OK, this is for HS and college tech directors as well as the pro's in the biz. I'm asking for a bit of guidance here. Bear with this...it might be a little long but I appreciate all the help in advance.
-Quick Background: Was hired as a HS tech director for a local private HS in August. Nice place, 600 seat proscenium theater, 22 line counterweight flyline system, Yamaha LS9-32 console, ProTools for recording (along with some of my toys) a solid collection of Colortran lekos, few S4's, Fresnels, pars, and two VariLite VL1000's all controlled by our wonderful paperweight, the Colortran Innovator 48/96.
My education is in Audio Engineering (A.A.S) and Music Education (B.M.Ed) and have taught previously, but in band settings. I was tapped to teach a tech theater class this year. This is a good thing. The challenge is that I am making the whole curriculum on short notice. The last class was taught by someone not real "technical" and from what I hear was centered more on costuming, set prep, acting,...not technical. There were some complaints about this since we also had an exploration of theater.
So, I'm going hardcore technical with it. I've separated the semester into three segments: Stage safety and rigging, Audio and lighting. I'm trying to balance how much info I lecture on and doing activities. I have the kids for a hour and twenty minutes three times a week. I have tons of knowledge on sound since I've been running a private business as a recording engineer for 5 years and a decent amount on light that I've learned quick, but I need to develop some good exercises or in class activities.
Here are the books that I'm referencing either from past education or recent reading:
-Stage Rigging Handbook: Jay Glerum
-Practical Guide to Stage Lighting: Steven L. Shelley
-Stage Lighting Design: Neil Fraser
-Live Sound Reinforcement: Scott Hunter Stark
-Modern Recording Techniques: David Miles Huber
-Backstage Handbook is floating around for reference
Any other good places to gain info?? I need help mostly in lighting, especially the "theoretical" or "design" side. The tech part of what light is what, how to assign things, how many lights can I use on this dimmer isn't hard. It's learning (and I know this is the hard part) a "style" of using the right light, color, gobo for certain scenes, etc.
I'll stop here and hopefully get a discussion on this. If you read through it all and are still awake....thank you.
BJH
-Quick Background: Was hired as a HS tech director for a local private HS in August. Nice place, 600 seat proscenium theater, 22 line counterweight flyline system, Yamaha LS9-32 console, ProTools for recording (along with some of my toys) a solid collection of Colortran lekos, few S4's, Fresnels, pars, and two VariLite VL1000's all controlled by our wonderful paperweight, the Colortran Innovator 48/96.
My education is in Audio Engineering (A.A.S) and Music Education (B.M.Ed) and have taught previously, but in band settings. I was tapped to teach a tech theater class this year. This is a good thing. The challenge is that I am making the whole curriculum on short notice. The last class was taught by someone not real "technical" and from what I hear was centered more on costuming, set prep, acting,...not technical. There were some complaints about this since we also had an exploration of theater.
So, I'm going hardcore technical with it. I've separated the semester into three segments: Stage safety and rigging, Audio and lighting. I'm trying to balance how much info I lecture on and doing activities. I have the kids for a hour and twenty minutes three times a week. I have tons of knowledge on sound since I've been running a private business as a recording engineer for 5 years and a decent amount on light that I've learned quick, but I need to develop some good exercises or in class activities.
Here are the books that I'm referencing either from past education or recent reading:
-Stage Rigging Handbook: Jay Glerum
-Practical Guide to Stage Lighting: Steven L. Shelley
-Stage Lighting Design: Neil Fraser
-Live Sound Reinforcement: Scott Hunter Stark
-Modern Recording Techniques: David Miles Huber
-Backstage Handbook is floating around for reference
Any other good places to gain info?? I need help mostly in lighting, especially the "theoretical" or "design" side. The tech part of what light is what, how to assign things, how many lights can I use on this dimmer isn't hard. It's learning (and I know this is the hard part) a "style" of using the right light, color, gobo for certain scenes, etc.
I'll stop here and hopefully get a discussion on this. If you read through it all and are still awake....thank you.
BJH
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