Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1991 - 58

information are often added by the
editors.
This is an involved labor- and skillintensive operation to be sure. And costly.
However, no one who has seen either of
these publications recently can argue with
the results. They are the preeminent
popular technical journals available today
and they have become the basis of an
encyclopedic store of written and visual
documentation of the building crafts they
cover.
I think that part of our problem is
that it is too intimidating and difficult for
technical types to share their ideas, devices
and successes with their peers. Those who
do submit materials seem to do so only
because they are under the academic gun
to "publish." TD&Tis quite intimidating
as a magazine since so much of its
editorial space is taken up by historical
treatises on Adolph Appia, discussions of
foreign design trends, ruminations on the
sorry state of technical theatre today and
surveys. Even the technical how-to articles
tend toward cumbersome academic prose
and little illustration.
In neither publication is there a
gen uine, regularly expressed call for
technical submissions. either publication is set up to honor the technician who
possesses valuable information worth sharing

by taking every effort to see that their
contribution sees wide circulation in a
handsome, informative visual form. Look,
neither designers nor technicians have
chosen writing or graphic illustration for
magazines as their trade. Let's not expect
them to have these skills. However, if our
publications can take the intimidation our
of submitting their ideas in whatever form
they can manage and give them the
promise of seeing their engineering and
technical solutions handsomely displayed
in print, then there will be an abundance
of submissions from academic shops, professional shops, road houses, regional
theatres, and, yes, even touring shows.
This is an expensive road to take. It
involves hiring commercial artists and
draftsmen and putting more burden on
editors to actually edit the content of both
the words and the graphics, and not just
sentence structure. I've seen just about all
the designer profiles, general interest
theatre architecture pieces, and dense
academic articles on Eastern European
design trends that I can stomach for a
while. It's about time to address the
specific technical needs of the vast
majority of those of us in the ttenches.
Bite the bullet, spend the money and get
the knowledge of theatre craftsmen in
print.

Some may argue that disseminating
detailed information about the
construction methods of commercial
shops may compromise specialized
knowledge that give these shops their
competitive edge. If they have such
proprietary processes or equipment, they
should patent them. Most of what is
worth sharing and documenting in tech
theater are innovative applications of new
materials, equipment, or processes that
have been borrowed from other
disciplines. Making public shop methods
will not endanger a shop's market share.
Profitable shops succeed because of
talented staff, creative solutions to new
problems, efficient organization, solid
craftsmanship and sensible cost control.
Sharing the knowledge can only help
everyone deliver a better product at a
better cost. Another area of resistance
could arise from shops not wanting to
adverrise that an innovative process
involved unsafe working conditions. In
general, we can all only benefit from our
shops needing to stand the scrutiny of the
public eye. Perhaps this is a concrete way
that our publications can improve the
safety of our work places.
Doug Taylor has the right idea as
Institute archivist to record the memories
of members as a permanent record before

Begin a lifetime
of experience
with the experience
of a lifetime.

THE
THEATRE

Scenic Paints, Lighting, Tools, Special effects.
Draperies on Quotation
Large Stocks

MUTUAL HARDWARE CORP.
5-45 49th AVE., L.I.C., NY. 11101
1991 SPRING

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Immediate Shipment

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56

SCHOOL

TD&T

(718) 361-2480

2135 Nonh Kenmore Avenue, Chicago, llJinois 60614
(outside llJinois) 1-800-4 DEPAUL

can (312) 341-8374, or

B.F.A in Acting, Costume Construction, Costume Design. Lighting Design. Playwriting.
Production Management, Scenic Design, Theatre History/Criticism, General Theatre Studies
and Theatre Technology.

M.F.A. in Acting, Directing, Costume Design and Scenic Design.
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1991
