[chippyrichards]

I have been asked to run a technical workshop at a school in June. It will be for 14/15yr old pupils, with little real knowledge but some interest in technical theatre. How can I engage and involve them for a 3/4hr session. Any ideas welcome Thank you

[paulears]

Have they told you what they need you to cover? Without any idea of where you need to focus, you are stuck. Technical Theatre in eduspeak can mean a number of very different things. Indeed, as there are courses centred on Theatre in Education, there's even the remote possibility that they want you to do technical aspects of TIE - which would be quite common, but deals in a way with small scale touring needs - so easy up/easy down lighting, sound and music playback - maybe a bit of stage management. On the other hand it could be Technical theatre in an educational sense - very different. Ask them what the course the kids are on is actually called, and let you have a look at things they MUST know or be able to do.

Then you can dream up appropriate fund stuff to do, which we can help with!

[JCC1996]

As a 15 year old pupil with an interest in tech theatre I'll tell you what I'd like if you were coming to my school.

Firstly, it's probably best to talk about the bare minimum of theory and dive right into the practical side of things. Are you doing lights or sound?

For lights, a good, fast colourful chase goes down well.

For sound, a good demo is to play someone's iPod through it, that way your playing some music they like.

If your doing a bit of both then combine them and do a sound active chase.

Hope that might give you some ideas!

Joe

[IRW]

chippyrichards, on 24 February 2012 - 03:12 PM, said:

I have been asked to run a technical workshop at a school in June. It will be for 14/15yr old pupils, with little real knowledge but some interest in technical theatre. How can I engage and involve them for a 3/4hr session. Any ideas welcome Thank you

Do you know how many will be in the group? When I'm explaining technical stuff, I find that groups of 2-3 are much easier to work with than a group of 20!

[Ynot]

Hmm...

That little lot will probably occupy the lesson for, oh, about 5 minutes max!!

Without intending to sound patronising, this is why it's seldom a good idea to let the students decide what they'd like to learn!!

Seriously, though, having done a few of these over the years, and on the assumption that it's supposed to be a genaral broad brushtrokes appreciation session and NOT something that they expect to go away from and design lights/sound/stage for the next school show, here are my recommendations.

Lights:
Get an LX desk on a table on stage - doesn't need to be all singing - just a basic manual desk or one with limited programming function.
Stick a portable dimmer rack on another table across the other side. Put a couple of stands downstage with either T-bars or a length of scaff between them and hang at least one of each type of light you have available. On a side table, have a selection of colour filters, gobos, barn doors etc - anything that can go in/on any of those lanterns. If you have a scroller available as well, great.

If your desk is DMX out, and you have some LED kit, even better.

Talk to the students about what light is for. Not just illuminating the cast, but also scenery, sometimes the audience, and also for specific effects.
ASK them what sort of things you can do with light to change it - ie location, angle, colour, focus, shape, size, level - prompt THEM to think about each of these, don't just give them the list.
Invite a couple of volunteers onto stage to show them how each of these variables can affect the lanterns, using those gels, gobos, barn doors etc you have cunningly placed.

Then talk about how combinations of those aspects can created even more options - ie 2 or 3 similar lanterns with different colours or combined gobos to change the originals.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Apply similar sorts of application based workshop theory to the other disciplines, and you'll end up wondering how you'll fit it into the time allotted.

Anyway - that's part of what I occasionally get paid to do, so I guess I'll be sending you an invoice now for doing your research for you.
Could I have your postal address please??

[kerry davies]

Whoa there guys, Seth has been asked to conduct a workshop and his speciality I presume is set build and design. I also presume that getting deep into LX/SFX etc is not why he specifically has been invited.

I would begin by talking to the group to discover what the status quo is, what they know and do not know. Show some slides of examples of your work and then focus in on a tiny aspect of a set and demonstrate how to recreate the effects. This could lead to some hands-on workshop work where they can express themselves.

Basically Seth, find out what the teachers wish the students to gain and then work toward that end. The more they can get physically involved the better but they may just want to hear the scandals of backstage.

In teaching the Aim is the general target and the way you will address it and the Objective is what the learner should end up having learned. Use these two definitions to design the workshop and the teachers will think you a genius.

[indyld]

45 mins, almost regardless of group size, is nothing in terms of a single session. You are almost looking at an introduction/setup (if they have no prior knowledge), a practical task and a wrap. What this task is depends on the intended learning outcome (yes, singular - talking broad brush)

The more you try to fit into 45 mins, the lower the retention rate will be and the less useful the session after the fact.

At the start of any subject, I find you need to at least contextualise it having diagnosed the groups level. So, lighting in live performance (and life), sound in live performance (again, and life) , that kind of thing. You can also prompt learners to relate this to their experience of shows etc. If the learning is geared more towards systems and assumes this context, then you can go straight for the most basic of technical exercises.

Obviously numbers play a part, although at this stage in learning, the difference between 2 and 20 comes down the whether you run multiple instances of concurrent tasks, or focus all your interaction with two people.

Given that a decent length of time on one particular "thing" is around 20 mins, you can see how the scheduling pans out.

I totally agree that, while you should always consider your learners and their needs, it's not always a great idea to go with their wishes on what they should learn. Given that they are the learners and you are nominated expert, they actually have no idea what is the best fit in terms of what you should cover. If they did, they'd not need to learn.

Invoice in the post.

