UA News

A unique UA program trains students to work with productions with advanced technology needs.

Engineering and theater students are working together at The University of Arizona to design the kind of sophisticated stage machinery that is used at stadium concerts, as well as in Cirque du Soleil and similar productions.

The Advanced Motion Control class has been offered to graduate students in theater technology and to both graduate and undergraduate students in electrical and computer engineering for the past three years.

Professor Peter Beudert, who directs the design division in the UA School of Theatre Arts, and other faculty members hope to expand the concept into a multicourse offering that will lead to a master’s degree option in engineering and an entertainment technology certificate in theatre arts.

Understanding the Human-Computer Interface

High-tech staging can help or hinder a performance depending on how it’s designed and implemented, Beudert said. So there’s a need for technicians and engineers who understand the demands that the human-computer interface puts on actors, and who can seamlessly integrate technology into a performance.

Cirque du Soleil, for instance, employs 150 people behind the scenes during each performance and another group is needed to maintain the sophisticated equipment, Beudert said. Rock concerts and other performances that combine actors and machinery also use large numbers of technicians.

“You have a lot of technology mixing together,” Beudert said. “You have lighting, audio, hydraulic, electrical and computer systems mixing with stage scenery.”

“But there is no place in America, and possibly the world, where a student interested in studying theater as a technician can get the kind of training that allows them to operate in shows that demand very high technology,” he added. “There isn’t a training program that provides the opportunity for theater students to work hand-in-hand with engineering students at the graduate level that prepares them to work in the profession.”

The concept of the Advanced Motion Control class, and eventually of the certificate and degree programs, is to develop engineers who can work in the performing arts, as well as theater specialists who have a strong background in engineering, said Hal Tharp of electrical and computer engineering, who is one of the engineering professors who helps teach the class.

In addition, Beudert believes the program could benefit Tucson and Arizona by attracting companies that produce high-tech theater equipment and one-of-a-kind stage sets. “With so much growth being in the West because of the dominance of theme parks in Los Angeles and the shows in Las Vegas, there’s a lot of growth potential for the industry in the Southwest,” he said.

The Advanced Motion Control class, which will be taught again in 2009, has shown the value of mixing the talents of engineering and theater students, he said.

Different Outlooks, Different Approaches

Both engineering and theater students are problem solvers and equally creative, but they bring different outlooks to the class, Beudert noted.

The engineers tend to analyze problems in detail, working through several iterations to optimize a solution, while the theater students tend to say, “This might not be an optimal solution, but it works. So let’s use it,” Beudert explained.

“In theater, we do things quickly,” he said. “When we do a production, we have six or seven weeks to build the show, get it in the theater and get it working. We don’t really have time in that six-week period to try a whole new system, because if it doesn’t work, we have a major problem. So we tend to work modularly. If we have things that work, we tend to use them a lot.”

While the engineers learn about the "show must go on” side of theater technology, theater students gain an insight into ways of thinking about designs from the ground up that are standard practice for engineering design. “For example, the theater students benefit from seeing the kinds of analyses and design techniques that can be applied to their ‘what if’ questions,” Tharp said.

The class has been different each semester. During the first year, students designed and programmed a stage set that included 16 sections that were 4-feet square. These modules were at the same height initially but could be elevated independently.

Tucson’s Caid Industries did much of the fabrication work on the modules and the students added the hydraulic and electrical systems and designed the control systems.

At the end of the semester, the stage set was used in a theater production, and the audience was invited onstage after the performance to examine the machinery.

Combining Light, Jazz, and Optical Sensors

During the second semester, students worked with a percussion jazz ensemble from the School of Music to design movable stage sets that could be operated by musicians on stage.

The students also designed and built automated musical instruments. “One instrument could be played by directing high-intensity flashlights at optical sensors,” Tharp said. “Another instrument had an array of nine laser beams and could be played by holding a hand over the beams.”

The sets and instruments were used in “New Genesis,” a public performance that focused on astrobiology and the arts.

During part of “New Genesis,” the musicians played the light instruments and “taught” automated lights to play along with them. Later, these mechanical lights appeared to teach the musicians a tune.

“There were a lot of control issues and programming issues the students had to deal with, and the result was visually quite stunning,” Beudert said.

Last spring semester, the students created a three-part motion sensor system. The first part detected a live actor on stage within two or three inches. The second part translated this information into data that could be used by standard theater equipment, such as a computer-based lighting control board.

The third part involved creating a way to track an actor on stage and reproduce that track in a way that a motorized object could follow, appearing to travel in the actor’s footsteps.

The course already has produced students who are industry -ready at graduation, Beudert said. “Right after our second concert, we had four students graduate from our program and move to Las Vegas to work for Cirque du Soleil.”

“Every year we’ve had a great mix of students,” Beudert added. “The partnerships created have been strong and all the students have learned a tremendous amount from each other. The course has really given them a chance to grow in ways that aren’t possible if they stay only in their own disciplines.”