| Course: THEA 115 Play Production
Laboratory Requirement |
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This course has been designed to give students hands-on experience with technical aspects of production preparation at Bridgewater State College, and to introduce students to the theatre as a collective activity and group responsibility.
The minimum requirement over the semester is 20 hours of participation. The work is a wide variety of tasks which are involved in production, and includes such things as light carpentry, painting, lighting work, and costuming. Up to 10 hours of the 20 can be spent in the costume studio or engaged in theatre management with the approval of the supervisors of those areas.
There are several ways in which this requirement can be fulfilled. We ask that all students sign up for a 2-hour block of time once a week for ten weeks. That time must be between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday (or as specified in the current semester). This time period is to be treated as a class with required attendance, but arrangements can be made with notice. This is important because it allows us to plan the activities if we know how many people and what level of expertise will be available at a given time, thereby improving your learning experience.
For those who absolutely cannot work out a regular schedule there are 20 hours of time available on Saturday "Load-ins," late night "Strikes" after final performances, and "Work days" held on Monday holidays. Of course, we welcome all help on those occasions, and you accumulate hours whenever you participate.
In addition, we allow laboratory credit for students who take on a production responsibility and work the run of a show whenever such positions are available.
Naturally we encourage everyone to participate beyond the bare requirement. You may find it is something you enjoy or you may enjoy the people you work with, and we welcome your contribution. Just come in any time work is going on, some of which will be happening at odd hours as the performance dates approach.
You will record the hours you have worked on a time card kept in the scene shop at the rear of the stage. These cards will be reviewed several times during the semester and an account of your lab hours sent to your professor regularly. Hours worked in Costume and Management must be documented with the superfisor in that area.
In order to help you understand our work and equipment, the first lab hours will be spent on a small project which will require you to operate most of the important tools and equipment in our facility. We will teach you what you need to know and supervise your use of any tool or piece of equipment you need. We will also deal with safety and "house rules."
PLAY PRODUCTION is a course which is intended to introduce students to the processes by which a work of dramatic art reaches the audience. We feel it is important that students actually participate in that process. We will do all we can to make it a learning experience for everyone, but we cannot promise that all work will be exciting. Producing and mounting a show is almost as much mundane work and drudgery for everyone as it is exciting, but that tends to be true of most worthwhile projects. You may not see it happening in your lab period, but we all do our share of it. We will try to avoid assigning such work to those who have done their share of it, but we are in a collective art form, and everyone participates in the final event. We have chosen to focus on a learning experience for all, when we could mount our shows more efficiently with a handful of trained technicians.
See the syllabus for the current semester for production work dates.
During the semester we will also inform you of additional opportunities, such as lighting hangs and focus sessions, and work with the BSC Dance company's performances. And check the Call Board; it is a good source of Theatre department information.