Course

Technical Direction

Faculty
Language, Literature & Performing Arts
Department
Stagecraft & Event Technology
Course code
STGE 2405
Credits
2.00
Semester length
15 weeks
Max class size
25
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Tutorial
Typically offered
To be determined

Overview

Course description
Students will examine the role and responsibilities of the Technical Director in various performing arts situations. Emphasis will be placed on pre-production situations. Students will be encouraged to develop skills in problem solving, product searching, and production scheduling.
Course content

Areas of responsibility: audio, lighting, rigging, communications, staging, construction, electrical, special effects, crew estimation, and safety.

Production venues: production companies, road houses, community halls, summer festivals, special events, touring companies, and educational institutions.

Role and responsibilities during Pre-production including: script analysis, design assessment, production timetables, problem solving, budget and cost estimation, product research and applications, responsibilities before, during and after production run.

Role and responsibilities during Production including: safety issues, materials list and acquisition, supervision of departments, set-in, run, and strike.

Learning activities

Students will receive three hours of lecture/demonstration per week that includes independent work and one on one instruction.

Means of assessment
Product Research 20%
Set Construction Drawings 10%
Theatre Drawings 10%
Masking Drawings  10%
Lighting Design 10%
Sourcing Project 10%
Production Schedule 10%
Production Budget 10%
Tech Binder 10%
TOTAL  100%
Learning outcomes

Upon completion of the course, the successful student should:

  1. Be able to describe the inter-relationship of the technical director with the design team and the various production departments.
  2. Be able to describe the duties and responsibilities of the technical director.
  3. Learn and demonstrate competent technical direction in pre-production planning including production schedules, budgets, and any safety issues.
  4. Become familiar with production execution for various venues including road houses, festivals and special events, and production houses.
  5. Develop a personal technical binder of material collected throughout the course.
Textbook materials

A list of recommended textbooks and materials is provided on the Instructor’s Course Outline, which is available to students at the beginning of each semester. 

Example: Gillette, Michael. Theatrical Design and Production. 3rd. Ed. Toronto: Mayfield Publishing, 1997.

Requisites

Prerequisites

STGE 2306, STGE 1207

Corequisites

No corequisite courses.

Equivalencies

No equivalent courses.

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca

Institution Transfer details for STGE 2405
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) No credit
University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV) UBCV THTR_V 2nd (2)
University of Northern BC (UNBC) UNBC UNSP 2XX (2)
University of Victoria (UVIC) UVIC THEA 2XX (1)

Course Offerings

Winter 2025