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Dear Nick and Fellow Lighting Educators. I will reply to the forum as it would be nice to hear others views on this, see any images people have, and show some images of our recent Kent productions <http://www.wovenlights.co.uk/stagephotos/flyer.pdf> http://www.wovenlights.co.uk/stagephotos/flyer.pdf - also please pardon a bit of self promotion; I am looking for opportunities to make my life interesting and subsidise my passion for photography (I will email you the original file Nick separately so you can lift any pictures you want for a PowerPoint). Having taught in both the US and the UK one notices differences quickly, and starts to understand the pro’s and con’s of both systems. I would wholeheartedly agree with your starting points Nick, as to why it is has fascinated me for a while and I have various theories, it may be of interest to you so I list a few – I am sure you will add to this. § Most teaching staff here have worked in rep theatre, opera, dance etc in a variety of roles and generally do not have an MFA – The Lighting Designers of our generation here are generally people who have worked their way up through the industry. § The facilities are small compared to the US, but very diverse in style and size. § That the students specialise (except at Kent) more, they will not have to do extra courses in General Education. They come in with BTech’s and A Levels in 3-4 subjects. § That we build into the courses placements / industry studies, something which is very rare in the US. § The influence of the non university based courses (I think mainly of the drama colleges) has become important as they have moved into the university sector and students are coming in with BTec qualifications. § Compared to the US we have many more people who work as LD’s who have to work in a variety of roles in small and even middle scale /regional productions (although many many fewer than when the Chief Lx did all the lighting) - there is less money in a budget for lighting personnel and also the stagehands union in the US, IATSE, which now has the Lighting Designers union as a branch, defends roles. We train people for the market that exists here. I am an old hand at USITT’s and you should enjoy Houston Nick, it is a mix of ABTT, Showlight and PLASA in character, although not sure it has all the best characteristics of each. I am not going to this one but hope to be at Cincinnati which is the next venue (which is where I studied for two years). As to your questions Nick. Do you have strong opinions on the benefits for students of observing good professionals practice vs. lighting shows themselves? I feel there is a place for both. I suspect that if one has guest designers in for all your largest productions students will take a lot longer to make that jump with confidence to lighting large productions outside. I have always encourage observation on placement have never been involved with professional LDs in the safer environs of the institutions theatre. I would say that parallel debate in my mind is whether working with Staff or Guest directors is more positive than building relationships and experimenting with their Peers as directors – of course it is the right ones which make the difference as with the LDs (I feel that A few lines saying what is special about your course…. Maybe not special - different certainly. § Kent offers a general Drama course with a high A level score entry requirement which provides an option to design.. § The single honours MDrama course is 4 years, which offers the option of specialising in Technical Production Design in the 4th year. § The MDrama final year specialism will be taught in the future in parallel with an MA which has a further 60 credit thesis. § All the single honours students have half their teaching on a general introduction to Design and technical process in their first term, after that there are one or two modules offered as options in their second and third years. § There are no prerequisites § The final year is four interlinked modules, with small group sizes. § The two studio theatres are woefully under equipped and poorly designed; On the plus side we now have a performance studio with full rig, Congo desk and a good stock of generics, and three weeks of they year we use the Gulbenkian Theatre on campus (although the number of productions we put in there means we only have one or two days of tech for each production. § The second year option crew and in some cases design the final productions which are led by students who are directors / devisors / community theatre specialists along side the fourth year specialism(s) which do the bigger designs. § There are opportunities for placements of up to 5 weeks in their third and fourth year. As many will know this is a model that I find slightly awkward, especially with the large numbers of students we have; what it does do is for a few students who come late to Lighting Design give them a broad Drama education and allow them opportunities to specialise late. There are many opportunities to design within the programme but we do not get many students who are focused on that. Currently I have 4 on the specialism; at most it will be 12 I suspect. As to what we are comparable with, there are a number of University Drama courses out of which wanders the occasional lighting designer. We take it one step further as we have the specialist year. Hope it all makes sense, rushing this before going to South Wales to be with family. All the best Paul Paul Davies, Lecturer in Lighting and Sound, Head of Year Two, Year abroad Coordinator, Department of Drama Eliot College University of Kent Canterbury Kent, CT2 7NS Tel: +44 (0)1227 82 7142 OFFICE HOURS Please make an appointment outside the hours below. (Office location W2 S3 - Right hand corner of first courtyard of Eliot College and down stairs) Mondays 1:00 - 2:00 pm and Thursday 9.30 to 10.30 am. *******************************************************************