Technical Theatre Reflection

This year I wanted to focus on the aspects of design, I felt I had been spending too little time on in the past years teaching. Technical Theatre I, is such a basic condensed class I felt Technical Theatre II needed to be a more in-depth look at script analysis and design, I had never had enough Technical Theatre II students to have a stand-alone class, now I do. Since each year Texas University Interscholastic League holds a competition for design, and we had never competed, I felt it was time to begin the deeper study of design; it was welcomed when this year UIL picked Macbeth as the design prompt for the design competition. It dovetailed nicely with my desire to add in-depth script analyst study I had planned for Dramaturgy and since …show more content…
I am currently reading “History of the Theatre” tenth Ed, I am finding it invigorating. So much so that I have taken what little free time I have to read. It has made me think about my personal esthetic and how to describe it to my students when it comes to scenic design. Somehow I want to work into my lessons an understanding of what the different ‘isms mean to scenic design to help my students obtain a deeper understanding of the differing levels of spectacle in a production. In Technical Theatre I, I have a section on theatre styles in the second half of the year, I am going to rework it to be more scenic designed based project for the students to research. For my second year students we are going to read more scripts and work on discovering the styles the play have been written in or the styles the students might feel inclined to design for that …show more content…
Often times I have to teach my students to work on a smaller scale than many of the schools have to deal with. I know we are better off than some but it is still hard to see some of the inequities my students have to endure. To this end, in all my classes I want to stress that Spectacle was ranked last by Aristotle's in Poetics and his Six Elements of Theatre, or to quote Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999) “No matter how much theatre expands and exploits its mechanical resources, it will remain technologically inferior to film and television. Consequently, I propose poverty in theatre” Kevin taught us the best designs are when everything that can be removed, is. I want my students to focus on what is needed in a scenic design, not “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” concepts. Often times I think young designers are too busy trying to wow the audience with what can be done on stage, vs what should be done. I have come to believe that the best designs for theatre give the actors what they need to perform the action without distracting the audience. It is my belief that scenic design should help the actors tell the story, not distract from the