[chippyrichards]

Hi guys thanks for all the ideas. There will be between 10 and 15 in the group and now a 3 hour session. Which is much better. Someone else suggested I try to get mini production going after dong a few demos with lx and sound. And then get a couple Of actors, lighting,sound etc. as Kerry Davies suggested I am a carpenter at heart about to graduate from drama school and the only reason I am doing this is it is for my old school as they are trying to increase the level of technical training etc. I have however managed to persuade a friend to come with me who is much more technically minded. Cheers

[paulears]

If they can come up with a few bits and pieces, then a really fun session is splitting the group into two or three and getting them to build some flats - they won't want huge ones so enough timber to construct maybe 3m x 1m ones - possibly with pin hinges so they can self support when joined.

The more advanced mortice and tenon type construction is probably out, but half lap joints, some bracing pieces and glue work really well. Even without allowing the glue to dry, they should be able to get 'their' flat together, and maybe even painted in that time. I did a session in two hours, and we had them assembled, screwed, glued, covered with cheap calico and painted a solid colour. One flat was 100%, another was a little er, off square - fixed with a diagonal brace, and the last one was a complete disaster. The three teams got and lost points for various features, and it cost them 5 points each time they asked me a question. So somebody would say "Paul, how do we..." and another would tell them to shut up, and work it out because it would cost to get the answer.

Great fun, lots of mess, and two usable items at the end for stock.

[Mat]

paulears, on 26 February 2012 - 09:47 AM, said:

If they can come up with a few bits and pieces, then a really fun session is splitting the group into two or three and getting them to build some flats - they won't want huge ones so enough timber to construct maybe 3m x 1m ones - possibly with pin hinges so they can self support when joined.

The more advanced mortice and tenon type construction is probably out, but half lap joints, some bracing pieces and glue work really well. Even without allowing the glue to dry, they should be able to get 'their' flat together, and maybe even painted in that time. I did a session in two hours, and we had them assembled, screwed, glued, covered with cheap calico and painted a solid colour. One flat was 100%, another was a little er, off square - fixed with a diagonal brace, and the last one was a complete disaster. The three teams got and lost points for various features, and it cost them 5 points each time they asked me a question. So somebody would say "Paul, how do we..." and another would tell them to shut up, and work it out because it would cost to get the answer.

Great fun, lots of mess, and two usable items at the end for stock.

That is BRILLIANT!

[kerry davies]

The exercise is indeed brilliant in that it teaches them judgement in when and how often to ask questions, realise their own abilities and limitations and the social interactions of team working and negotiation. The end results are very much a by-product and in his second example the remedy highlights the extra learning opportunities of not getting it right first time.
From an educational perspective that was the most successful outcome.

[paulears]

Competition with performing arts students is ALWAYS a sure fire success (for some) because their career is one where continual rejection is common, so kids who do it really like to win. Forget all the namby pamby school stuff about 'taking part' is enough. many will have done auditions for amateur shows and suffered the humiliation of failure, so they handle it well.

If you like the idea above, you can extend it to another session if you have the usual braces and weights and incorporate plans into the activity. It's best if you have a range of flats - which the students may have made, plus ones from previous groups - different widths, some with doorways and windows etc.

You split into groups again, and this time you have pre-prepared three set plans, and made sure the correct flats are available, but mixed up. This time, against a stop watch, the groups have to set them up as per the plan. You can inject extra difficult for a second or third attempt by insisting on total silence, or they're out - or being really mean and making them do it in virtual darkness with torches.

If they are lower level, add in the points system with the penalty for having to ask - just tweak that to suit their level and skills.

If you want to extend it to stage management people, add in communications. I did it with a set of in-ears connected to the 'Crew Chief'. This variation had the nominated person as 'the boss' with a microphone, the crew with headphones - in full lighting. The difference was that it was designed to produce clear and precise instructions - as in good communication skills. The crew chief was the only one with the plan, and their job was to instruct the others how to se up the flats as per the plan, when they cannot answer back. Frustration means the kids will be wetting themselves trying to talk back when the chief hasn't noticed they have misunderstood, or are not doing what is asked. The first group to try will fail badly, but it's amazing how quickly they can adjust their language to make sure it's understood - seeing how badly it goes wrong.

If you want another DSM style comms/thinking activity. you get the group to stand with their backs to the fall walls of an empty room, on all four sides. You walk around the room an as you go past people, if you tap them on the shoulder, they start to walk slowly towards the opposite wall, the DSM has to stop them hitting others, and hitting the far wall. So it's "Jane, Right", and they turn through 90 degrees and carry on walking. Gradually you start more and more kids moving, and the DSM has to constantly scan the room, decide who to turn, and who to keep going. No stopping allowed. The stopwatch stops at the first bump. Everyone has a go and it's really useful stuff - and very oddly, I always found the dancers were best at this. Spacial awareness? no idea - but it helps focus people on good plain speaking, and being able to multi task. The kids have a great time, and it never went down badly. Often turns into a boy v girls thing and the girls ALWAYS win, which is pretty sobering for the lads!

[Jivemaster]

There is sopmething to be gained by studying a video of something and reverse enginering it, Sound, light and set can be seen from the camera position, then you can determine how it would work in your/their space. Lighting is shown by highlights and shadows so almost any video has some uses.

[chippyrichards]

Hello,
I think I have settled on an idea. Thank you for all your suggestions!

[Ynot]

chippyrichards, on 29 February 2012 - 12:48 PM, said:

Hello,
I think I have settled on an idea. Thank you for all your suggestions!

Good to hear.
Care to share the basics, so we know which bits of advice were most useful...??