Mission

The Technical Theatre Department is dedicated to the backstage skills necessary for a successful onstage performance. Technical Theatre includes multiple avenues to sharpen production skills for an eventual career in live events and performing arts. Students in Technical Theatre are creative, passionate, and hard-working with strong critical thinking skills and experience in managing complex collaborations. 

Curriculum

Technical Theatre concentrates classes within the disciplines of Scenic, Lighting, and Costuming. Each concentration offers its own progression of course work. Some of the general fields of study include: 

• Scenic Design
• Carpentry and Scenic Painting
• Stagehand Training/Production Management
• Lighting Design
• Electrical Training/Hang and Focus
• Costume Design
• Sewing/Stitching
• Wardrobe Crew and Maintenance

Career Technical Certification

The Technical Theatre Department at SCPA is a program in the Arts and Communication pathway in Career Technical Education for the state of Ohio. This program prepares students for technical careers in Media Arts, Performing Arts, and Visual Design and Imaging. It is a collaborative effort of teachers and business professionals to foster the successful development of students to a career choice. This program will provide broad knowledge, insight, and understanding of business processes, academic attainment, and workplace readiness within a depth of knowledge and expertise in a career specialty. A Career Tech Program will ensure that our students are well-prepared for the workforce of tomorrow in a competitive global environment. 

Auditions

Students interested in attending SCPA as part of the Technical Theatre Department must pass a technical theatre audition. For more information on the audition process or how to sign up, please visit the Audition Process & Procedures page. 

TECHNICAL THEATRE: Scenic, Lighting, Costuming

The Technical Theater Department at SCPA realizes that very few 6th-10th grade students have extensive experience in the various areas of technical theater. We are looking for students with a passion for their craft who wish to pursue a career in theatrical production. Successful candidates will have a general understanding of the technical theater field as well as knowledge of the area of concentration they wish to pursue (i.e. scenic, costuming, or lighting), artistic potential and maturity, and the ability to pay attention to detail and to stay focused. Students must be motivated, able to follow directions, work in a team, and accept constructive criticism. 

How to prepare:
1. Download the Technical Theater Student Questionnaire. Complete and turn in with your portfolio.
2. Prepare a portfolio to bring to the audition interview. Details below. 

TECHNICAL THEATER Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio of work should highlight a student's interests and skills related to technical theater. The portfolio should include an inspiration board as well as some of the other items listed below:

• An inspiration board for the design field (scenic, costuming, or lighting) related to their favorite performance (i.e. drama, musical, TV show, or movie). 
• An inspiration board is a collage of images, words, and objects (i.e., fabric, trim, paint chips, etc.) attached to a poster board. It is used as a reference for a show they would be designing.
• Your board can be digitally created and printed in color and/or pictures taken from magazines, photographs, or other sources and pasted to a poster board not to exceed 22” x 28”.
• Sketchbooks 
• Drawings or paintings from art classes (not necessarily related to technical design) 
• Three-dimensional work: models, sculpture, small objects you have built or created on your own 
• Samples of clothing, knitting, crochet, jewelry making, beadwork, or other textile arts you have created 
• Photographs from a production showing examples of scenic, costuming, or lighting the student helped create 
• Production books (prompt book) 
• Renderings and sketches based on a play you have read 
• Sound/video recording sample 
• Other examples of previous experiences are also welcomed
• Complete the Technical Theater Student Questionnaire on the back. 

Boards

Proficiency assessments known as Boards are given each year in a student's artistic discipline. These assessments take various forms depending on the department, but are designed to test skill and knowledge progression in a student’s chosen arts field. Students who fail to pass their boards with a satisfactory rating will be placed on arts probation. Students who fail to pass 2 out of a series of 3 boards may be asked to leave SCPA, change or drop one of the artistic disciplines they are studying, or complete an arts intervention plan. For full policies and procedures, please see the Artistic Handbook on the Handbooks & Forms page.