Re: Concerns
The grad school in theater is teriffic. Amerante Lucero is the head of the lighting program there now. David Nancarrow was the head but he retired. By the way, UTA usually means UT Arlington. UT Austin is known as The University of Texas at Austin or UT.
Well where to begin? I was very good friends with all the grad students and took their classes, so I have a good bit of insight. It is a three year program. There are 2-3 students per year. Graduate classes in lighting design range from the simple in first year (lots of script based work) to more complex in the third year (using video of actual shows to base your design on). Most projects last over 3 weeks. The first week you get the scene design and script and do your cue sheet. The next week the cue sheet is due, and you discuss it and work on your "butter papers". The next week those are due and discussed, then the next week the light plot is due. Cue sheets are discussed openly among the 2-3 grad students and 1-4 undergrads in the class in a small room around a conference table with Amarante at one end and David at the other. They WILL pick your work apart. But they will also give you an approving nod for a good job. When I was there, David was the good cop and Amarante was the bad cop. On plot day you get to pin your plot up on the board and discuss it. They will mark them all up. First year is usually just plots. Second and third year sections MUST be done (they are optional before that). You start out hand drafting, but quickly move to CAD if you wish. I took undergrad CAD classes in engineering. I don't know if the theater dept offers them. The grad students share an office (all 8 of them) with a couple of desks and a drafting table (and a comfey couch). You are required to lead a crew (ME shows, supervise undergrads in lighting repair and maintenance) when I was there the electrics crew met from 3-5 M-TH. This is when all hangs, focuses, etc happened. It is also when the crew meets in Bills Bar (the electrics shop) to do repair, maintenance, custom builds, etc. You will ME a show in each space. How many depends on how many workers. I MEd shows as an undergrad that freed up Grad students a bit.
There are several spaces. The B Iden Payne is a 750 seat procenium, the Oscar G Brockett is a 350 seat "flexible" space, the Lab theater is a 100 seat procenium, there was a small 50 seat black box there, and there is the McGulloh Opera Lab which is a small procenium space for small Operas.
The shows are assigned by the profs. They push you to face and improve your weaknesses. So if you are having trouble with 3 point front light you will be designing a lot in the black box and the Brockett. Things like that.
Most grad students will design one mainstage show a year. The musicals and operas generally go to the third years. But not always. Sometimes you will get a second mainstage show.
You will also get assigned dance shows (that happen in all the spaces) as well as "experimental" theater.
You will be expected (but not required) to mentor younger designers.
If you are in the moving light program (all grad students take one semester) you will have to spend time doing maintenance, and of course all the lab time required for projects (anywhere from 4-40 hours per project).
You will work with Flying Pig consoles and HES moving lights. Of course you will also work with Klieg dimmers, and Express Consoles.
The Local in Austin sucks. You will work more outside the local than in it. There are LOTS of great companies outside the University to work with though. Rude Mechanicals, Salvage Vanguard, there are tons of them.
You will have an inside track to getting on the call list at the Bass Concert Hall (on campus) and the Long Center (off campus), both LORT theaters and both non-union (although they pay union scale). The most frusterating part will be getting on 10 different call lists (no one calls off of anyone else's list).
You will take a scenic design course built around Arsnic and Old Lace (and you will want to kill yourself), and costume courses.
It is a great program. I took a half dozen grad classes as an undergrad and they are very rigerous. Add to that the real world experience and you have I would say one of the top 5 graduate theater programs in the nation (up there with Northwestern, UW, and NYU).
Mike
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