23 Designer
Designer
Pathways
Design is an exciting field made up of artists that come from a range of backgrounds. As a result, there are many ways to arrive into it. I’ve known set designers who began as architects or visual artists and many sound designers who are also musicians. We’ve also had many theatre students who began their academic career wanting to be actors, but after being exposed to a broader range of areas in theatre they fell in love with design. As a result, they moved into the design stream to complete their training.
Of course it is important to note that just because you have a background in visual art or architecture doesn’t mean you have the training necessary to undertake stage design, likewise if moving from fashion to costume design. These backgrounds can provide insights, but design has an added purpose of working dramaturgically, of collaborating with the director to build a world that says something to the audience and is functional for the actors. It is not just a visual statement, in the way it might be if you were to make a sculpture on the same themes. I know from personal experience and shared experiences from colleagues, that collaborating on shows with folks moving into theatre design for the first time from other areas can be a challenge. Although it may not be necessary to have a full design degree, theatre specific training will serve you well in the field. If you are looking to get into design from another artistic medium it would be ideal to shadow or apprentice on a production first. Or, have a designer mentor you on your first show, so that you can understand the processes of the theatre world and then apply your perspective from your other field.
For those who want to take the traditional training route, there are many BA and BFA programs for theatre design. There are also MFA programs in theatre design at UBC, University of Alberta, University of Calgary, University of Victoria, and York University. The reality is that with a shortage of designers in areas such as sound and projection, several come into it without formal training and learn through practical experience. As noted, there are also apprenticeship and assistantship opportunities that provide additional means of hands-on learning, along with mentorship and networking. Many of the larger theatres have their own professional development programs, but Associated Designers of Canada runs a national Assistant Designer Program that has become extremely popular.
Getting Work
Process
How does one get work as a designer? Like other self-employed theatre artists, it requires some hustling especially when you are first establishing yourself. You need folks to know you are out there, available, and have the necessary skills. You need to reach out to Artistic Directors and Directors (who generally will choose designers). At times, production managers and technical directors will also suggest who might be a good fit for a particular show, but ultimately a Director will have final approval. Go out and meet these folks. See their work and figure out who you want to work with. Then, you need to submit yourself by sending materials in to theatres you want to work with. Reach out to ADs and directors requesting to meet. Build these relationships. Find ways to showcase your work and build up your resume with independent shows. It’s also been my experience that when I approach a designer who is not available for the gig, they will recommend someone else. So, find ways to be part of the design community and make sure you are on people’s lists to recommend.
In general, designers are put in place for a theatre company’s season once directors are lined up. There isn’t a call that goes out looking for designers but an internal conversation occurs (with the AD, PM, and Director) and this leads to offers being made. It is a mix of looking for a match for the specific show, but also looking at the season as a whole and where to put the strongest designers versus where an opportunity could be given to an emerging designer. And then as noted, it often comes down to who a director wants to work with. Having assisted or apprenticed at a theatre, and doing a good job, will put you on their radar and could lead to further opportunities. Be aware though that often emerging designers expect to be able to shift from assistant to designer and it doesn’t always happen. Large institutions like Shaw and Stratford will have many assistant designers but not a high number end up designing on those stages due to a limited number of opportunities and the fact that a great assistant also showcases different skills than a designer might. Assisting stretches a different part of your brain. You can be put into an ‘assistant’ box at a particular theatre and stay there. Some love doing this and choose to become career assistants, mostly in Toronto and the U.S. where there are many opportunities. Others split their time and between full design and assistant gigs can fill their season. All the same, networking through these roles is a great tool even if it isn’t necessarily a linear step to full designer.
Much of it is word of mouth and reputation. Some directors like to work with the same designers repeatedly if they have collaborated well in the past. Likewise, some directors will refuse to work with certain designers after a bad experience.
Portfolio/Submissions
As with all submissions, a strong cover letter with a well laid out resume is essential. As a designer, alongside the letter and resume, submitting a portfolio or having one on-line to be viewed can be extremely valuable. In this context, a portfolio is simply a collection of materials that reflect your work. You need to show what you can do and have done. It should reflect you as a person/artist, demonstrate your skills, and outline the areas of design you work in. It can include an artistic statement or overview of your work (outlining your background, what brought you to design, what you are passionate about, and unique aspects of your work) and then samples. This requires getting great photos of your work for set, costume, lighting and projection design. For sound design having video or audio clips is really useful.
There is some flexibility in what you might include, especially as you build up your body of work. The goal is to show your artistry. If you don’t have a lot of show photos for example you can include drafting, renderings, shots of model boxes, lighting plots, and other samples. This can even include work you did in the classroom (until you have full productions to showcase instead). Once you get to the point of having a lot of shows then you can start to focus on the projects that showcase your best work or that demonstrate the work that aligns with the type of projects you want to be offered moving forward. It can also be useful in featuring a particular show you’ve designed to reflect the process and product, with initial sketches, final drawings, and then photos of the actual production.
