# ASM or Student Tech Director?



## mbandgeek (Oct 17, 2006)

I am a junior at a small high school in Western NC. I am the Assistant technical director and the Student Technical Director. 

When I go to apply to a college for for a major in lighting design, which title should i put on the application? Is it a good idea to put either of these on? Or should I put both of them on it?


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## Footer (Oct 17, 2006)

In most "school" situations those are the same thing. At most high schools you can never really guage what each job actually was unless you talk to the person directly. I would say put down what you were billed in the program for your resume, and when you actually go to interview explain what each job actually entailed so that they can convert it into what you actually did.


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## mbandgeek (Oct 19, 2006)

At my school, they don't have the actual title, but Include the position.

Ie. 
Lights- Kevin Northrup 
Sound- John Doe 
Spotlight- John Smith 

During college interviews, I guess that I have to explain what i have done to earn the title.


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## ricc0luke (Oct 19, 2006)

It can never hurt to put it on. What it will mean to the college is the question, but to get into any theatre program you will need to interview with the theatre dept. and present a portfolio of your work along with a resume.

Since you are a TD (or ATD) you would not bill yourself as lighting crew or stage crew or any other thing that falls underneath the TD unless you are a designer, then you would bill your self as both.

So for example- if you are the TD and you help build the set and were backstage as part of the running crew you would only write down TD. If you are the TD and you also designed the set they would would put down TD and Senic Designer.

A great example is right now I am TDing a show that I designed the lights, set, and sound for along with assisting on costumes and make-up design. I also am the entire lighting crew, built the majority of the set, set the sound and apply makeup, but I am not listed with the crews because I hold a position that oversees the crews, but I am listed for each aspect of design.

So I am billed-
Technical Director
Lighting Design
Sound Design
Senic Design
Asst. Costume Design

But I am not billed under-
Senic Constuction
Electricians
Sound Engineer
Make-up
Costumes



Does this make any sense? I hope so. I know it's a little fuzzy.


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## soundlight (Oct 19, 2006)

I was billed as technical director in the high school program. What did I do?

Tech director
Lighting Designer
Light board programmer
Sound Assistant
Set Construction
All of the electrics work

So, naturally, I had to explain this on applications and at scholarship interviews. Basically, I had two board ops, and I designed and did all of the electrics work and fixed all the mics and did everything but run the boards. The tech theater class constructed the set, but I helped.

So make sure to explain your positions in their entirety.


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## mbandgeek (Oct 20, 2006)

so you are saying to include specific things like lighting design, and not to include general things like lighting crew.


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## soundlight (Oct 20, 2006)

Basically, in my essay for my scholarship application, I said that I was technical director. Then I explained all of the things listed in my previous post that I actually did while holding this position, including all the things that I did between shows to improve the performance space.

But the only thing listed for the shows in my resume was TD. I, of course, have amended that for my current resume that I'm keeping as a professional application.


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## mbandgeek (Oct 20, 2006)

You are currently at Bucknell University? How is their tech program?


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## soundlight (Oct 21, 2006)

Here's our tech program: one guy. One awesome guy. Professor Heath Hansum. He designs speakers and keeps up with a guy at ETC. He has taken rigging master classes and toured. He still does union gigs and also designs for local performing arts venues. He designs some of the lighting, students design some of the lighting, and we keep up with all the latest technolgies. I get paid for theater work, and we have 2 theater spaces. The coolest thing about our spaces is that they're always in need of improvement, and who does the repairing? WE DO! And we do a **** good job. The program gives you tons of practical info as well as teaching you design concepts. There is also an Assistant Tech Director who is a student just out of college who helps Prof. Hansum. Our inventory is mostly ETC, with some strand and generic fixtures mixed in. We also have some automated ligthing. Consoles: ETC obsession and ETC express, with the awesome MOVING LIGHT DESIGNER'S REMOTE for the obsession (it's a very rare find for obsession I system, which we're running now). We're actually looking at new consoles now, as it is. If you want to visit, I've got plenty of space in my room to plop down my camping matress and sleeping bag. I could seriously go on forever about how insanely awesome this program is, but you really have to decide for yourself after seeing it. No one can make the college decision for you.

EDIT: not to make our program seem completely one-sided, we do have a set designer, a costume designer, a costume shop assistant, a costume intern, the tech direction intern that i already mentioned, 2 dance professors and 2 acting professors. But Heath does supervises the shop, does some lighting design, and designs all of the practical aspects of shows.

(And besides all that, we have the awesome annual Bucknell Theater Department Light Show!! Which I helped out on this year. We did the Goo Goo Doll's song "Slide" for the song, and the show was great. We ran it of SFX, Hog2PC, and the Obsession 1 console. It was amazing.)

Contact me by IM (*removed*) or email (*removed*) if you want more info. (Anyone looking back at this thread PM for Bucknell info)


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## mbandgeek (Oct 25, 2006)

sounds cool. I will plan to include this place on "The Tour of Universities" This spring.


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## Van (Oct 27, 2006)

I just want to stick my nose in and give an opinion. I think that while including the posistion TD is good on a resume' or College application, I also feel the need to state that also beleive it is vitally important to show you came through the ranks. I've worked with people of both sorts in the "real-world" and in college situations. As was stated earlier, you never know what a Highschools dept. is actually like. I've known places that have one guy who does it all, and he's good at it. That's great, that's cool, but there is a huge difference between a T.D. whois is the T.D. by default and one how is an actual TD. Allow me to ellucidate, a TD who is a td is a person capable of tracking the budgets, work progress and human resources of all the departments under his / her purview. A person who is a TD by default is the guy who's the only person moderatly qualified to do certain jobs and is therefore exploited and does it all. 
I beleive it is correct that if you are a crew head for a show you put that on a resume' and you don't also list yourself as a member of the electrics team, but if I were to see a resume' that showed me a guy who has done nothing but T.D. for his last two years in highschool I'm going to wonder whether or not there was anybody else in his dept. 
As for the original Question. I think it depends on how different the two jobs are. In the past I worked at a theatre where the Production Stage Manager, would occasionally run a show. does that mean he would only list Production stage manager for XYZ theatre ? No, he'd list it and then on another line he'd also list his credits for other shows. < For any not familiar with Equity or Proffesional theatres a Production Stage Manager tends to be the stage manager that works for a company and is in charge of all of the other stage managers. Weird huh ? you'd think a PSM would be the one running a particular production. > So if you duties for Student Technical Director are different than your duties as the other job you listed then by all means list them. However if you are only supervising yourself , don't bother. 
Let us know where you decide on. Good Luck.


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