technical designs - scenery

as u like it - technical direction and technical design: intersections of project management and equipment design

As U Like It was the first director thesis show at the Drama School that had audience interaction as a core component to the production as a whole. This single element effected every design decision in ways that, while we believed we planned well for, change was inevitable. I managed a team of two associate TDs that handled the majority of the tech designs while I attended meetings and checked budget expense reports, while also writing methods of safety quality control for scenery and an interactive audience. These sample drawings above and below are typical of the drawing standard I used for this show, and show some of my process for communicating with my designer and our director.

Detail construction drawings for a lectern and podium

Informational sketch for stage management showing what ‘backstage’ would look like

everything that never happened - rotating rep and new work

The Carlotta New Play Festival allows third-year playwrights their first opportunity to see one of their complete plays fully produced. The challenge for technical directors is to design for a three-show rep in a small theater, as well as limited construction time and budgets. As a TD team, there were four of us, three associates that took the lead on the individual shows and one overall TD. My challenge for my show was creating modular platforming that could join together with few seams that could rep quickly and store in as small a footprint as possible. The design criteria for these platforms was limited by weight.

Construction drawings for ramp platforms