Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2012 - 19

Each strike varied in terms of budget, venue size, and the expertise of the available labor.

How Is Strike Discussed in Textbooks?

here did you learn how to strike a stage production?
Was it through on-the-job training, trial by fire, a textbook, or a training seminar? Perhaps the time has
come for strike to be studied in a more systematic way.
To explore the subject of strike, I devised an exploratory research project to begin looking for answers.
Ideally, this preliminary research will provide a context
that will lead to the identification of further areas of study. This
project was supported by an Exploratory Travel Grant from the
New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities initiative at Indiana
University-Bloomington. The support provided travel funding to
collect information about strike operations at various theatres.
The fundamental goals of the project included:
1. Learn how the subject of strike is addressed in
stagecraft textbooks;
2. Define strike for theatre;
3. Observe a number of strikes and identify in broad
terms the differences and similarities among them;
4. Identify specific avenues for further study.
Five productions were included in this study. Of Mice
and Men (the opera) at the University of Cincinnati's College-
Conservatory of Music (CCM), Company at Ball State University
(BSU), Holes at Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT), Rigoletto at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UI), and MacBeth Did It at Crown Point (Indiana) High School (CPHS).
These provide a spectrum of theatres ranging from high school
to regional within close proximity to Indiana University-
Bloomington. The productions were primarily academic and
regionally accessible for observations. Each venue graciously
permitted observation and allowed photographs of its strike.

It is important to identify a working definition to distinguish strike from terms like changeover and load-out. What
do stagecraft textbooks have to say about strike? Stagecraft
for Nonprofessionals by Frederick Buerki offers this definition: "for removing scenery, props, and lights from the stage
at the end of an act or a performance (Buerki 1955, 160).
Stage Scenery, Its Construction and Rigging defines strike
as "the operation of dismantling all scenery and stripping it of
hardware preparatory to storing it" (Gillette 1981, 426). Willard F. Bellman's Scene Design, Stage Lighting, Sound, Costume & Makeup, A Scenographic Approach provides the most
extensive discussion. It separates strike into three possible
outcomes: taking the set apart for subsequent remounting;
destroying the set at the end of the run: or taking down a set
prior to building up the next scene (Bellman 1983, 155). While
other textbooks devoted to stagecraft and theatrical production
sometimes mention strike, the discussion is limited.
Colleagues Bruce Brockman, Kirk Domer, Zachary Stevenson, Mark Engler, and Verda Beth Martell were more helpful. A
few of their definitions of strike include:
1. organized chaos (a popular response from technical
directors);
2. the disassembly, removal, and restoration or disposal
of all elements of a production;
3. restoring the theatre to a neutral working order;
4. putting everything away;
5. the process of cutting up scenery into the largest pieces
allowable by the refuse company;
6. the organized dismantling and disposal of production
elements.
A synthesis of these comments and quotations produces
a working definition of strike for this article: the organized
process of dismantling and removing all production elements
(scenery, costumes, lighting, sound, properties) and restoring

summer 2012

theatre design

& technology

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2012