HS Stagecraft Online

[StradivariusBone]

So a lot of really neat online course have opened up in light of the virus and personally I'm planning to take advantage of a few of them. However, a lot of these offerings are geared toward more experienced technicians and are pretty far above your typical entry level high school student. I know there's a few of us HS TD's around here, but after searching the board I came up empty when looking for projects and assignments that I could throw at my kids and have them do at home via online classrooms. I can't exactly go through a tutorial of having them build a distro they can feed from the NEMA 14-50 in their kitchen.

The catch with all this is it has to be stuff that is 100% accessible to all. I can't say go buy a cheap LED fixture off monoprice and learn to program it with an eBay dongle. Or try making a flat with all these tools you don't have in your garage.

One thing I came up with was a project I was already planning on incorporating into the class for next year and that is a prop design project. Pick a show, pick a unique prop and build it. Very arts and crafts and focus on stuff you have around the house. We already have done our set design project for the year, but that would be another good one.

What kind of assignments/projects are you all looking at doing for your HS techs through this ordeal?

 

[Catherder]

What kind of assignments/projects are you all looking at doing for your HS techs through this ordeal?

Same type of thing. I’m not a teacher (volunteer parent) but I sent out the props list for our spring play to my crew and challenged them to design and build some of them. We’ve got some cool items on the list - torches, a blunderbuss (decorative only), the box for Snow Whites heart, etc.

And ditto for youth geared videos, classes, and resources.

EDIT: Mine is more motivated to keeping my youth crew engaged than specifically teaching tho.

 

[StradivariusBone]

That's a good idea for the prop list. I was going pretty wide with it and was worried they'd come up with some random ideas. The prop list for our *possibly* dead musical would be a good place to start. A fellow HS TD also shared with me that he is going to do a lot of Sketchup lessons online. They have a lot of content there, but he already has had face to face class time with them on that. I worry that without direct instruction a lot would falter.

Another idea we kicked around was picking a tech related video and then having them write a reaction to it. Or film one. And then share that way.

I'm going to try and add another video myself to my Rigging 101 video I made a ways back. I meant for that to become a series of Stagecraft material, but I just never had time to do the shooting. I have a sound script fleshed out, just gotta do the filming. I think trying to do at least one topical video a week might be a good idea too. Pick a discipline and a subject and just hash it out. Ask for responses or do a small quiz.

 

[Catherder]

Also, good call on the accessibility issue. In Oregon, they aren't even talking about the possibility of on-line school (at least in the district my kids are in) because of lack of internet, ESL, learning disabilities, and other barriers that could potentially violate federal accessibility guidelines for a free and appropriate education for all kids. While that situation is for an entire K-12 curriculum, still worth thinking about.

 

[StradivariusBone]

We're distributing computers to kids tomorrow and Friday. But apparently about 13% of them don't have access to a computer and I'm assuming internet as well. There are a lot of federal laws regarding accessibility in education, not to mention ADA requirements and the like. I've heard rumors that grades are not being counted, but I don't know that it's true.

I do know that curriculum and delivery is being scrutinized very heavily for the core subjects, with the teachers being put in the role as facilitators instead of gatekeepers. It will be an interesting time. My goal is to mostly give my kids something to do other than math, and try and add a little humor and fun to it. Started filming the sound video today, I'll share it whenever I finish that up.

 

[Brian Dunn]

Not sure how much knowledge your students have with lighting design. If there is limited access to computers, you could take a simple set design, in plan, and ask your students to hand sketch a simple lighting design. Have them use whatever symbols they want and place fixtures where they think it would be proper. I know there is more to lighting design than just placing fixtures, the script and story play a big role, but this is a good way to help with the fundamentals. Then discuss as a class the choices made and what works and doesn't work and why.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Maybe do above and use a post card or painting as the basis. Where to hang lights to recreate what the artist painted. Of course you have to design the set!



I was always amazed by the prop food the prop master at YSD turned out. Looked more appealing than the real thing. Making a prop roast turkey or standing rib roast ought to use relatively inexpensive materials and be kind of fun - but it does require materials which might not be in every home.

 

[busparking]

I had a friend pass along this link to me.
Distance Learning: Technical Theatre
I haven't had much time to go through it thoroughly, but there seemed to be a number of good ideas that could be done with little more than a computer or tablet device.

I'm currently having my students read a play and then we're breaking down the design process into bite-sized chunks.
I'm basing the process off of the one presented in Fundamentals of Theatrical Design by Karen Brewster and Melissa Shafer.