It can be useful to create a pdf with 15 to 20 pieces of your work selected for the specific theatre or show to which you are submitting yourself. This gives the recipient exactly what you want to share and is right in their inbox alongside your cover letter and resume. As a general marketing tool, having your portfolio as part of your website is good practice. Of course on-line you have more flexibility and can offer a lot, but too many examples can be overwhelming. If directing folks to your website, then direct them to specific work that again targets what will align with the potential contract your hoping to be offered.
I think it’s more important to keep it [website] up to date. I go to so many artists’ websites and note like this is hard to read. It’s like chunky. It has work from ten years ago. Like that might not be what you’re doing now. So yeah, keep your resumé up to date. I was also thinking, don’t necessarily put all the work in your portfolio. Have a master list somewhere where you don’t need the stuff where you’re doing menial jobs. You don’t need to display that as your like, this is your best of the best on your resume. I also learned a while back to put AD names and Directors names on it, next to the show that you worked so that it shows who you’ve worked with and you know somebody might be really good at collaboration or devising theatre. And I saw that you worked with them, and that might lead to another gig. Yeah. And then portfolio. This is, I’m a bit passionate about this because I’ve seen so many bad ones and communication is just so vital to theatre in general. Everything that we do and every role. Don’t overcomplicate it. Keep it simple. And, if you have a website, make sure it’s easy to navigate.
Also send them a streamlined version of your portfolio, like a 1-to-2-page PDF, especially after they announce their next season. When they’re thinking about people. – Judith Schulz, Theatre Designer, Saskatoon, SK
Check out the websites of designers that you admire and you will likely find their portfolio or at least photos of their past work. As noted, if you are going to have a website it needs to be kept up to date and it needs to look good. A bad website that you don’t have the ability to polish or update can work against you.
Here are some examples shared previously as part of marketing oneself (Self Employment) :
Designer – https://kerleydesign.com/costume-design/
Set Designer and Art Director – https://www.andybroomell.com/
Multi-Disciplinary Artist – About – ANDY MORO
Like many other areas of theatre, once well established a designer is often offered contract after contract and doesn’t have to worry as much about submissions, portfolios, or marketing themselves.
Marketing Yourself
As noted, internships, apprenticeships, and assistant gigs are great to learn but also to build contacts. Getting into the space, working alongside new people, meeting folks…this is all part of securing future work. However, you also need to promote the shows you work on. Send out invitations to the people you want to collaborate with in the future. Post about the work you are doing on social media. Do media interviews if given the opportunity.
Invite people. If you have a show like invite whoever you can imagine inviting -the artists you’re interested in working with. They may not come, but just the invite alone I think can be helpful. I think you also have to know what artists you’re interested in. So it comes back to doing the work. I find that work now, what we have a hard time with at the beginning of the time here (at NTS) is context and understanding of Canadian theatre across the country. Who’s who? Who’s built what? What’s the history of these theatres? Who are the people who are running them now? Where did they come from? Who are the playwrights that exist? And I think you actually have to build that knowledge in order to understand whose work you’re interested in. How are you going to talk to them about that work? How are you going to invite them? So, if I’m doing a lighting design and yet there’s a playwright that I really like, I mean, maybe invite them, right?
You can never prescribe how you get work, but you can certainly articulate the work that speaks to you. You can articulate thoughts about that. I think you should be able to and you could identify the artists across the country whose work speaks to you. That goes back to seeing more theatre, seeing the theatre of the people who you like, see every Hannah Moscovitch play that’s produced wherever it is, if you can. Right? If you like that playwright and making sure that if somebody is producing something and you really like their work, that you find a way to go see it. I think that connection is important. I just don’t think you can kind of say, everybody come to my show. I think you have to connect to artists, right? To the ones whose work you do or are inspired by in the hope of just working more and more with those kinds of people. – Andrea Lundy, Program Director – Production Design and Technical Arts Program – National Theatre School of Canada, Montreal, QC
Skill Set
Of course you need the hard skills that theatre design training or experience will provide. In addition, there are soft skills that will make you someone that folks will want to work with again and again.
Some folks I’ve spoken with advise designers to develop a specialty. What is your unique offer? Anything that can help you to stand out.
Be a good collaborator. Really think about the give and take with a director.
Communication is always crucial, but a designer needs to do it in spades with the director, as well as with the production department who will be realizing their design.
As with all other areas, being contract savvy is also important for a designer. Talk to other designers. Join or explore Associated Designers of Canada and their resources to know what the industry standards are.
Current Considerations
In addition to the broader conversation about the changing theatre milieu discussed in other chapters, design is specifically being influenced by changes in technology. The use of projection is no longer experimental in a theatre performance but in regular use. What can be done with lighting, sound, and video changes every year with better software and equipment. The growth of on-line theatre has also affected design.
