# Technical director MFA



## sarahsliefie (Dec 9, 2012)

Does anyone know of a distance learning program for an MFA in Technical Direction or Technical Management? Along that line any one know of a program in Philadelphia or Baltimore. I am looking at moving out that way and have 2 years in on a program here.


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## Footer (Dec 9, 2012)

Most masters programs won't accept credits from another university. Also, a distance learning MFA would not be worth the paper it is printed on. Stay where you are and complete the program you are in, then move. Otherwise, you're throwing that education down the hole unless you can work out some distance learning thing with the school you are at now.

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## dbthetd (Dec 9, 2012)

I've been giving thought to distance learning programs in this field and I have to say that maybe this would work for bits and pieces, but a BFA or an MFA is really an applied degree. I don't think I could see the merit of a fully online/distance scenario. You need the time actually in the shops and the theatres working with other people for the degree to mean anything.


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## TechD_Joel (Dec 12, 2013)

Has anyone ever heard of a summer program that offers MFA Tech Direction?


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## themuzicman (Dec 12, 2013)

Getting an MFA in technical direction is a degree of process -- you need to learn from Trial and Error, and that is not something taught in a single summer.


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## TheaterEd (Dec 13, 2013)

TechD_Joel said:


> Has anyone ever heard of a summer program that offers MFA Tech Direction?


I recently got a flyer from http://www.sou.edu/acts/ It is not an MFA but is a Master of Theatre Studies in Production and Design program taught over 3 summers. I have not looked into it other than by browsing around the website a bit. 

Another one I found is a Masters degree for theater educators http://www.uh.edu/class/theatre-and-dance/theatre/graduate/summer-ma/index.php

I had also read about one in Arizona, but I can't find it at the moment.


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## Lextech (Dec 13, 2013)

TheaterEd said:


> Another one I found is a Masters degree for theater educators http://www.uh.edu/class/theatre-and-dance/theatre/graduate/summer-ma/index.php
> .



Normal, lots of classes relating to lights, costumes and tech direction. No sound.


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## TheaterEd (Dec 13, 2013)

Lextech said:


> Normal, lots of classes relating to lights, costumes and tech direction. No sound.



These programs are mostly aimed at high school teachers with varied backgrounds. Having worked with sound for the last 15 years or so, I would be VERY frustrated if I had to take a sound design class with the majority of high school directors I have worked with. I feel like for a class on sound to work well, all the students need to be around the same level of familiarity, whereas with other aspects of tech, the learning curve isn't quite as steep. That being said, it would be easy enough for a school to offer two levels of the same class, and I would love to take an advanced level class on sound design for theatrical productions.


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## Lextech (Dec 13, 2013)

Most grad programs you take some, not all of the courses offered. If you need lighting you take it, if you have a vast amount of experience in it, you take something in another field. My point was that in many programs sound is only taught as a sidebar in a TD class if it is offered at all. I work as the PM at a undergrad only, liberal arts university that the only sound course the Theatre Department has offered was when I taught it. My last university the students who wanted to learn sound worked for me in the campus production company. There was a sound design course offered by the Drama department, I believe, but most of their shows didn't use much more then playback or area mics. Sound is the bastard child in theater. No one cares about sound until the director can't hear something.....


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## TheaterEd (Dec 13, 2013)

Lextech said:


> Most grad programs you take some, not all of the courses offered. If you need lighting you take it, if you have a vast amount of experience in it, you take something in another field. My point was that in many programs sound is only taught as a sidebar in a TD class if it is offered at all. I work as the PM at a undergrad only, liberal arts university that the only sound course the Theatre Department has offered was when I taught it. My last university the students who wanted to learn sound worked for me in the campus production company. There was a sound design course offered by the Drama department, I believe, but most of their shows didn't use much more then playback or area mics. Sound is the bastard child in theater. No one cares about sound until the director can't hear something.....


