Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2007 - 29

Turn 9 - There was quite a bit of discussion at this point
to end the game. The participants were fairly pleased with the
use of space, and with the balance and viability of the playing
spaces. Player 1, however, had one more item in his bag of
tricks and he added a runway shaped like a Fender guitar. At
this point, after mutual agreement, the game was ended.

Notes on Playing Composition Chess
After playing the composition chess game with students for a
couple of trimesters, I have a few observations about how to
prepare for and play the game:
* As in real chess, you usually do not go for "check mate"
right away. I encourage students to play games that have
many small, less detailed moves rather than fewer, more developed moves.
* Students are more creative and learn more about scenic
composition when they are given plays with fairly non-realistic settings. With realistic plays (those by Neil Simon for
instance), players focus too much on creating realistic architecture and furniture.
* Encourage students to focus on the purely composition
aspects of the game and worry less about physics and practicalities.
* Each student learns Sketchup differently. I originally
spent about two class days teaching the students how to use
Sketchup. Some students felt comfortable using the program
very quickly. Others really didn't grasp the core concepts
during those fi rst two classes and thus they struggled with
the technology when the group began playing the game.
* I'm trying something new in the upcoming Fall trimester's class. I have created a step-by-step tutorial with which
the students will create a ground plan / model for a simple
scenic design. They are free to work through the tutorial at
THEATRE

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DESIGN

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TECHNOLOGY
SUMMER

2007

their own pace. I hope that the self-paced tutorial
will make it possible for all players to be equally
comfortable with Sketchup before they play composition chess in class.
* As the students become more comfortable with
Sketchup, the amount of time allowed per turn may
be reduced, or they can be asked to provide more
detail per turn.
* One class (mine are fi fty minutes) is a good
time frame for one game of composition chess. We
play the game for three class days and mix up the
groups of players for each game.
* Students may bring to class up to five background images. This speeds up considerably the
time it takes for teams to get through the initial
step of picking a neutral or pictorial background.
* Encourage the players to save images of their
games after every round by "exporting" a picture
of their stage. This is a great way to show design
progression.
Playing composition chess has many educational
benefits. We spend a couple of days in class, well prior to playing the game, discussing the elements of design and
how they relate specifically to scenic design. Composition chess
allows the students to actually see those principles in action. I
try to explain to my classes that, although they may actually do
the same show multiple times over their careers, the outcome
will never be the same due to differing design teams, time lines,
budgets, etc. Playing the composition chess game with different
participants every day helps to illustrate this point.
Composition chess with Sketchup is a low-cost way to introduce students not only to technology, but technology within
our discipline. Although we play the game using laptops, it
could be just as easily played in a computer lab with desktop
computers. Sketchup allows all students, even those with absolutely no drawing skills, the ability to communicate their design
ideas to their peers.

Sketchup Tutorial
For those readers not familiar with Sketchup, the rest of this
article is a short tutorial on the program's basic tools and concepts. It's similar to what I give my students.
I have been using Sketchup as a design tool for about
four years, as well as on and off in the classroom as a teaching
tool for approximately the same amount of time. The basic version of Sketchup is free and can be downloaded from Google
at sketchup.google.com. Both Mac and Windows versions are
available. (A professional version of Sketchup, with several
sophisticated features not available in the free version, costs
$495. Student licenses of SketchupPro are only $49 per year;
instructors who teach the product are eligible for a free copy
of SketchupPro.) For my needs the free version works just fine.
It is important to note that there are small differences between
the Mac and Windows versions of the program, not necessarily
http://sketchup.google.com
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