What do these productions have in common: Broadway in Chicago’s production of “Wicked”; Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus’s “Bellobration”; and the band My Morning Jacket? They all rely on the services of a technical crew who actually get paid to work on fun and interesting productions. You, too, can have a fun and rewarding career by going to work in the live event production industry. There are a number of positions in the field and a number of ways to get the training and skills you need to fill them. Some of these positions involve lots of training and some involve on-the-job experience, but all of them involve hard work and fun.
The Old College Try
One of the most reliable ways to break into the industry is to study technical theatre in college. There are a number of such programs around the country and the list is growing. Some of the colleges that offer them specialize in the arts, like University of North Carolina School of the Arts and California Institute of the Arts, and some of them excel in theatre, like Yale School of Drama and Carnegie Mellon. Others have the advantage of being located close to a source of work, like the University of Nevada Las Vegas, which located a couple of miles from the Las Vegas Strip, and New York City College of Technology, located in Brooklyn but just a few miles from Broadway.
Going to college to study technical theatre is how assistant stage manager Sharon Wilson got a job in the theatre. Now she shares stage management duties with Matthew Leiner at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago where Wicked has been playing for the past three-and-a-half years. On a recent Thursday evening, she stood at a podium in the wings offstage left calling lighting and rigging cues. She was remarkably relaxed and poised, and at various points in the show she even danced and sung along. To say she was enjoying herself would be an understatement.
The lighting director and flyman on the other end of the two-way headsets were obediently following her commands. “Electrics 124…go! This is a warning for fly cue Red 105, Blue 115, and Yellow 180…go!” At times the cues came fast and furiously. Other times, she chatted casually with the cast and crew who wandered by her stage manager station.
Your Career Starts Here
It is possible to get a job in the theatre without going to college, but the most coveted and highest paying positions are much easier to obtain with a degree. Wilson studied technical theatre at DePaul University in Chicago. Once you decide to go to college to study theatre arts, choosing the right institution of higher learning might be the hardest part. There are lots of criteria to consider, but you can start with finding out what kind of facilities and gear a prospective college has. Some of the best training takes place on campuses with access to current equipment and lots of hands-on experience.
When you are searching for the right college ask these questions: (1) How many productions can you expect to participate in every year? (2) What type of gear do undergraduate students have access to? (3) How many ex-students are working in theater? The answers you want to hear are: (1) at least three or four; (2) MA Lighting GrandMA consoles, Flying Pig Systems Hog family of Mconsoles, ETC family of consoles, Strand family of consoles, Martin Maxxyz consoles, and Vari-Lite, Martin, Robe, or High End Systems automated lighting (in addition to conventional lighting); (3) too many to name.
Working in theatre as a profession does come with some caveats; the hours are long and the pay can be low, particularly when you’re just starting out. But for those who excel and reach the top echelon, it can be richly rewarding both in terms of job satisfaction and in compensation.
If the world of touring and live music performance appeals to you more than the theatre, then there are colleges and training programs designed to get you on the road fast. Full Sail University in Orlando and the newly established Live Production Institute in Las Vegas are two such examples. Full Sail is an accredited university that offers an associates degree in show production and touring in the relatively short span of 13 months. The Live Production Institute focuses more on manufacturer’s certifications, and their courses vary from 40 hours to four weeks. The goal of these schools is to produce road-ready personnel with a solid foundation in the fundamentals and theory behind their craft, as well as hands-on experience with real shows. But don’t go unless you’re committed. Full Sail’s production and touring program is an intensive course of study that involves very long hours, sometimes at odd times of the day or night.
