Next up in my series of disrupting the paper project model- a collaboration with the Dept. of Musical Theatre on their New Works Festival. Under the new leadership of Chair Michael McElroy, and stewardship of Linda Goodrich, the MT department hosted five creative teams for a one week “29 hour” residency as these teams developed their new work. The five projects were all at different levels of completion- at one end, full scripts that had already had prior workshops, and at the other, a handful of songs links together with three themes. As the schedule came into focus last fall, we realized this would be be excellent opportunity for student designers to stretch a different set of muscles as part of their advanced design courses in costumes, lighting and scenery, and develop ideas for works that up to that point had never had any tangible visual considerations. Additionally, we had never attempted to collaborate between our classes before, and that is certainly an idea we’ll continue to cultivate.
I felt like we bottled lightning- we were integrated into the whole week of events- most were able to come the the kickoff and learn about the creative teams and hear about all five projects. The creatives then came to our classes and shared ideas, answered questions, and listened. During the week, the students work together to create a mood board, write a pitch and attend some rehearsal as their schedules allowed. It was an intense week for sure, but the energy was palpable and the resulting showing during our Friday seminar was quite astonishing. Then those mood boards were shared at the showing, a week after the kickoff.
There are some details to tune as we consider doing this collaboration in the future, but everyone was filled with gratitude for the process and connections:
Dear design students,
The work that you presented today was truly one of the highlights in all of my years here at the University. Every single one of you demonstrated great imagination, intelligence, thoughtful research and care for the works that you were assigned. I was blown away by what you were able to achieve in such a short amount of time. I am truly thankful for your artistry and grace in which you handled the collaboration. Professors Myers, Fialko and Han- Thanku for your incredible mentorship and generosity in sharing your passion and brilliance with your students. Your commitment to their artistic journey is strongly evident. I am humbled to learn from all of you. Sincerely, Linda Goodrich Creative Director of New Works festival
For educators out there, the assignment prompt is shared below:
Purpose: The purpose of this collaborative team project is to practice ideation and the iterative process in the development of new work. In the professional theatre community, the development of new work ensures the continued growth of the form and the amplification of new voices. By integrating designers into the process early on, creative teams are encouraged to deeply consider the world of the piece they are creating and work as a team to develop a visual vocabulary throughout the process. In this modality, student designers are afforded the opportunity to work with professional writers and their peers to practice this part of the conceptual process in a low-stakes theoretical manner.
Skills: The goals of this project are to practice the following skills that are essential to developing your voice as a theatre artist:
Identifying clues for describing the world of the piece from the provided materials
Extracting additional information from the writing teams
Researching themes and images
Editing and designing a presentation of these ideas
Knowledge: Upon completion of this opportunity, students will gain familiarity with:
Collaborating across disciplines
Understanding the iterative process of developing new works for the theatre
Professionally communicating their design ideas
Task/Method:
Student design teams will listen to the project creators about the works they are creating and frame questions to the creators in order to investigate the imagined worlds of their pieces.
Based on the texts in development, students will research inspirational images in response to the new works and develop a succinct “pitch” that captures the essence of the visual elements explored.
The team will brainstorm, synthesize and then edit their ideas in order to create a physical mood board mounted on foam core to present their research, pitches and ideas.
Through a design lens, how will you help tell the story of this work?
Criteria for Success 100 points total / 10%
(10 pts) Evidence of text analysis through notes, annotated script, outline, questions
(10 pts) Evidence of conversation with creatives through notes, bullet points, answers to questions
(15 pts) “Bibliography” & Research- a list of resources, search terms, databases utilized; please think beyond a google image search, organized research (the library is your friend)
(20 pts) Written “pitch”- approx 150 words describing the overall considerations of the visual world of the piece
(35 pts) Presentation- a dynamic “mood board” showing the research, pitch and drafted ideas
(10 pts) Reflection- approx 150 word reflection answering:
What went well?
What would you wish to go differently “next time”
Do you feel you collaborated equitably with your student team?