Talk:Technical theatre

This doesn't list the sound crew. Are they convered by one of the other categories or is this an oversight?

Is this page correctly named? I've done some amateur backstage work, and I've never heard the term. Would "technical aspects of theatre" be a better name?

In the English-speaking world, this is Backstage or Production. I've never heard the term either, and have 15 years' stage experience. Sound crew could be included with lighting, since they nearly always work in very close proximity, but I feel that a separate category is better.

In my high school's theatre, the tech booth was too small for separate lighting and sound operators, so there was usually just one guy who did both -- close proximity indeed.

In my school theatre days, the world of lights and sound was known as "tech", verb forms "doing tech", "running tech" or occasionally "teching". I even have some sort of plastic trophy for "best tech design", but these all strike me as a bit too informal for an article name. "Technical theatre" sounds a little odd to me, too; I wouldn't object to "backstage crew" or some such, perhaps.

I think the more generic term is stagecraft for the art of taking a designer's product and turning it into a realized production. The designers, managers, technical crew, supervisors, etc. fall under production, but there's ambiguity in the difference between production and Theatrical production.

Lighting and sound should be separate- in the US until very recently they were different unions. They're also very different-- there's a philosophy of big electrons vs. little electrons, this is why video falls under sound... usually. The building of scenery and the designing of scenery should be separate topics. They may be done by the same person, but they are very different arts.

Part of the problem here is geographical, part of the problem is cultural. What I think the UK calls a lighting chief would be called a master electrician through most of the east coast in the US, a production electrician through most of the west coast, and lighting supervisor in many reigional theatres. There is nuance in the job titles-- but they're effectively the same thing.

Technical theatre tends to refer to anything that isn't done by the actors or directors, and primarily in cultures where the designer and the implmentor (Lighting designer/Master electrician) are the same person. I've run into the term mostly in this context. Out of context, Technical theatre is kind of like technical ballet...

I vote for stagecraft as the generic catchall for all of this.

BLP 22:07, 18 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Marked Up

I just marked this page for cleanup and as a theatre-stub, for the following reasons: the first paragraph is not written smoothly or objectively, using phrases like "it is common" (common by what definition) and "...are at least as important..." (NPOV). While I personally agree with them, I just think this article could be expanded and tidied up a bit.

On a side note, I agree that stagecraft would be an appropriate general term. (The Swami 02:50, 4 October 2005 (UTC))[reply]

I don't think this page needs improving in any way, because everything it is trying to say is already said in the better article, and more general term Stagecraft. I've set up a redirect. Dan 17:12, 19 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]