As an example read: ‘It’s More Difficult to Forget Something that Exists on a Permanent Record’: In Conversation with Tara Beagan and Andy Moro – Intermission Magazine
Multi-disciplinary work, multi-media forms, and collaborative theatre-making that includes designers as part of conception are all occurring more regularly.
As well, there is now a much overdue recognition that designers should align with the show content when possible. The wider industry has begun to encourage a greater diversity in the designers who are being trained, supported, and mentored to make sure that there are experienced designers who can work on culturally specific content.
Designers also need to think about ecological factors. Funders and some theatres are now requesting that set and costume design consider the environmental impact. Ian Garrett is a specialist in Eco-Scenography and has a separate article below focusing on the need for change.
Managing Change for Sustainability
by Ian Garrett
Change is hard, doubly so if you’re working within the limited governance and resources of a non-profit arts organization. It is even trickier when the changes you’re looking to make are ethical considerations of how you work and not the art you support. But if we can identify what considerations create barriers to change and utilize tools which help us to plan for how to manage those changes, we can overcome those barriers and find a more flourishing future.
There are many things which can get in our way when it comes to change in the Arts. Arts organizations often have limited financial and personnel resources, which can make it difficult to implement ethical decision-making principles, and must balance their mission and programs with environmental considerations. As many are incorporated as non-profits, they are subject to legal and regulatory constraints that may limit their ability to fully implement ethical decision-making principles. Funders, board members, artists, and audiences have differing interests which can create tension when it comes to change. While this can spur on change—like we see in efforts to become accessible, safe, and equitable places to create—we can often come to a near breaking point before we act. Even if we overcome these structural challenges, arts organizations may not have in-house expertise necessary to make informed decisions.
It is useful to consider that some of these barriers are, in part, intentional. Non-profits are meant to serve communities or public good. Some barriers are intended to ensure organizations are doing what they say they’re meant to do for the benefit of the communities they proport to serve.
There are tools to help them change. Some are actual tools, such as the Flourishing Business Canvas [Download Flourishing Business Canvas | Flourishing Business], a strategic tool for mapping sustainable and socially responsible business practices. The Canvas is related to the principles of integrated accounting, a system of accounting that considers both financial and non-financial information. This recognizes that financial performance is not the only measure of success, and often includes environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics.
We can also think of the core principles of and cultivate the skills for managing this change. It involves analyzing the impact of changes on different stakeholders, as well as developing and implementing strategies for transitions towards desired outcomes with minimal disruption. We can use this approach to mitigating the challenges we face in our incorporation structures.
We start by identifying the topic of our change. This should be practical. It should suggest changes that can be made with a reasonable amount of effort and is clearly related to a wasteful system (e.g., our system of set construction is wasteful because we throw out the materials when we are done with a show). The wastefulness can be obvious (it produces trash) or more abstract (it creates a need for more energy resources). But you must draw the connection. And your topic should be researchable. If the topic you chose involves systems and technologies that do not yet exist, then you won’t get very far.
The first thing we need to research is the change itself. What is the product, material, or system which is being exchanged to result in less waste in your work? Does integrating this change require other changes which might require additional considerations that impact your operations? Identifying how something exists in larger systems of consumption, what we might refer to as a “sustainable nutrient”, asks us to think about all the inputs that enable and outputs that are enabled by any item or process.
In no particular order, we can then look at our ability to manage these changes through three categories that evaluate our ability to address leadership, measurement, and management capacity in our organization or processes.
Leadership capacity refers to our ability to get decision makers engaged in the change process. Starting with questions of how sustainability is currently approached and addressed, we consider how cohesively sustainability efforts are being coordinated. This provides a foundation to focus on the leadership of your team so you can ask how institutional leaders are engaged in your proposed work. Are they dedicated to the success of your proposal? Can you depend on involvement and support? Does organizational leadership provide you with the institutional knowledge, experience, influence, and ability to apply systems and design thinking as you’ll need? Is your vision such that they contribute to its scope, inspire participation, and work towards alignment with the core function of your organization?
Measurement capacity talks about the ability to collect and analyze the data we collect to support and then execute our proposal. It’s how we know if we succeed. How strong is your institution’s capacity to measure its financial impact? Are ‘less conventional’ sources of financial impact such as pay-back periods, and risk assessment considered? How strong is your institution’s capacity to measure its social impact with groups we feel responsible to? We take a similar approach to the environment, our non-human stakeholders, and look at how important it is to manage our environmental impact, how this impacts our decision making, and what expertise is available for measuring those impacts. How will you conduct assessment and how effective are your methods which evaluate and compare potential?
