The PD&T Program accepts and trains students pursuing a wide variety of design and technical careers in the professional theater. The program combines rigorous professional standards with a nurturing educational atmosphere that encourages students to discover their creative potential while meeting exacting standards of craftsmanship and technical discipline. The program views theater as a collaborative art and tries to impart to its students the joy and excitement of working creatively through the collaborative process. Instruction emphasizes conceptualization, spontaneity, originality, and text analysis, with a strong focus on the student's need, indeed their responsibility, to understand the world we live in and to create meaningful theater that is able to give an account of the human condition, the world and itself. The resident faculty comprises working professional designers committed not only to teaching, but also to maintaining active freelance careers. In addition, the College of Fine Arts sponsors a Visiting Artists Program that brings noted professional designers, directors, and technicians to Athens to teach Master Classes and work on shows with students. Every recent PD&T graduate has found employment in the field, with many working professionally in theater and film in New York , Los Angeles , Chicago , Atlanta , Seattle , Denver , and other major cities in the United States and Europe .

Course Work

Students work with their advisor to design a program that addresses their needs and goals. Areas of concentration include Scenic Design, Costume Design, Lighting Design, Sound Design, Technical Production, Costume Technology, Scenic Technology, Properties and Crafts, or a combination of two or more areas. The new Scenography Program is an intensive design program that offers opportunities for those designers with a strong interest in production conceptualization covering all areas of design. All students take core courses in scene design, costume design and/or history, lighting design and historical bases of design, and participate in a production practicum and internship or residency in their field. Additional courses are required in the student's area of concentration.

Design students are involved in studio design classes each quarter of residence. The first year focuses on unleashing the imagination and translating the written word or music into meaningful visual images. Courses are taken in scenery, costumes, and lighting. Design classes are interactive, with one on one and group critique of each student's design work. The second and third years allow for increasing specialization in the student's area(s) of concentration, with an emphasis on professional portfolio development. The thesis consists of a portfolio review, after which students should be prepared for the portfolio review section of the United Scenic Artists Union Interview/Exam.

Technology students are involved in production, craft and skill classes each quarter of residence. The development of fine craft and technical skill is essential, but the focus is on the development of the managerial skills. Technology majors are expected to cut and drape, or to serve as technical director for as many realized projects as possible. The thesis for technology students consists of managing a produced mainstage show along with the presentation of an exit portfolio that meets prevailing professional standards and displays a range of techniques.

Campus Productions

The program strikes a balance between classroom and production work. Production assignments are geared to the student's abilities and aspirations. First-year mainstage production assignments usually consist of assistant designer and related positions in the student's area of concentration (e.g., assistant technical director and related positions for technical production students; assistant cutter/draper, etc. for costume technologists). After the first year, qualified design students serve primarily as designers in their area(s) of concentration, working with student directors, faculty directors, and nationally and internationally recognized directors, both on and off campus. Our faculty is committed to giving all SOT design opportunities to our graduate students, and the majority of our Mainstage shows are designed and tech-directed by our second and third year MFA candidates. Student designers work with student directors, faculty directors, and with nationally and internationally recognized guests. Technicians develop their technical and managerial skills with comparable technical assignments. Most student design work is produced in one of the school's three mainstage spaces. In addition, more than 30 lab shows are presented annually in a variety of spaces, and receive varying degrees of production support. Most set and costume design students are assigned to at least two mainstage, several lab design experiences, and at least one off-campus design opportunity. Sound, lighting and technology majors are encouraged to do as many realized designs as possible; some have done as many as four Mainstage and a dozen lab productions. Exceptionally qualified students may be invited to design a show or assist guest designers at The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Hart School in Hartford, CT or the Director's Company in New York.

Professional Conventions

Students are expected to attend at least one national convention every year such as USITT (United States Institute for Theatre Technology), SETC (Southeast Theatre Conference), or ACTF (American College Theatre Festival) to participate in design competitions, portfolio reviews, and job interviews. Each year many of our students win prizes at these events conventions. During their final year, qualified students are invited to participate in the highly prestigious National Portfolio Review at Lincoln Center and/or the Young Designer's Forum sponsored by USITT. Exceptionally gifted students may be invited to exhibit their work at the International Design Exposition in Prague.

