The "secret" practices of theatrical design collaboration

This blog post needs some kind of click-bait title: "What Theatrical Designers DON'T Want You To Know!" or "These Six Practices Will SHOCK You!" or "Wait Until You Read That LAST Paragraph!" But these aren't "secret" practices really - just some things that seem normal to those of us on design teams, but sometimes surprise folks in other industries.

The business world long ago figured out that theatre practitioners had things to teach them.  How to speak to the public convincingly; how to be creative and improvise when brainstorming ideas; how to craft a narrative to present to your larger organization.  But there are teams of people behind the scenes of every theatrical production that have been accomplishing things that many project managers aspire to, and they don’t often share methods outside of their field.

One of these groups is the design team - led by the director, this team can include designers for sets, costumes, lighting, sound, props, and projection or video.  These artists will determine the physical and visual world that the actors on stage will inhabit; each of these people has a specific skill-set, a particular area they are responsible for, a unique set of deadlines for their materials to be ready, and in many cases, one or more technicians that they will be supervising and collaborating with to make the design real. 

The theatrical design process mirrors closely the complex interactions of cross-functional teams that make up most business projects, and I’ve identified 6 common practices of theatrical design collaboration can be translated into other kinds of project work: 

• creating a common vision

• balancing collaboration and hierarchy

• building a shared vocabulary

• testing ideas concretely and iteratively

• maintaining relationships through feedback and response

• putting abstract ideas into physical reality

These practices are not unique to theatrical design collaboration.  But the ways in which theatrical design teams use them in combination, and repeat them over and over again on each new production, have a lot to teach project teams across industries.  Businesses have long understood that the performance side of theatre has a lot to teach them, but I believe that, when it comes to optimizing collaboration, they should look to the design team, waiting behind the scenes.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

• Which of these practices are you most curious to hear more about?

• What are some ways you have seen project teams use these practices in fields outside of theatre?

This post is written partly in completion of a graduate school assignment (my last one!), so it needs:

REFERENCES:

Cohen, R., & Veenstra, J. (2024). Working together in theatre: Collaboration and leadership. Methuen Drama.

Tharp, T., & Kornbluth, J. (2014). The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together. Simon & Schuster.

Cominis, M., & Ramont, M. (2021). Production collaboration in the theatre. Routledge.