I recently got a flyer from http://www.sou.edu/acts/ It is not an MFA but is a Master of Theatre Studies in Production and Design program taught over 3 summers. I have not looked into it other than by browsing around the website a bit.Has anyone ever heard of a summer program that offers MFA Tech Direction?
Another one I found is a Masters degree for theater educators http://www.uh.edu/class/theatre-and-dance/theatre/graduate/summer-ma/index.php
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Normal, lots of classes relating to lights, costumes and tech direction. No sound.
I agree with with you, I was just playing the devil's advocate. I know in my college training, sound was touched on for about an hour and a half and never mentioned again. I would love if it was covered more.Most grad programs you take some, not all of the courses offered. If you need lighting you take it, if you have a vast amount of experience in it, you take something in another field. My point was that in many programs sound is only taught as a sidebar in a TD class if it is offered at all. I work as the PM at a undergrad only, liberal arts university that the only sound course the Theatre Department has offered was when I taught it. My last university the students who wanted to learn sound worked for me in the campus production company. There was a sound design course offered by the Drama department, I believe, but most of their shows didn't use much more then playback or area mics. Sound is the bastard child in theater. No one cares about sound until the director can't hear something.....
Actual I really hate how the title "TD" is used in the theater community. It seems that, at least in the circles I run, the TD is the person who takes the scenic designers drawings and makes something useful out of them. They may or may not be involved in lighting and flying things, occasionally they deal with rigging.
It is really frustrating that our terminology is so interchangeable, but I feel it speaks to the nature of theater in general. If you look at three different professional theaters, it is pretty easy to find people with the same job title that have slightly different responsibilities. So when you start comparing professional companies to volunteer community theaters and then to high schools, you find that they have to use the closest job title that they can find. I simply refer to myself as TD for our shows because the director gives me a drawing of what she wants the set to look like, and I then make it into something useful and lead the kids in building and painting the set. When that's done we start working on props. Then I design the lights, and instruct the kids how to hang the plot, then I assign students to find my audio effects and we assemble the sound system.Actual I really hate how the title "TD" is used in the theater community. It seems that, at least in the circles I run, the TD is the person who takes the scenic designers drawings and makes something useful out of them. They may or may not be involved in lighting and flying things, occasionally they deal with rigging. I don't remember the last time I saw a TD dealing with sound or video. Unless of course it was to make the sound person do something stupid because the TD didn't like the look of footmics, or the sight of speakers in a musical.....
I agree. My situation: I started as the Staff TD at a small private liberal arts school. The job has slowly morphed into a faculty position and they want me to get at least a masters. I love the collegiate environment and want to continue in this arena, but If I ever needed to find another job, I would need the MFA. I have eight years of experience in the classroom and back stage, but hat doesn't mean diddly in an academic job search if I don't have the paper to back it up. Additionally I have a young family, so quitting to go to school full time is out.Getting an MFA in technical direction is a degree of process -- you need to learn from Trial and Error, and that is not something taught in a single summer.
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