Deidre Galloway, Louisburg, adjusts lights in the PSU Studio Theatre

Students learn the technical side of theater

Long before the first actor walks on stage, most successful theatrical productions have already gone through uncounted hours of hammering, sawing, painting, adjusting lights and a myriad of other tasks that are all part of “stagecraft.” These are the skills that Dan Williams teaches students in his technical production classes.

Williams, an assistant professor of technical theater and design, has worked nationally and internationally as a designer and technical director in theater, opera, dance, film and television. He has received four meriotious achievement awards from the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival for his design work. Williams earned his B.F.A. from Tarkio College and his M.F.A. from Southern Illinois University.

Williams said Pittsburg State University students get a good hands-on experience when it comes to stagecraft. As students worked around him in the studio theater in Grubbs Hall on a set for the upcoming production of “Necessary Targets,” Williams noted that they were simultaneously working on a large set in Memorial Auditorium for an opera production. “We’re also working on a new sports broadcasting set for CAPS 13 (the student-produced cable television station),” Williams said.

The students bring a variety of skills and experiences to his technical production classes, Williams said. “Three of the students in the class are interior design majors. I also have a construction engineering student who is a really good carpenter.”

Williams said he likes to find out what students are good at and “use their strengths for the good of the production.”

For Williams, stagecraft begins with reading the play and understanding what the playwright is attempting to communicate with the audience. “Your personal design style doesn’t matter. In fact, I like to think I don’t have a particular design style.”

Each production and presentation space presents unique challenges of its own. For example, the theater in Grubbs Hall has low ceilings, so some lighting on the stage can be challenging. Lighting will be an especially important aspect of the stagecraft for the upcoming production of “Necessary Targets,” Williams said. The simple scene is set almost exclusively in a converted packing plant in which two Americans confront their own fears and failures as they help women who are Bosnian war refugees.

Whether it is designing and building an elaborate set for an opera performance on Memorial Auditorium’s large stage, setting the lighting in the snug theater in Grubbs Hall or crafting a new set for the student television channel, students who take Williams’ technical theater and design classes are guaranteed experiences that are as varied as the world of theater and performance itself.

“Necessary Targets” will be performed at 8 p.m. March 1-3 and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 4. All performances are in the PSU Studio Theatre in Grubbs Hall.

For more on the PSU Theatre Company and other programs in the PSU Department of Communication, visit their Web site at http://www.pittstate.edu/comm/ or call the Department of Communication at 620-235-4063.

---Pitt State---