Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2020 - 31

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on-profit theatre can be a stubborn field when it comes to keeping
up with technological trends. Standing atop a shrinking island
of season subscribers, facing rising production costs, and struggling to find new ways to develop community connections, regional theatres can be late adopters of new technology. Theatres
will not justify the expense when that technology's use or relevance is questionable and the cost of installing it is in the tens or hundreds of thousands
of dollars. Perhaps this is why the partnership between Philip Allgeier and
Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL) represents such an exciting combination
of technological necessity, artistic expansion, and cross-departmental collaboration. Their approach keeps the theatre's shows supported, designed, marketed, and successful. Allgeier's unique skills and ATL's ability to expand the
role of the media department have created a way to market the productions
in a flexible and media-savvy way, while also answering the perennial question, "Now, who's in charge of that projector?"
While Allgeier's title at ATL is media
technologist, over time that position has
changed shape considerably and is now
more media specialist than media technologist. Allgeier is, after all, quite special. Over the last 11 years, he has been
responsible for designing the media for
more than 40 productions at ATL, including dozens of shows in the Humana
Festival of New American Plays. In addition to his work as the only resident designer at ATL, he installs the projections
systems he designs, shoots and edits
B-roll for every production (sometimes
with one hand on the "Go" button during
a particularly complex photo call), and
edits promotional videos for the multiple
departments, including marketing, development, education, and the Professional
Training Company. He manages the archival recording of productions, handles

backstage video monitors, and is often
responsible for creating and installing
the content on the theatre's lobby monitors, all within a department of one. This
diversity of responsibilities and workflow
is the key to sustaining the equipment,
balancing the cost, and strategically deploying Allgeier's talents.

Creating a New Role

At Western Kentucky University, while
earning a bachelor of arts in mass communications with a focus in video production and theatre, Allgeier did not
foresee the opportunities he would seize
in media production, in part because this
branch of technology and design was
still developing. "Media design, prior
to digital video, was either film or slide
projection, so it was a totally different
game," Allgeier says. "A lot of the people

who ended up doing media design, myself included, did not train to do video
projection in theatre." In the late 1990s
to early 2000s, many of the courses and
programs in media design and technology we have today did not exist, but the
skills that students like Allgeier acquired
transferred into these new areas as the
technology expanded.
During college and after graduation,
Allgeier spent time working behind the
camera at his local PBS station WKYU
and then transitioned into shooting
news coverage in Louisville for a year.
"Working at PBS laid the foundation for
everything I'd do professionally," Allgeier
says. He credits his experiences with media technology, working with teams, and
developing live entertainment, at Sea
World and elsewhere-all of which connects directly to his work at ATL.

WINTER 2020 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

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Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2020

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