This book explains and provides templates for organizing and managing a prop shop, from pre-production organization to production processes, budgeting, and collaborations with other production areas. It explores how to plan, organize, and maintain a prop shop for safe and efficient production work.

The Properties Director's Toolkit is a concise guide to managing a prop shop and show build. Sandra Strawn and Lisa Schlenker skilfully explain and provide templates for organizing and managing a prop shop, from pre-production organization to production processes, budgeting and collaborations with other production areas. The Toolkit also explores how to plan, organize and maintain a prop shop for safe and efficient production work. This thoroughly revised second edition includes two additional chapters on the role of the Props Director and co-productions, along with expanding information in each chapter, including artisan responsibilities, union information, digital collaboration, prop shop organization and construction, and projections.

The Scenic Charge Artist’s Toolkit is a comprehensive guide to managing a theatrical paint shop. This book introduces the many different options available to a scenic charge artist, as well as the fundamental expectations and responsibilities of planning and running a shop. From the pre-production organization, budgeting, sampling, and sealing, to practical lessons in efficiency and shop maintenance, this text provides options to organize a paint shop no matter the size of the shop, show, or company. Filled with templates for labor and time estimation; tips on leadership and collaboration; techniques for painting and planning textures efficiently; and sustainable practices in health, safety, and wellness, this book provides guidance and practices to successfully manage the inevitable changes in theatre planning and production. It also offers tips and reference material on employment options, gaining employment, and excelling in this profession. Written for early career scenic artists in theatre and students of Scenic Art courses, The Scenic Charge Artist’s Toolkit fills in the gaps of knowledge for scenic artists in the budgeting, planning, and running of shops at summer stock, educational institutions, or freelance working environments. The text includes access to additional online resources such as extended interviews, downloadable informational posters and templates for budgeting and organizing, and videos walking through the use of templates and the budgeting process.

The Projection Designer’s Toolkit is an insider’s guide to the world of professional projection design, serving as a reference for the planning and execution of each step in the projection design process. The text addresses the design process within the context of a professional projection designer’s workflow, focusing on specific tools of the trade, best practices for communicating your design to collaborators, tips and tricks, determining budget, working with assistants, and more. Featuring interviews with some of the top names in the industry, the book offers an unprecedented insight into the professional projection designer’s process across a wide range of fields, from Broadway and regional theatre to corporate design and music touring. The book also includes in-depth discussion on production process, system design, cue and content planning, content design, digital media fundamentals, media servers, video equipment, and projection surfaces. Additionally, it features hundreds of full-color photos and examples of designer artifacts such as draftings, mock-ups, paperwork, cue sheets, and renderings. Filled with practical advice that will guide readers from landing their first job all the way through opening night and beyond, The Projection Designer’s Toolkit is the perfect resource for emerging projection designers and students in Digital Media Design and Projection Design courses.

The Costume Designer’s Toolkit explores the wide-ranging skills required to design costumes for live performance in theatre, dance, opera, and themed entertainment. Arranged in chronological order to create a design, each chapter describes tools, strategies, and techniques costume designers use to create lively and believable characters within a story environment. The book provides a step-by-step outline of the costume design process beginning with developing as an artist and creating an artistic vision for a script. It covers a wide range of topics, including: Assessing the scope of a production Understanding design thinking and the creative process Project management and budget forecasting Collaborating with and leading creative teams Current practices in costume rendering and communication Mixing purchased, rented, stock, and built costumes to form a design Designing a garment with impact Fitting costumes on performers Combining grit and grace for a successful career Each topic includes case studies and tips from experienced professionals, identifies vital skills, describes techniques, and reveals the essential elements of artistic leadership, collaboration, and cultural acumen. The Costume Designer’s Toolkit is the perfect guidebook for the student, aspiring, or early-career costume designer, to be used alone or in costume design university courses.

The Art of Theatrical Design: Elements of Visual Composition, Methods, and Practice, Second Edition, contains an in-depth discussion of design elements and principles for costume, set, lighting, sound, projection, properties, and makeup designs. This textbook details the skills necessary to create effective, evocative, and engaging theatrical designs that support a play contextually, thematically, and visually. It covers key concepts such as content, context, genre, style, play structure, and format and the demands and limitations of various theatrical spaces. The book also discusses essential principles, including collaboration, inspiration, conceptualization, script analysis, conducting effective research, building a visual library, developing an individual design process, and the role of the critique in collaboration. This second edition includes A new chapter on properties management and design. A new chapter on makeup design. A new chapter on digital rendering, with evaluations of multiple programs, overviews of file types and uses, and basic tutorials in Adobe® Photoshop® and Procreate. An expanded and revised chapter on traditional rendering, with the inclusion of new media, including watercolor, gouache, and mixed media, and updated exercises and tutorials. Revised and expanded chapters on individual design areas, including additional practices for conceptualization and collaboration, with new exercises for skill development. Additional exercises in all elements and principles of design chapters for investigation of each design principle and skill development. Revised and updated content throughout the text, reflecting current pedagogy and practices. This book gives students in theatrical design, introduction to design, and stagecraft courses the grounding in core design principles they need to approach design challenges and make design decisions in both assigned class projects and realized productions. The Art of Theatrical Design provides access to additional online resources, including step-by-step video tutorials of the exercises featured in the book.

This ground-breaking text returns in its second edition, unlocking the insider secrets and proven, time-tested methods to succeed as a professional assistant lighting designer. This definitive guide outlines, step-by-step, the daily challenges that assistant lighting designers face during every phase of production, and the solutions for overcoming them. Furthermore, intermingled among the highly detailed paperwork techniques and essential procedures, top industry professionals reveal tips for success in this challenging career. This fully updated second edition features: All new advice, real-world stories, and current paperwork examples from over 120 working professionals. Updated industry practices with case studies from the professionals themselves, such as how to create a video network to record previews for the lighting department; how much printing is done in an increasingly paperless world; how to produce a set electrics package; and how the industry interfaces with cutting-edge technology like remote followspots and pre-visualization software. New lifestyle tips for traveling abroad, negotiating contracts, and dealing with stressful situations. The Assistant Lighting Designer's Toolkit, the most trusted authority on assisting in the lighting world, equips budding assistant lighting designers and students studying lighting design with the insider knowledge they need to achieve the successful career that they have always wanted—whether choosing assisting as a career or as a stepping-stone toward design. Within these pages are the industry secrets rarely taught in school!