 

[Crisp image]

ETC have online training courses available. If internet is a problem all the workbooks can be downloaded and sent out on a USB or if internet is no problem then the online videos are really good. All they need is to set up an account with ETC and signup to courses that are currently free. And to check on progress once they have finished a course they can download a certificate they can submit as evidence of completion of the training. There are lots of other manufacturers offering similar training for free at the moment too.
Other ideas would be drawing a set plan for construction and making a model of a set. Cardboard and tape are accessible to most people.
Just a couple of thoughts
Regards
Geoff

 

[StradivariusBone]

I fell off the earth for a bit there, was told last week that we are officially all work from home thanks to our Governor's vague and confusing order, so it was a hurry up and mothball the building and grab everything I need to teach for another month.

Thanks for the input! I came up with another project that was inspired by Bill's painting lighting design idea and Brian's paper design (which I'm totally going to have them do!) where they will play with a light source and try and find color filters around their houses. They need to find a light source (LED preferable since it's less hot and fragile than an incandescent lamp), a subject, and something to filter the light.

I grabbed some supplies from my 8 year old's belongings and came up with this setup. I also plan to have them use this setup to take a selfie and try and add an additional light source to see the effect of having different angles and different colors. Fun little stay-at-home lab where I'm praying they don't actually burn their houses down.

 

[What Rigger?]

In the dark times (the 90's), I was helping out a friend with the drama club at the middle school she taught at. I was given the crew kids to teach from scratch and one thing I did was haul in whatever VHS I had of various stuff (mostly concerts) to talk about how lighting creates a mood and a feeling. "Do you think James Hatfield would look more evil or less evil if he was up-lighted in pink vs the green we see here for the opening of Creeping Death in Seattle?"

Now with a Google search, I'd have the kids find me their own examples of what colors and angles are conveying and discuss. Maybe a little simpler than you're looking for, but this is a wild new frontier and I applaud all you teachers making it happen on the fly.

 

[gafftaper]

I'm a big fan of using classic children's stories to teach set design. You can use sketch up as the medium to design in.

For example go through a series of design exercises for say 3 little pigs:

For exercise #1 You have a $1000 budget and our school's theater, technicians to build, and our stock scenery to help you.

For exercise #2 our production now has to travel to a festival you have $500 budget. You can use anything left over from your set in exercise 1 to now fit into a moving truck and be able to be set up in three hours.

For exercise #3 your production of 3 pigs is going to tour local elementary schools. You have $500. The set must now fit in a van and be able to be set up in 30 minutes by the actors.

#4 Three pigs is so popular it has been given a 50 million dollar budget and will be produced in a Broadway theater that will be customized to fit your show. You can do anything you want how will you create giant effects like blowing the house down.

#5 Three little pigs on an abstract set

#6 Three little pigs in the round

#7 Three little pigs unit set

Etc...

 

[mrtrudeau23]

The one class I ever officially taught was an intro to tech class for freshmen at my former undergrad. For the final project, I split them into groups of 3-4 and had them pick a script. Didn't matter what it was (no musicals). I also encouraged them to pick something that had one location.
The assignment went something like this (all my files from that class sadly seem to have vanished over the past 8 years):
Scenery: Come up with a prelim groundplan (can be just a sketch), some research, and some color ideas.
Lighting: Develop a lighting key based on your groundplan and find some research to convey your intentions.
Props: Develop a props list. Include some prelim ideas on if it would be build/buy/stock.
It's all hypothetical, all you really need is a selection of scripts to choose from, and it can be done without special resources. I didn't teach the costumes part of the course, but you could probably include something regarding that as well.
I'm sure I'm missing some aspect of the project, but that was the gist of it.

 

[StradivariusBone]

I made a couple of videos for my kids regarding the lighting project they are working on. The ones that had already turned in pictures were discovering the challenges involved with dealing with ambient light spill from their bedroom windows and the challenges of getting deep blues and cools from incandescent and other warm light sources. So the first video describes the setup I used and the second talks a bit about color temperature and its relation to wavelength of light and how it gets absorbed by color media. I hesitate in sharing because I'm sure I didn't get all of it right (the classic dilemma in sharing anything online of course), but I hope that something in there might be helpful for any of you doing online stuff with your techitos y techitas.

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[Catherder]

Nice videos @StradivariusBone, keep them coming. Although I have to say, you don’t look very much like your profile picture

 

[Crisp image]

Nice videos @StradivariusBone, keep them coming. Although I have to say, you don’t look very much like your profile picture

because he now had a beard.

 

[StradivariusBone]

The beard has been with me since around 2003, but Hank Hill is my spirit animal.