Kennesaw State University · Course
Stagecraft
A high-level tour through the disciplines of technical theatre, building shared vocabulary, hands-on skills, and an awareness of the careers behind a working production.
Overview
Stagecraft is a high-level overview of the major fields of technical theatre and live production. The course is designed to give students from every discipline a working understanding of how a production gets made, with a special emphasis on the careers behind each discipline and on building a common vocabulary they can lean on as they continue into the industry.
Class meets across the design lab, the scene shop, and the theatres themselves; weeks alternate between classroom topics, shop and load-in days, and visits from working professionals. Students leave with hands-on experience drafting to scale, working safely in a scene shop, basic networking literacy, and a clearer picture of where they might fit in the production world.
Course objectives
By the end of the semester, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate a working understanding of various disciplines of technical theatre and production.
- Develop a common language of technical theatre terms and vocabulary, making them better collaborators in any live-production environment.
- Identify career paths in different disciplines of technical theatre and production.
- Demonstrate understanding of basic theatrical tools and equipment.
- Demonstrate professional protocol in varied production and performance contexts.
- Engage in productive collaboration in scholarly and creative practice.
Units & topics
A scaffolded sequence: each unit builds on the work of the one before it.
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Unit 01
Introduction, vocab, and history
A shared starting point: the language of the theatre and a brief tour of how the modern production process came to be.
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Unit 02
Lighting
Load-in on a working show, design fundamentals, fixture types, color, cables, and connectors.
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Unit 03
Scale drawing & drafting
Reading and producing scale drawings, and the conventions of theatrical drafting.
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Unit 04
Scenic & shop days
Two full sessions in the scene shop, working safely with tools and basic construction techniques.
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Unit 05
Computer networking 101
How the production network glues lighting, sound, and video together, and how to read a network drawing.
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Unit 06
Theatrical sound
Signal flow, basic sound design vocabulary, and a guest visit from sound designer Anthony Narciso.
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Unit 07
Careers in production
A closing session on career paths, written up in an end-of-term career paper.
Assignments & projects
The work students do across the semester. Briefs are reproduced as PDFs where one was distributed.
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Project 1: Scale drawing
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Project 2: Scenic design
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Project 3: Network drawing
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Project 4: Sound and lighting
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Career paper
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Cumulative final exam (open paper-note)
Required materials
Books, tools, software, and supplies for the course. Buy / download links are carried over from the syllabus where the syllabus listed one.
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Supplies
Assorted pencils and graph paper
Graph paper can be shared between students.
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Optional reading
The Backstage Handbook: An Illustrated Almanac of Technical Information
Other courses
More from Mike's appointment at Kennesaw State.
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Fall
Visual Imagination
A foundations-of-design course on how line, color, form, texture, and light shape a viewer’s emotional response in the theatre.
View course →
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Fall
Special Topics: Eos Programming
An in-depth console-programming course on the ETC Eos family, with a heavy parallel track on production networking, show control, and timecode.
View course →
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Spring
Special Topics: Production Software
A working tour of the digital tools a modern production team uses, from FileMaker and Lightwright through QLab, Vor, network tools, and a closing build-your-own NodeRED unit.
View course →