Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2002 - 69

Book

reviews

Sylvia J. Hillyard Pannell

editor
Technical Theatre for
Nontechnical People
By Drew Campbell
New York: Allworth Press, 1999.
ISBN 1581150202, 212 pages, glossary, index,
$18.95 (softcover).
Motivations for writing an introductory text
about technical theatre vary widely, as widely
as the personalities of the authors. A dissatisfaction with existing books compels some,
while the desire for professional advancement
attracts others. If the writer has spent a large
part of his career in an educational environment, the didactic impulse usually influences
his pencil-sharpening. A few authors even create an amalgam of these reasons to help the
book along, to justify the effort to themselves,
their spouses, or their publishers.
Drew Campbell begins Technical Theatre
for Nontechnical People with an explanation
of his motive. He worked as a rental manager
for a lighting and sound company on the West
Coast, and many of the customers whom he assisted had minimal knowledge about things
technical. Faced with frequent phone calls and
visits from clients wishing to "rent some sound
for a party", Campbell decided to write a book
to enable these neophytes to speak clearly
about their event support needs: "There are a
lot of people in the world who have no desire
to be technicians, no desire to go through the
years of training, mistakes, and experience
that are necessary to bond with things mechanical, electric, or electronic. These same
people, however, still need the technology...
They don't want to master the technology; they
want to use it. They want to stand in the right
place on the stage. They want to communicate
with a designer or technician. They want to
walk into a rental company and know what to
ask for. They just want to survive backstage."
The intended audience for Technical
Theatre for Nontechnical People includes
dancers, drama teachers, playwrights, actors,
fashion show coordinators, and ministers. For
persons wanting to become technicians,
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Campbell encourages other,
thicker volumes over his own,
and includes a recommended
reading list.
Campbell has taken the
standard technical theatre
manual and pared it down to
vocabulary and a modest
number of illustrations. As is
usually the case, scenery and
lighting get the lion's share of
the attention, with adequate
nods to sound and stage management. Properties and special effects fare
poorly, while costuming almost disappears after a mention in the opening chapter. His
"Backstage Survival Guides"-how-to summaries-merit praise for their concision, and he
sweetens many pages with apt, real-life anecdotes. The bulk of the book discusses the execution of technical elements rather than their
design; however, it touches on the need for effective working relationships between craftsmen and the artistic team, and on the purpose
of illumination and scenery in relation to the
show as a whole. As an introductory text, Technical Theatre for Nontechnical People cannot cover any subject exhaustively. Still, it
contains a mass of data, more than most nontechnical people desire to know. The detail allowed many of the topics makes the volume
appropriate for all persons who have a focused
set of questions, and consequently, a reference
worthy of most technicians' bookshelves.
The glowing weakness of Technical Theatre for Nontechnical People comes in its
compositional form. While a colloquial tone
and a sense of humor can aid the reader,
Campbell overdoes them, and thereby makes
his audience work harder. He regularly employs jargon, and includes asides that detract
from the narrative. The book too often flows
like a prose version of Paul Carter's Backstage
Handbook: packed full of facts, but an awkward read from cover to cover. It works best
when dipped into for information.

Campbell deserves applause for including
two uncommon chapters in the text: "Touring
a New Space: What to Look For," and "How to
Do a Show in a Hotel: Corporate Theatre." Everyone, he implies, works in a venue for the
first time. While some persons will spend their
careers in that one place, others will move
down the road for a first time in another theater, and then another. In each
instance, the questions asked
about the space are the same:
Will my production fit? Can we
schedule the space according
to our needs? Is there a crossover? How many linesets? Do
you have a list of the lighting
inventory? Can all the performers use this dressing
room? The few books that do
raise these issues focus almost exclusively on touring
shows; the average introduction to technical theatre overlooks them, and rushes on to discuss stage
machinery. Yet they are recurring questions,
and the smart non-technical person must always prepare to ask them-or provide answers to guests who ask. As theatrical events
overrun meeting rooms, conference centers,
and other nontraditional spaces, these queries
have become all the more common. Professional associations, businesses, and civic
groups regularly assemble and entertain the
people attending their meetings; sometimes,
the entertainment itself is the event. Such corporate gatherings in multipurpose venues
raise a host of questions similar to those in the
"Touring a New Space" chapter: How large of a
stage should we build? Is any of the house
sound and lighting equipment of use to us? If we
have to bring in gear, how much? Is there an adequate power supply? Where can the performers
get dressed? Campbell provides some helpful
tables and rules of thumb with which to answer these and other uncertainties. Again, the
only guides that regularly address this deal
with touring a fixed production.
All readers would benefit from a second
edition of Technical Theatre for Nontechnical
People, albeit one with heavy stylistic editing. If
Campbell's motive to help the uninitiated remains
strong, he could create a book that will dominate
the niche for years to come.
Reviewed by Patrick Donnelly,
Performance Hall Manager,
Central Michigan University.

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