Internship and Exchange Programs

We feel it is our responsibility to use our professional contacts to help arrange internships, summer and winter break job opportunities for all of our students. These take several forms:

Regional Theaters

During their second and third years MFA students have the opportunity to gain professional experience through internships with the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Internships are of varying length. Student designers usually serve as assistants to visiting Designers and have recently worked with such designers and directors as Josephine R. Abady, David Eliet, Larry Arrick, Beverly Emmons, Marc Weiss, Ming Cho Lee, Allen Lee Hughes, Richard Winkler, Dennis Parishy, and Tony Straiges.

Exceptionally qualified students choose to select internships in New York, Los Angeles or Abroad. In the recent years we have placed student designers at the Royal National Theatre in London, The Salzburger Festspielhaus in Austria, the Theatre Royal in Windsor, Circle in the Square on Broadway, The Lincoln Center Institute in NYC and the Hal Prince Musical Theatre Workshop in New York. Students who aspire to work on Broadway are encouraged to intern in New York; some have worked in the studios of Tony Award-winning designers such as Tony Walton, David Mitchell, Tony Straiges, William Ivy Long and Paul Gallo. Other theatres where our students routinely participate in internships include: Arena Stage, Folger Theatre, and the Washington Opera in D.C., The St. Louis Opera, Baltimore Center Stage, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, as well as The Lincoln Center Institute and The Director's Company in New York City. Students regularly receive travel grants to help support European internships. Many students also receive at least partial funding for American residencies.

Exchange Programs

Student exchange programs in Design are in place with London's Central St. Martin's School of Art and Design, (London's leading professional design training program), and with the Academie der Kunste in Dresden. A costume exchange program has recently been established with the Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design in Dorset, England.

Summer and Winter Break Opportunities

The program actively assists students in job placement opportunities for our students over the summer and during our 7-week winter break. Many of our students work at the Santa Fe Opera, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Colorado Shakespeare Festival, The Utah Shakespeare Festival, and the Glimmer Glass Opera in Cooperstown, New York. Design, technical direction, and other senior staff positions are regularly filled by our students in the OU summer stock theatre at the Monomoy Theatre in Cape Cod and The Ohio Valley Summer Theatre in Athens.

Admission

The Production Design and Technology Program accepts about 12 students a year. Students are admitted to the program on the basis of ability, as shown in their portfolios, dedication, a passionate commitment to the theater, and their ability to articulate their ideas verbally. Admission is by interview and portfolio evaluation, conducted at U/RTAs ( New York , Chicago , and Los Angeles ), at SETC, USITT and on the Athens Campus. The portfolio should include a broad range of recent work that demonstrates the ability to express ideas in visual terms; to respond to musical and dramatic materials; to work with three-dimensional space; and to use form, color and research materials. Rough or preliminary sketches, as well as finished work, should be included. Sketchbooks and other non-theatrical materials often demonstrate skills not evident elsewhere, and photographs of produced work can be helpful if they are available. Admission to the program requires either a B.A. or B.F.A. and is based on portfolio evaluation, resume and recommendations, as well as a review of your academic qualifications for graduate work. A visit to inspect the facilities and an interview with the design staff is strongly encouraged.

Requirements

Total Credit Hour requirements are based on a normal load of 15 ­ 18 credit hours per academic quarter for nine quarters of residency. Minimum course requirements for the three-year MFA include 60 credits of core courses and at least 75 credits of specific area requirements for a total of 135 credits. Some courses may be waived at entry in recognition of previous academic or professional experience. For exceptional students with significant prior experience, entry into the 90 credit compressed program may be possible.

To Apply

IInstructions for onlne application can be found at www.ohio.edu/graduate, a resume, a statement of goals, and any other materials required by the program to which you are applying must be sent by March 15 to: Graduate Committee School of Theater Ohio University Kantner Hall 307 Athens, OH 45701-2979