MFA Plan of Study: Technical Direction
The MFA program in Technical Direction prepares students for fulfilling careers in professional or educational theatre and the entertainment industry. Graduates enter the industry with exceptional skills to enable you to function as technical leaders and managers, from communication to estimating, drafting to technical design, with an exposure to the engineering concepts and practices that support the creation of safe structures, machines, and control systems.
CLASSES
Technical Direction Classes
When you complete your studies, you will have the ability to communicate verbally, in writing, and through technical drawings; you will be able to accurately generate analogous, parametric, and definitive estimates for construction projects along with precedence diagrams and Gantt charts to effectively predict and track the progress of those projects. You will leave the program with demonstrated ability in technical areas including structural and mechanical design, an understanding of the work of the director and designers, and an ability to collaborate with others through the production process.
Theatre Engineering
Theatre Engineering
As a graduate student, you will take courses with, and serve as mentors to, students in Purdue’s undergraduate theatre engineering program, an ABET-accredited Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree concentration in the College of Engineering. You will lead teams of deck carpenters, assistant technical directors, and technical designers from this group of students for most productions. In leading these teams, you gain valuable experience managing small teams outside of the scene shop environment and mentoring early-career technicians.
PRODUCTION WORK
Technical Direction
During residency, you will serve as a technical director for realized productions each semester (except your first, during which you will serve as an assistant technical director), with responsibility for all aspects of scenic production, from costing to drafting, scheduling the build to running production meetings.
TERMINAL PROJECT
Terminal Project
The culmination of your time at Purdue will come in the form of technical direction for a production with a extensive and complex scenic elements. This work will form the basis for your Terminal Project or Thesis.
ASSISTANTSHIPS
Assistantships and Funding
To emphasize the relationship between design and technology, if you are awarded a graduate assistantship you will be employed as a carpenter/welder/rigging in the scenery construction shop. Additionally, you may be asked to serve as the instructor of record for an introductory level stage craft class at least once during your residency.
Assistantships provide a modest annual salary and cover full tuition costs. Applicants to the MFA program are automatically considered for an assistantship but are not guaranteed one.
