 1990: 33), that number in 1993
has increased even more dramatically. It is also apparent that
this majority of theatre designers and technologists are more
sophisticated than they were three years ago. Clearly the performing arts production industry has emerged as one of the
more important vertical markets for com purer technology.
This survey was conducted to update information about
current computer use in the performing arts production industry and to look ahead to future possibilities as our creative
uses of technology grow. Also, information of this type would
be useful to com purer manufacturers and software developers
in supplying support for theatre specific computer activity.

THE SURVEY
A self-administered, anonymous questionnaire was distributed
in registration packets at the USITT conference in Wichita
during March 1993. The respondents included a wide range of
performing arts production professionals and students as
described in Table 1. The organizations to which they belong
appear in Table 2.

Table 1. Respondellt Position Classifications

Job Title
Technical director
Designer
Educator
Administrator
Production/stage manager
Student
Theatre technician
Shop supervisor
Box-office manager
Public relations/marketing
Other

S P R I "G

I 9 9 4

% of Respondents

20.1
26.1
16.6
13.8
8.8
8.1
4.2
1.1

.4
.4
.4

T 0 & T

Table 2. Respondent Organization Classifications

Organization
Educational theatre
Other
Non-profit theatre
Commercial theatre
Commercial production support
Dance production
Music production
Video production
Radio/television broadcasting
Film production

% of Respondents
72.9
11.3
8.9
3.1
1.7
.7
.7
.3

.3
.0

RESULTS
\'(/hen asked the amount of personal computer use in each
respondent's organization, on a scale of one (none) to five (extensive use) the mean response was 3.75. Lack of funding, lack of
equipment, and inadequate time for learning were once again
identified as the major obstacles to personal computer use, as
shown in Table 3. It must be pointed our, however, that a real
difference still exists between lack of funding and cost of equipment as mori\'ating factors, since funding is a priority problem
within an organization while cost is conn'olled by the marker.
There was a five-point increase in lack of funding over 1990,
making it the most-cited obstacle to computer use, and no training increased ten points to become the fourth most-cited obstacle.

Table 3. Obstacles to Personal Computer Use

Obstacle
Lack of funding
Lack of equipment
Not enough time to learn
No training
Inappropriate software
Not enough time to use
Resistance of administration
Resistance of staff
Other

% of Respondents

60.9
55.4
51.4
33
20.7
15.9
14.5
10.5
6.5

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