Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2009 - 15

the academic department: "We make them do other jobs, notin-the-department jobs, [as] a different way to get experience."
Of course, finding the right "not-in-the-department" opportunity is difficult, and faculty need to help point students in the
right direction; Professor deCelle: "Offering a little guidance [is
important]: You can spot those skills, what they're good at; they
haven't gotten to the point to say, 'You know, I'm good at this,
this is something I should pursue and that I will enjoy.' So that's
part of what we provide."

where do productions fit in?
But how do the departmental productions relate to the coursework, the assistantship work, the off-campus work? Professor
Scales suggests that the productions are probably the most
important part of the educational process: "Probably the best
places [to learn] are the ones that just do lots of productions,
and it's a wide variety...that's why you do show after show: you
get a little better at it as you go along." In programs like Professor deCelle's or Professor Bovard's, it's in these production
experiences that students learn how to combine the traditional
skills with the complex, and begin learning about what Professor Bovard calls "process": "When [they] do the analysis, if
they plan ahead, then I can help them go, 'Well, think about
these things,' without giving them the answer. And they don't
realize until they've gone through that kind of process several
times to realize that is where they should invest their time."
In many ways, this is exactly how "complex learning" is
intended to work: students are provided with an authentic problem-in this case a set design that must be realized in a given
amount of time with a given amount of money-and are asked to
solve that problem, using knowledge and experience they already
have, bolstered by "just in time" knowledge passed on by the
instructor. As Professors deCelle and Bovard describe their programs, it's clear that the "just in time" knowledge is often about
planning and analysis; Professor deCelle: "I think they have to
gain experience of, 'how long does it take me to draft this thing?
How long does it take me to plan this stuff out?' And we're checking in on them, every now and then: 'How are we doing? Oh, you
might want to go ahead and get started on this.'"

For Professor Bovard, the learning comes both in the moment and in reflection, and in learning that reflection is part
of the process: "They have to weekly report back [on their
progress]...And it's important for them to learn to look at what
happened, to learn from it-whether they log it, or whatever,
they can develop their own methods-you have to take some
time to process what happened, what you liked, what you didn't
like." However, doing as many shows as possible, as Professor
Scales suggests, has significant drawbacks; Professor Bovard:
"The downside is that we're cranking out so many shows, we
don't let you get too far off the range: there's no room for failure, there's no room for even a bad mistake, because we're
pushing them out too fast. That's the biggest challenge."

the impact of play selection
And this "cranking out" of shows, as Professor Bovard calls it,
highlights two different tensions in any theatre program. First,
theatre is inherently a collaborative process, and the teaching of
theatre is even more so: each student in every discipline being
taught-performance, directing, stage management, the different design areas, and the different technology areas-would
ideally work on projects that will challenge them in their process; to find shows that can do this for every student, every time,
is impossible, so the next best solution is to try and produce as
many shows as possible, with enough variety in selections to
provide the right opportunities for different kinds of students.
Professor Bovard: "Just as you pick the title of the show, I would
love to say, 'there's three steel shows, there's three changing
shows.' I can't do that; it never works in play selection. But
that's what's missing: the changing of materials, of things that
would automatically make [each show] different."
The second tension that must be recognized in any theatre
program is that, though we might wish to elevate the importance of the process each student must go through over that
of the product, the truth of the matter is that, all things being
equal, the function of what we do in theatre is to create an event
in which an audience participates: the product is as important
as the process. Professor deCelle: "Giving them room to make
mistakes, everyone in the process has to buy into it. Our challenge is we're 'the buck stops here' [place], because from us it
gets built, and it goes on stage, and people walk on it." How can
these productions be true opportunities for complex learning if
the program doesn't really allow enough time to focus on the
process because there are many, many shows, and the stakes
for each of those productions are so high that failure-or even
a mistake-is really not an option?

W I N T E R

2009

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2009
