Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1999 - 15

cept statement. Consideling that a light plot is actually only a
schematic of the equipment and its placement and not a
pictorialization of the lighting, this should be no surprise.
Probably theatre managers can more easily analyze the familiar verbal medium of the concept statement to determine if it is
appropriate to the production. It is significant that the hookup
sheet-that which makes the light plot more intelligible-is
less important to theatre managers than evidence of research
and light sketches.
Some comment is in order regarding whether portfolio
items should be included for each production in the portfolio
or whether only a sanlpling should be provided. Some respondents selected only one item-documentation-to be contained in the portfolio. Others selected as many as nine items
for the portfolio. As a result, there is now some ambiguity as to
whether they were referring to the portfolio contents which
they had individually selected or to the whole list of contents
as provided on the survey form.

and the venues for which such designers have already worked
are simply not considered "respected" enough by the smallerbudget theatres.
The bottom priorities also warrant some comment. No
theatre included the use of an agent in their priorities. likewise, the designer's alma mater, the use of a resume, and the
use of a portfolio alone were all rated very low. Despite that
low rating, that does not mean one may conclude portfolios
are irrelevant in the hiring process. It simply means that other
things-for example, who you know, or more precisely, who
knows you-are more important.
The tallies of the last two groups of statements in the first
pm1 of the survey (shown in Figures 3 and 5) contain no Sl\l~
prises. Larger-budget theatres are more likely to hire United
Scenic Artists (USA) designers than smaller-budget theatres.
Indeed, the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) has a contract with USA which requires that at least Category Aand B
theatres-those with the largest budgets and incomes-employ only USA designers. Also, the actual college degree is iI~
relevant. lighting design ability is more important and, as one
might imagine, the theatre managers generally couldn't care
less how or where that ability was learned.
The tallied information in Figure 6 is rather self explanatory. Clearly, the highest priority was documentation or pictures of the lighting. Second and third priorities, respectively,
were a concept statement and the light plot. Presumably, the
light plot communicates less to theatre managers than the con-

CO TCLUSIONS
In general, this study offers few significant surprises for professional theatre people, but it does significantly refute the
popular culture about how professional theatre employment
works. It makes clear that the professional theatre contactin one form or another-is the most inlportant consideration
for being employed as a lighting designer in regional theatres.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1999