University of Utah

Department of Theatre

Program Head:  Gage Williams

(801) 581-6592

email: gage.williams@theatre.utah.edu

MISSION STATEMENT

To provide the highest quality education, training, and practical experience in the study of design for all of the performing arts.  To provide an educational environment that develops students' verbal and graphic communication abilities, knowledge, creative thinking, collaborative skills, and that promotes the investigation of new technology.  To allow all students to explore and develop their personal design interest as it pertains to one or many specific design areas for a variety of arts disciplines.

PADP  (Performing Arts Design Program)

The Performing Arts Design Program provide students with the opportunity to study design as it pertains to the performing arts.  All PADP students complete a Department of Theatre core curriculum that examines the history, literature, design, and production of theatrical performance; they also complete a PADP core curriculum that emphasizes scenery, costuming, and lighting design for the stage.

Instruction is not limited to those areas of design or to the discipline of theatre, and upon completion of both the Department’s core curriculum and the PADP core curriculum, students create a unique and individualized course of study under the supervision of an assigned mentor.  This customized curriculum allows each PADP student to pursue individual interests in one or more areas of design for the performing arts. 

In addition to the core curricula, each PADP major completes six hours of PADP Individual Design Project, which allow students to practice their area of interest in a mentored project.  Some students may qualify to complete those projects by designing for Department of Theatre productions.  Many options exist, and students work closely with their mentors to create a sequence of rewarding practical experiences that fulfill the requirements for Individual Design Projects. 

PADP provides students with opportunities to focus in lighting, scenery, costume, sound production design/art direction, wig and make up design.   Students may wish to leave their area of emphasis open or have more than one.  Students are encouraged to consult with PADP mentors before committing to any one emphasis. 

Past PADP graduates have been accepted into the finest graduate programs in the country, including NYU, University of California, Irvine, University of Wisconsin, University of Washington, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and Northwestern University.  Many PADP graduates intern with Pioneer Theatre Company (the University of Utah’s resident professional theatre company), The Shakespeare Theatre, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and the Tony Award-Winning Utah Shakespearean Festival.  PADP prepares its graduates to enter the many different fields of design through rigorous academic instruction, through introduction to the expectations and performance standards in this field of artistic endeavor, and through individual mentoring from working professional theatre artists

The BFA degree in the PADP requires a total of 122 credit hours

All course requirements for the major must be completed with a grade of "C" or better.

NOTE:   Of the total of 122 semester credit hours, students must take 40 “upper-division”  credit hours.  Any class numbered 3000 or above is designated as “upper-division.” Refer to the University of Utah Undergraduate Bulletin for Graduation/General Education Requirements (www.ugs.utah.edu/student/gened/index.htm).

1.  Department of Theatre Core Requirements

* CW  = meets U of U Bachelor's Degree Requirements for Upper-division Communication/Writing

2.  PADP CORE CURRICULUM REQUIREMENTS AND CREDIT HOUR TOTAL

3.  PADP ELECTIVE COMPONENT DESCRIPTION AND CREDIT HOUR TOTAL

Each PADP student will be assigned a PADP FACULTY MENTOR.

All PADP students will be provided with a grid, or model curriculum, which indicates the electives that are recommended by the PADP faculty.  The model will also indicate the academic years and semesters in which students should take their elective courses if they wish to complete their degrees in four years.

By the end of the second semester of study, each PADP student, in collaboration with his or her PADP Faculty Mentor, will create an Elective Course of Study that will include a minimum of 38 credit hours. 12 of those hours must be in Theatre Courses.

PADP MAJOR TOTAL CREDIT HOUR REQUIREMENT

PADP students are required to take 64 hours in Theatre, which equals 52% of their total 122 hours.

4.  PADP INDEPENDENT DESIGN PROJECTS I AND II REQUIREMENTS AND DESCRIPTION OF OPTIONS

General Requirements:

Successful completion of the first two years of the PADP curriculum. Third year status in the PADP program.

Written approval of Gage Williams and the Independent Design Project’s PADP Faculty Mentor.

Additional requirements for a PADP Independent Scene Design Project include the successful completion of:

            THEA  2110 Scene Design I                            

            THEA  4310 Scene Design II

Additional requirements for a PADP Independent Costume Design Project include the successful completion of:

            THEA  2140 Costume Design I                                        

            THEA  2203 Costume Construction

            THEA  4390 Survey of Historic Costume

Additional requirements for a PADP Independent Lighting Design Project include the successful completion of:

            THEA  2170 Lighting Design I

            THEA  4490 Lighting Design II

Additional requirements for a PADP Independent Sound Design Project include the successful completion of:

            THEA  3500 Sound Design I

Additional requirements for a PADP Independent Makeup Design Project include the successful completion of:

            THEA  2250 Makeup I

            THEA  5270 Makeup II

Either one or both of the PADP Independent Design Projects may be a realized design or a theoretical design to be supervised by the student’s PADP Faculty Mentor.

