Introduction

What is an engineering product?

An engineering product is anything made, built, put together, recorded, manipulated, designed, set up, plotted, and/or operated for the purpose of creating or enhancing a theatrical type of experience for an audience. Usually, an engineering product connects to a performance, but sometimes, as in a museum venue, it does not. A theatrical artist/engineer is a person who makes, builds, puts together, records, manipulates, designs, sets up, plots, and/or operates an engineering product.

This is just a way to encompass set, props, costume props, lighting, sound, machinery, etc. so that we can see things a little differently and think out of the box. Since this class includes the examination of more venues than theatre production and design, a way to classify what the theatrical artist/engineer does to create or enhance an experience for an audience was necessary. It excludes the actors, the director, producer, and anyone else not directly associated with the engineering product, with the understanding that the theatrical artist/engineer closely works with others in the professional field.

Performance Design Principles

The foundational concepts of this website are based on the following performance design principles:

1. Enhance the experience for the audience by creating an atmosphere or mood.
   • Meld what you do with the rest of the production.
   • Think in terms of adjectives; create your product expressing similar adjectives as do the rest of the designers for the particular production.
   • Examples: woeful, angry, happy, light, depressing, fearful, innocent
     
     
2. Manipulate audience focus without interrupting the experience.
   • Use light, movement, and/or sound to manipulate focus.
   • Don't allow your product to be distracting; don't shift the audience focus onto your engineering product unless doing so is part of the story.
     
     
3. Know the demands placed on the audience.
   • Are audience members standing, seated, walking around?
   • Are there barriers between the audience and the production?
   • Knowing the demands placed on the audience allows you to focus on overcoming or working with those demands.
     
     
4. Know audience expectations.
   • The audience is bound and influenced by its own cultural and societal expectations.
   • Also be aware of a universality of experience because of the basic human experience of life and living.
     
     
5. Help tell the story.
   • Tie in with the rest of the production.
   • Focus on story and the structure of a theatrical type of storytelling to create experience.
   • Use adjectives to express an emotional life, a "felt" story, that can change throughout the experience for the audience.
   • Be aware of contrast in theatrical storytelling.
     
     
6. Be technically proficient.
   • Everything works.
   • During performance, creating, and/or recording, work the engineering product with finesse.
   • Know the space, technical, and budget constraints.
     
     
7. Be creative and have fun.
   • If you don't, will the audience?

Throughout the entertainment industry, current consumer expectations and technological advances are driving a need for professionals who are educated not only in the fundamentals of theatre, but also in specific areas of technology. The heart of modern audio production, sound design, and entertainment technology are structures, pneumatics, acoustics, electro-acoustics, electronics, computer applications, and mechanical operations.

The design and production of live performance is changing and expanding as rapidly as the technology within our society. Careers in live performance are no longer limited to designing the spectacle of traditional play productions or classical hall acoustics for concerts. Even theatrical plays have expanded to regularly include stunning effects such as falling chandeliers, landing helicopters, and large pools of water onstage while live and recorded sound effects are blended with laser shows in classical concerts.

The increasing complexity of stage effects is driving the specific need for theatrical production artists who have solid foundations in computing and in engineering technology. The modern theatre and entertainment technology professional needs training in the fundamentals and traditions of theatre, integrated with technological skills gained from studies in engineering, computer science, and media production.

Standards for entry into careers in theatre and entertainment technology and audio are continually increasing and the requisite technical and artistic expertise is rarely obtainable through apprenticeship/internship opportunities without a strong undergraduate education. In many cases an undergraduate degree is required for entry into apprenticeship and internship positions.

A primary focus of the theatrical engineer is the relationship between the engineering product and the audience. In order to realize that relationship, he or she needs to take into account an array of factors.