Page 67 - Guildhall Coverage Book 2020-21

specialisation, it’s also essential that they are empowered to reimagine and adapt
traditional techniques and skills to suit the needs of the modern theatre world.

“For almost everyone training for careers backstage, digital networks are fast
becoming an essential skill,” says Nick Moran, senior lecturer in performance design
and production at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. “Sound, lighting and
video departments have been relying on digital networks for a while, some stage
managers have already encountered cue light and comms systems with a digital
backbone, and crafts makers now need to engage with such things as 3D printing and
CNC [computer numerical control] machines, which computerise construction tasks
more traditionally done by hand.”

Although keeping on top of technological advances is essential to the ongoing
development of effective technical training, Moran notes that more traditional skills
also continue to be of importance. “Collaboration is one such transferable skill that
we [the theatre industry] need to make the rest of the world more aware that we
possess.”

Andy Lavender, vice principal and director of production arts at the Guildhall School
of Music and Drama, agrees that effective theatre technical training today often
involves exploring how new ways of working gel with the more traditional types of
production. “Newer approaches at Guildhall include the development of a hybrid
production model preparing work for onstage realisation and also for simultaneous
live-stream broadcast,” he says.

“This requires students to think about blocking, choreography and the arrangement
of eyelines with the camera in mind – without compromising the in-person audience
experience – as well as the development in rehearsal of live camera operation,
especially for multi-camera set-ups, with a live mix by the video editor.”

He adds: “We have also developed performance work in relation to virtual reality and
extended reality, bringing together digital production processes and more traditional
theatrical presentation.”

Richard Reddrop, head of theatre and performance design and technology at
the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, says: “There are many core abilities and
skills that remain the same. For example, the ability to analyse a text, or the work of a
stage management department that is still tasked with facilitating the creative
objectives of a production.”

He adds: “Some of the biggest changes have come through recent innovation in
terms of performance space.

‘More performances are taking place outside

traditional spaces. This requires new skills,

such as event planning and understanding

licensing’ Richard Reddrop, LIPA