If this belongs in another forum, please let me know.
My son just finished his freshman year of HS with a concentration in Technical Theater. As expected, it’s a very broad curriculum that will cover everything from set design, set building, lighting, wiring, stage management, etc… Obviously at this stage he doesn’t know if it’s something he’ll be interested in pursuing after HS, or what specialty he’d pursue.
I was looking at colleges with technical theater majors, and some of them require a portfolio, which is why I’m posting - what type of stuff would go in a tech theater portfolio? His main accomplishment for this year was being the stage manager for the freshman production (performed by the dance and theater majors)… but not sure how that goes in a portfolio. I could understand if later on they do set design since it would have an artistic component… but if that doesn’t interest him (he’s not very artistic in that sense) I don’t think there would be anything “portfolio worthy” to come from it.
So in a nutshell, if he wants to go for the technical side of things (not design), but the school still wants a portfolio, what should he start keeping track of now?
First of all, tech theater is part of this forum, so welcome!
Right now I’d save any notes he’s taken as stage manager, along with any pictures. As he accumulates more items from more shows and experiences, he can decide how to present it in a way that tells the story of his involvement in various productions.
For example, my high schooler has a two page spread about a story ballet she helped write and put on. Part of one page lists the music tracks and cuts she used; it also has a copy of the program and a couple of photos from the performance (or rehearsal). It’s captioned with the name of the piece, and “Director and Associate Choreographer,” along with the sponsoring organization/school. Everything is coordinated to look visually appealing in terms of color and layout. Really, it’s sort of like scrapbooking
Keep track of who directed each piece he works on, and who he worked with. It’s amazing how that stuff drifts out of your head over the course of a couple of years.
One way I find easy to keep track of all the things you’ll be accumulating is to get a 3 ring binder, and put various pocket folders in it. Other people like file boxes. You might also start a photo file for the topic wherever you store your photos, or somehow mark the theater photos so you don’t feel like you have to scroll through several thousand photos of his entire high school career looking for the tech theater stuff, or sort through other people’s Facebook and Instagram looking for that one shot you know someone took 2 years ago (yeah, ask me how I know how annoying that is to do).
My S17 just finished his first year in a theater tech BFA program. He is planning on majoring in lighting design.
He didn’t decide until the end of junior year that he wanted to pursue this line of study, so you are ahead of the curve.
For his portfolio, we had a resume of the productions he was involved in, in HS and community productions. Keep Playbills, etc. which list his name. We put the front cover and the page with his name on it in his binder. As noted above, the 3 ring binder with separate page dividers is perfect for this purpose.
He also had photos of some of the work he did on set builds, some lighting charts, a couple of marked scripts and other things. Since he started late, he didn’t have that much.
You should keep everything and if he still wants to go this route, start sorting it out in junior year. The only exception is the resume. Put a document on the computer and add to it every time he works on a production. I am not a picture person so I don’t do FB or IG, but if you do, the advice above is great.
Also, get a nice head shot for the front of his portfolio. My son was resistant, he said I’m NOT an actor, but I convinced him that the purpose was for the auditors/interviewers to be able to identify him out of all the other candidates. We were able to get a nice shot from the person who did the publicity photos at the summer program he teched for. She had never taken photos of the crew kids before but she really liked S17 and did the shots for free.
Good luck, you are way ahead of where we were.
Just chiming in to agree with the other posters. My D is entering her junior year in costume design. Her dad is a shutterbug, so we had tons of photos, which was great and beautiful. But when she did portfolio reviews, the professors were also very interested in her budgets, fabric swatching, notes, organizational stuff. So definitely have the photos, but as others have said, lighting plots, prompt books, script analysis, whatever specifics can show his engagement with the work. And if he decides to go after, say, a lighting design specialty, still include the other work he’s done. My daughter had all her costume stuff, but they were also interested in seeing the documentation from the one show where she’d worked on set design. Good thought to be asking now just in case!
Thanks everyone. I’ll make sure from this point on he keeps anything with his name in or marks up (like script notes) and takes pictures of any design type projects he does.