I agree with with you, I was just playing the devil's advocate. I know in my college training, sound was touched on for about an hour and a half and never mentioned again. I would love if it was covered more.


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## Lextech (Dec 13, 2013)

Actual I really hate how the title "TD" is used in the theater community. It seems that, at least in the circles I run, the TD is the person who takes the scenic designers drawings and makes something useful out of them. They may or may not be involved in lighting and flying things, occasionally they deal with rigging. I don't remember the last time I saw a TD dealing with sound or video. Unless of course it was to make the sound person do something stupid because the TD didn't like the look of footmics, or the sight of speakers in a musical.....


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## themuzicman (Dec 13, 2013)

Lextech said:


> Actual I really hate how the title "TD" is used in the theater community. It seems that, at least in the circles I run, the TD is the person who takes the scenic designers drawings and makes something useful out of them. They may or may not be involved in lighting and flying things, occasionally they deal with rigging.



At least here in NYC, in my experience working large off-broadway and small broadway shows/tours, that's essentially what the TD does. Everyone gives in their plots to the TD. He makes sure there aren't any glaring overlaps in the lx and audio plots with scenery, but otherwise those departments are semi-autonomous. He signs off that the hanging points can support the weight you are putting on them and then the individual departments go to town. The TD is in charge of making the drawings into reality including rigging and set practical stuff. If I need a speaker in a refrigerator, he makes sure I have the hookup to get what I need in there. The TD doesn't need to know audio or advanced lighting...

In College our TD program was heavily structural engineering based (they took many classes overlapping with the engineering department). Their main thing was being able to look at a problem and be able to solve it like an engineer, with the math to back up why a problem could or could not work (It was in VA too, I see you're from there...)


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## TheaterEd (Dec 16, 2013)

Lextech said:


> Actual I really hate how the title "TD" is used in the theater community. It seems that, at least in the circles I run, the TD is the person who takes the scenic designers drawings and makes something useful out of them. They may or may not be involved in lighting and flying things, occasionally they deal with rigging. I don't remember the last time I saw a TD dealing with sound or video. Unless of course it was to make the sound person do something stupid because the TD didn't like the look of footmics, or the sight of speakers in a musical.....


It is really frustrating that our terminology is so interchangeable, but I feel it speaks to the nature of theater in general. If you look at three different professional theaters, it is pretty easy to find people with the same job title that have slightly different responsibilities. So when you start comparing professional companies to volunteer community theaters and then to high schools, you find that they have to use the closest job title that they can find. I simply refer to myself as TD for our shows because the director gives me a drawing of what she wants the set to look like, and I then make it into something useful and lead the kids in building and painting the set. When that's done we start working on props. Then I design the lights, and instruct the kids how to hang the plot, then I assign students to find my audio effects and we assemble the sound system.
While I could go through and give myself the myriad of theatrical job titles that I perform, I prefer to just say Technical Director and be done with it. If you can think of a more apt title, I'll consider it


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## TDN (Dec 16, 2013)

someone may point out some holes, but there are very few MFA programs in Technical direction. All of the ones I know are 3 years. Here's a list I found online. Does anyone else know of another list like this, where it lists the degree name and then all the schools that offer it? It would be super helpful.
http://careers.test.utah.edu/downloads/TheatreGradPrograms-StageManagementDesignProduction.xls


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## TechD_Joel (Jan 5, 2014)

themuzicman said:


> Getting an MFA in technical direction is a degree of process -- you need to learn from Trial and Error, and that is not something taught in a single summer.


I agree. My situation: I started as the Staff TD at a small private liberal arts school. The job has slowly morphed into a faculty position and they want me to get at least a masters. I love the collegiate environment and want to continue in this arena, but If I ever needed to find another job, I would need the MFA. I have eight years of experience in the classroom and back stage, but hat doesn't mean diddly in an academic job search if I don't have the paper to back it up. Additionally I have a young family, so quitting to go to school full time is out.



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