Baylor theatre technology

I'm going to Baylor University in the fall and I'm planning to try to major in either biology or math and minor in theatre technology, with an emphasis in sound design if I can. My goal is to be an A1. I've been doing sound reinforcement and a little bit of design and I've been building sets for all of my time in high school. I've already talked to one of the TD's at Baylor and he offered me a work study job as a scene shop carpenter. So my question is, where do I go from here? Does anyone know anything about Baylor's tech program or know anyone from the program? Is it better to try to do some summer work before college? And does anyone know any good reading material for an aspiring A1?

A few questions for you and im not trying to be rude when I ask this but if you want to be a FOH engineer why are you getting a degree in biology or math and minoring in theatre technology? Does baylor do musicals? Thats a big question if they don't then how do you get an opportunity to mix in an academic setting? Have you checked out the many production houses in the dallas area for over hire work, you wont be mixing right away but shleping cable will get you places over time, I know from experience. Have you looked at schools that have a specific degree plan in audio design? Keep in mind the only school I know of and i could be wrong that has a very strong program for becoming a FOH engineer is full sail university in orlando with their show production and touring program but full sail is a whole other conversation.

Baylor does do musicals, and the bio or math is just what I have right now. If I can figure out what I'm doing, I'm going to major in tech. What is over hire work?

Over hire is a term used for those who work on crews. It can be applied to those working in a shop or show site outside of the regular staff of an organization. I dont know much about baylor's theatre department other then the university is expensive. I went to school in san antonio at UIW. I would recomend for you to look at SMU in dallas. I had an interview there many years ago as an assistant ME, while i did not get the job I was very impressed with the program. They had a couple digital yamaha consoles aviom systems and a season that let students get their hands really dirty with industry standered gear. Another thing to consider is waco is the boondocks, there is a lot of opportunity in the DFW area. Aside from all the production houses the IATSE local is good there as well. It wouldnt be a bad idea to go to the hall and to inquire about the possibilities of getting on some calls, even if its pushing road cases. Just my opinion and some foid for thought college is rxpensive and a private school doesnt make it better, I know I went to a private university.

If you're thinking about changing your major to Tech, make sure the head of the department knows that. I've found that college programs (especially at private schools) tend to have some decent scholarship money for people who major in Theatre. Also, I know you said they offered you the work study job, but make 100% sure that you can change your major if that's what you decide to do. A lot of programs require a portfolio review and interview for incoming students. If he's offered you a job like that, he'd probably accept you into the program but you need to make sure your bases are covered.

Yeah, I just came in for the orientation today and they told me that the department requires a portfolio and interview. I'm not worried about the interview, but I never saw myself actually majoring in theatre at all, so I was never concerned with getting pictures of my builds. And my design experience is predominantly in set design, and that's always been a designer telling me what they want or giving me renderings and I sketch it out and we make it happen. I don't have any formal drafts of designs. And I've only soun designed one show, which was our OAP this year. We got third at state and one of the three judges is a theatre professor at Baylor, and I'm hoping he'll remember the show, but I don't know. I'm pretty proud of the design for that show, but I have no idea how to set up a portfolio at all, much less out a sound design in one. Any advice at all is appreciated. And for anyone who can help me out here, you're a saint, a scholar, and a gentleman/lady.

I don't know much about Baylor's program, but I know many of the schools I talked to were more than open to letting me switch my emphasis if I decided I wanted to move over to another part of the program and some even encouraged it so I wouldn't worry about most of your experience being in set design. Even if you didn't take pictures of sets, surely somebody in the company did. Try to contact your old directors and if that fails, parents of cast members tend to take plenty of pictures of their children which could work to your advantage.

From what it seemed like to me, the people recruiting for undergrad programs are less interested in what your designs look like and more concerned about your thought process and your basic knowledge of what you're doing. If you still have those sketches, include those so they can see how you went about the design. Don't worry so much that you didn't completely design things on your own. Nobody really expects high school students to do that, you're still learning. Though if you have time, you might want to try to make some more formal drafts of your sketches. Even if you didn't have them at the time, it shows them that you at least know how to do it. The important thing is to show them that you have a strong foundation for them to help you build on.