5.  PADP PORTFOLIO CLASS DESCRIPTION AND REQUIREMENTS FOR ENROLLMENT 

Requirement: Senior year status in the PADP program.

6.   PADP INTERNSHIP

Opportunities for internships may become available to qualified PADP students with faculty mentor's approval. 

            THEA 4800 PADP

This is a sampling of PADP Theatre Electives (12 hours required)

THEA 2203 Costume Construction (3)

THEA 1223 Makeup (3)

THEA 3261 Costume Pattern and Draping (3)

            THEA 3500 Sound Design I (3)

            THEA 3940 Studio Design Project (1)

THEA 4100 Computer-assisted Design (3)

THEA 4310 Scene Design II (3)

THEA 4460 Costume Design II (3)

THEA 4490 Lighting Design II (3)

THEA 4500 Sound Design II (3)

THEA 4800 PADP Internship (3-12)

THEA 4910 PADP Indiv. Design Project II (3)

THEA 5110 Beginning Stage Directing (3)

THEA 4270 Stage Makeup II (3)

THEA 4320 Scenic Painting (3) (Offered every other year)

Please check with your faculty mentor for additional Theatre Elective suggestions

PADP FACULTY/MENTORS

PADP majors are assigned a PADP faculty member to mentor them through their course of study.  Mentors help each student identify and select courses, advise on the selection of PADP Individual Design Projects, and help students recognize career paths and opportunities.

PADP faculty are working professionals who share a wide range of experience designing for the performing arts.  Their design work includes regional theatre, opera, dance,  film, television, theme environment design, and corporate design.  They are active in many professional organizations including USA Local–829 I.A.T.S.E. (United Scenic Artists, the national union for theatre designers), USITT (United States Institute for Theatre Technology), Academy of Television Arts and Science, and IATSE (Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada)

Scene Design

Gage Williams Professor and Head of the Performing Arts Design Program

Costume Design

Brenda Van der Wiel Assistant Professor (Clinical)

Lighting Design

Peter Willardson  Professor (Clinical)

Sound Design

Joe Payne, Adjunct Instructor

Hair and Makeup Design

Warren Holz Adjunct Instructor

Appia, Adolphe. Music and the Art of the Theatre.
Aristotle. The Poetics
Aronson, Arnold. American Set Design I
Bay, Howard.  Stage Design
Blumenthal, Eileen. Julie Taymor: Playing with Fire
Brook, Peter. The Empty Space
Burian, Jarka. The Scenography of Joseph Svoboda
Castle, Charles. Oliver Messel
Clurman, Harold. The Fervent Years
Corey, Irene.  The Mask of Reality
Corson, Richard. Stage Makeup
Courtney, Cathy.  Jocelyn Herbert: A Theatre Workbook
Craig, Edward Gordon. Towards a New Theatre
Goodwin, John.  British Theatre Design
Hays, David. Light on the Subject
Henderson, Mary C. Mielziner: Master of Modern Stage Design
Howard, Pamela. Scenography
Jones, Robert Edmond. The Dramatic Imagination
Jones, Robert Edmond. Drawings for the Theatre
Kaye, Deena and Lebrecht, James. Sound and Music for the Theatre Second Edition
Larson, Orville K. Stage Design in the American Theatre: from 1915 to 1960
McCandless, Stanley. A Method for Lighting the Stage
Mielziner, Jo.  Designing for the Theatre
Mullin, Michael. Design by Motley
Oenslager, Donald. Stage Design: Four Centuries of Invention
Oenslager, Donald. The Theatre of Donald Oenslager.
Paine, Darwin Reid. The Scenographic Imagination
Pectal, Lynn.  Costume Design
Pilbrow, Richard. Stage Lighting Design
Rich, Frank and Lisa Aronson. The Theatre of Boris Aronson.
Rosenthal, Jean.  The Magic of Light
Rosenfeld, Sybil. A Short History of Scene Design in Great Britain
Simonson, Lee. The Stage is Set
Simonson, Lee. The Art of Scenic Design
Smith, Ronn. American Set Design II
Stern, Lawrence.  Stage Management
Svoboda, Josef. The Secret of Theatrical Space
Willett, John C. Casper Neher.