Management capacity gets to the proverbial brass tacks, considering the ability to do the work necessary to implement changes. What focus is applied to managing internal change? When significant change is rolled out, how is progress measured? Does our team represent sufficient diversity? Institutional knowledge? Change management experience? Influence / Decision making authority? How will you all support stakeholder groups, work with subject matter experts, or cultivate expertise yourselves? What is your ability to engage your internal and external stakeholders with diverse methods that support two-way communication? This evaluation positions a team to be able to formalize change and be able to revise and expand organizational goals and objectives, operating guidelines, policies, reporting requirements, job descriptions, and performance metrics.
Having positioned ourselves and our appetite for change we are ready to put together a proposal that includes all the essential information we require. This begins with a summary of the project that includes what we propose, why we’re proposing it, and why we’re the ones making the proposal. It articulates the problem we’re attempting to solve and why it’s a problem. It includes necessary research about the problem and the proposed change while distilling and interpreting this for your stakeholders. It provides examples including case studies, reports, or data. This foundation will allow you to articulate changes. And having articulated what you want to do, you can then provide the practical application of your change with a clear articulation of your goals, budget, documentation plan, and all objectives and benchmarks which will indicate you’re moving towards those goals on the timeline you expect.
This process isn’t necessarily only applicable to eco-positive changes. It is a useful approach to any changes that require everyone involved to stretch. The last few years have seen many intersecting crises in society and there is consensus that we are in an ecological crisis. These crises are all related in a nested model of sustainability which visualizes everything and everyone within the environment. While we have many tools which we could employ to grapple with these crises, the question isn’t what process we engage for change, but what we value so that we are committed to those changes. A just and sustainable world can only be achieved through valuing it. Having a process for change that reflects our values is essential, lest we default to fiduciary duty alone.
So, start with your values, recognize the systems you work within, consider your capacity and where there is room for change, and build an informed plan for that change. You may find that once you start, you begin to rebuild systems more and more easily.
Resources and Tips
As noted, Associated Designers of Canada is a great resource. They have student and associate membership as well as professional development support.
I already had a degree under my belt, so I wasn’t straight out of high school. So I went into the university degree knowing what I wanted to do. I wanted to do theatre, I wanted to work in theatre. And so I was able to plan my degree with a lot of efficiency, knowing like, okay, we’re going to get all the extracurriculars that don’t have anything to do with theatre out of the way. We’re going to look very carefully at all of the theatre classes to see what is going to serve me the best, be able to add a bunch of skills to my backpack… tool kit, whatever you want to call it. But then I think and I don’t know who taught me to do this, I really wish I could attribute this to somebody, but I knew going in that I needed to network right away. I needed to make those connections in the professional theatre community in Saskatoon while I was still in university. Because once you leave, there’s such a disconnect of having access to the people that you can ask for help, that you can ask their opinion. Be like, where should I go? Who do I talk to? And actually getting the gigs.
So I at least think that a lot of my success now is being able to make those connections and getting to know those people before I left the university. Yeah. So like asking people what they’re doing and searching out those opportunities. I did a couple of mentorships while I was still in university, which connected me to the Indie theatre folks, I guess the indie theatre producers in Saskatoon, I paid attention to who was posting their seasons, what the seasons were, and then like some basic stuff like showing up and doing your best work and really being kind to people and helping others where you could, even though it’s not necessarily your role in the show. Like, hey, do you need anything? Can I help you with anything? You just need to vent for a while? That sort of thing. – Judith Schulz, Theatre Designer, Saskatoon, SK
As you get more established there are also residency options available for longer term contracts, such as at the National Theatre School Residency.
Advice
As with so many other contract-based roles, it is crucial to learn to say no so you can do your best work and not burn out. This includes being careful of the overlap of contracts, although it is normal to do initial work on one show while in tech for another, being in final design mode on two shows may not be possible as you’ll need to be two places at once. Also saying no can include being firm about what falls under your contract and not taking on additional responsibilities.
Doing whatever you can to stand out from the pack can be labour-intensive, but also is sometimes necessary.
Of course anything that might help get your work noticed can be valuable. It is good to note again that at most larger or regional theatres, all directors are contracted by the season launch as are most designers. If you haven’t had a lot of shows yet, working on a portfolio piece inspired by someone’s season would be a great exercise, but much of the pitching and submitting needs to be done in advance of season launches. Reaching out early is crucial! Some designers also caution against giving a detailed design pitch before being hired and having those first director talks. There is a risk that you pitch some specific detail in a chat with a director or Artistic Director, then don’t end up getting hired, but that detail appears onstage. Of course no one owns an idea, but an actor doesn’t perform the whole play in an audition, so don’t feel you need to burn yourself out preparing for each pitch. Having an easy to navigate portfolio that shows your range can be the best tool.
Finally, many designers feel the need to be able to work across disciplines. If you can take on more than one area of design, if you can also design for dance, or apply your skills in film then it opens up greater opportunities to fill your year with contracts.