I wish I could help you with the sound design portion, but I never really understood how you'd put together a portfolio like that unless it's just playing sound bytes for them which I can't imagine tells them very much about your skill.

Do you know how seriously they actually look at the portfolio versus how how you impress them in the interview? I'm very confident on the interview, so that could potentially be my anchor.

I don't know much about Baylor, but I know the professor who judged your show. He'll remember. He agonizes over those decisions and takes it very seriously. I don't think it would be out of bounds to email and ask him for advice. He's a very kind man.

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Hi Txtech, I think it is fortuitous that I stumbled upon this thread seeing as I am actually THE staff/faculty member in charge of the sound design department at Baylor. I can give you answers to many of the questions you are asking if you have not already figured out what you wanted to know. It is probably safe to assume you didn't end up doing the design interview since I don't remember one with your specific details. In any case, I would love to talk more with you about what opportunities we might be able to set you up with, either in our department or elsewhere on campus.

I am always looking for sound-specific interested students and could definitely make use of a proactive audio volunteer. Again, I don't know how much you have found out or still wish to know but here is the skinny on Baylor Theatre's sound design program: Up until a few years ago we really had very little going in the sound design arena. Since I was hired in 2010 I have been diligently building the program. Until recently we were not even approved to hire a "Professor of Sound Design"; we didn't have many of the right resources and their wasn't much feedback from enrollment signaling the need for such a position. That was then, this is now. Just last semester we finished a $130,000 audio-specific upgrade to all of our spaces and associated equipment. And as of a couple weeks back we were approved to hire a Professor of Theatrical Sound Design. That position will start teaching next Fall and will be charged with teaching the Intro to Sound Design class, the Advanced Sound Design class, as well as possibly a newly created Fundamentals in Audio course. Additionally they will be in charge of running the Audio Crew and mentoring student sound designers during their assigned mainstage sound designs (these are responsibilities that were previously folded into my job description as Master Electrician, which was fine by me seeing as it gave me a chance to put to good use my MFA in lighting design and sound design). We employ a Soundcraft Si1 digital console (which we use for our musical as well as other shows), an Allen and Heath 32 channel analogue console, and a small Allen and Heath Zed 14 (for our black box theater). We use Qlab (version 3 now) in conjunction MOTU interfaces to allow for all sorts of fun dimensional sound capabilities. We have a dedicated "sound lab" as well as a general "design lab" where you can learn in a hands-on environment and where I teach students the ins and outs of Pro Tools, Qlab, MIDI, analogue vs. digital, cable connectors, theory, sound design techniques, the design process, etc. etc. etc. I also tend to give my students free reign of the labs since a lot of them have music production interests as well. I can go on, but you can always contact me for more info, I am just trying to pique your interest a bit. I will also mention that Waco Hall (our other large on-campus event venue) is always looking to hire work-studies for stage crew. This will get you audio experience fast, and might be a good option if you find that you don't want to fully commit to majoring in theatre, especially since we don't actually offer a minor in theatre. I believe we tried to in the past but because theatre requires long hours and dedication, we found that minors tended to have lots of conflicts with their major field of study.

Sorry for the long-winded reply, I just wanted to get as much info to you as quickly as possible. That being said, feel free to email me at [email protected] to talk things through a bit further and see what we can do to get the experience you want without sacrificing your other collegiate endeavors.

Ryan Joyner

Master Electrician
Part-time Lecturer
Department of Theatre Arts
Baylor University

Dovahkiin said:

If you're thinking about changing your major to Tech, make sure the head of the department knows that. I've found that college programs (especially at private schools) tend to have some decent scholarship money for people who major in Theatre.

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I'll bet they do that because they know you'll never afford to pay it off otherwise

In all honesty, you're asking the wrong people. You should contact your theatre department head and ask them who to speak with about these questions. Then, as that person everything and get their email in case you have more questions. They will be able to tell you exactly what you need for your situation. I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but whenever you have an education question, ask them thousands upon thousands. They will get you where you need to go. It's their job after all!

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