Research
Working with guest designers, or as a designer yourself, your research in costumes, scenery or lighting will be the foundation of the physical production seen onstage. Costume designers and their assistants work with fabrics, stock items and provide needed visuals for the shop staff and students to work from. In scenery, the student designer or assistant designer provides visuals of furniture and architectural styles, as well as preliminary sketches and drawings. In lighting, the designer and assistants gather materials from costumes and scenery and provide images to illuminate the complete production design.
Creation
You’ll create mock ups, floor plans and detailed drawings, instrument plots and inventories, channel sheets and charts and provide the Costume, Scenic and Lighting shops with the materials they need to purchase, build and acquire the necessary pieces that create the performance environment.
Implementation
And then, you will work side by side with the designer through production meetings, fittings and final drawings, into technical rehearsals up to opening night. You literally will see the physical production from its beginning stages through to completion. This Theatre and Dance course is a great companion experience for our fellow arts students in Design, Cinema and Digital Media, and Art Studio.
Catalog Description
Design-related participation in Theatre & Dance productions involves research, creation and implementation of design concept in collaboration with the director and other members of the production team.
Meet the Faculty
Ethan Hollinger (he/they) — Assistant Professor of Lighting, Sound & Media
An avid writer, artist, musician, and advocate, Professor Hollinger has worked across the country as a lighting, sound, and media designer. Recent favorites include: Once (Duluth Playhouse), Stupid F***ing Bird (UMD), Terminer (New Hazelett Theatre), Waiora (ISU), and Shakesfeare (ISF). His work spans many genres and styles, including but not limited to theatre, dance, opera, art installations, architectural lighting, and interactive audience events. BFA: NGU. MFA: ISU.
Office: Wright Hall 236 (2nd Floor)
(530) 754-2624
[email protected]
Meet the Lecturers
Ian Wallace (he/him/his) — DRA 124A & B (Scenic Design)
Ian Wallace has designed Flora the Red Menace, The Threepenny Opera (UC Davis), The Flying Dutchman (Opera San Jose); El Henry, Our Town, Recipe for Disaster, Frida Libre (La Jolla Playhouse); Great American Trailer Park Musical, Tortilla Curtain, In the Time of the Butterflies, Into the Beautiful North (San Diego Rep); The Last Match, We’re Gonna Be Okay, The Giver (B Street); The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (San Jose Stage and Capital Stage). International: Siavash, Scarlet Stone (Toronto), Ruins True (Romania, Budapest, Avignon); Death of a Salesman (Romania); Drums on the Dam (London). Television: “Guiding Light” (CBS). USA829 member. BFA: NYU; MFA: UC San Diego. Professor and Department Chair of Theatre and Cinema Arts at Folsom Lake College.