Behind the Curtain: The Importance of Technical Theatre in High School

By Dana Hougland
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All areas of the performing arts, from theater to concerts to media, were substantially hurt by the pandemic shutdowns, but the future for events of all types looks very promising. Students who study and participate in the technical aspects of theatre go on to serve the entertainment industries as designers, managers, and technicians. They support not only live theater, media, and movies but also political rallies, sporting events, concerts, documentaries, radio programs, amusement parks, conferences, tradeshows circuses, and museums.
Transferable skills are relevant to a wide variety of careers including architecture, construction, management, computer programming, animation, special effects, and engineering. 

Technical theatre encompasses the design, construction, and management of props, set pieces, make-up, advertising, and costumes. Students learn about the operation, safety, and programming of lighting and rigging systems. Technical theatre is truly an integrated approach to learning as students must use math, art, geometry, physics, history, electronics, and language skills while at the same time learning to use power tools, paints, materials, audio-video, lighting, and computers.

The students in black behind the curtain, running the spotlight or operating the sound, are an incredible, mostly invisible team working together to bring productions to the world. Yes, there are aspects of theatre production that are dangerous, but proper training care, and attention to good safety practices are skills that apply to innumerable fields and daily life.

Given the high value of skills that are transferrable into both academia and directly into a secure job market, theatre and performance art programs deserve our attention, support, and funding. It is critical that we provide students with the opportunity and proper tools to succeed.

​Sourced from:
https://www.smwllc.com/behind-curtain-importance-technical-theatre-high-school/