Class 4: Beginning Show Operations

This class was designed to give students an introduction to the process of preparing and operating sound for a theatre production. I based this class on a class I had previously given at RSAMD, which had been quite successful.

The core of the class was bringing students to consider the chronology of sound in a scene or performance, understanding the difference between different types of sounds (ambient, event-driven, etc) and how to use this information to prepare for a performance.

The students worked in groups devising scenes for each other, then had to follow the process of developing a timeline, determining how to construct and lay out show discs, then finding the sound effects and creating the discs. We would then go on to discuss paperwork and cue sheets. However, I had greatly underestimated the time required for the students to find and prepare their sound effects. I had been lead to believe that the Library had a large collection of sounds, that can be accessed online and that the students we all familiar with the system. However, many students were not, and had technical difficulties, which ate into the class time. In practical terms, this was not too much of a problem, as we would be continuing with this topic in the next class, so items we didn’t get to in this class could be picked up in the next. However, this did break up the flow of the class, and by not having time to complete all the planned activities, some of the students became confused as to the point of the exercises.

Once again the student feedback for this class contained a lot of positive comments about the practical nature of the class. It seems that the students generally find this style of teaching engaging and effective. Most of the negative comments addressed that we did not cover all the planned topics, or were comments requesting to spend more time on a particular subject.

As mentioned above, the next class was a continuation of this topic, and next time this module is offered, I will try to timetable this section as an all day class, rather than a 2-afternoon class. This would give us more flexibility in the time required for individual activities, and would give a better cohesion and flow to the subject material.