Program Type(s)
Certificate of Achievement 18+ Semester (27+ Quarter) Units
Program Goals
The Technical Theater Certificate is intended to address a need for our students interested in working in technical theater. It will give students both classroom instruction and practical experience in a broad range of disciplines including lighting, set construction, audio, costuming and stage management.
It is a central tenet of the program that classroom instruction is reinforced with crew assignments on main stage productions. A student who completes the certificate will get hands-on experience with state of the art technology in the various disciplines. They will also learn the collaborative process and the work ethic necessary for working in professional theater.
In order for the training to be useful to our students, we must stay current with rapidly changing technology and practices in our industry. Recently, there has been a push to include LED lighting fixtures into the inventory of professional theaters. Those fixtures require lighting consoles that can logically process parameters for intensity, color and other functions. Similar changes are occurring in audio.
Technical Theater will be a new program at the Mt. SAC campus. We have a growing and robust Theater Department. However, we lack what the top Theater Departments have—a technical theater program. Employment in technical theater is solid. The Otis Report on the Creative Economy reports there are over 34,000 jobs in the LAOC area for the visual and performing arts. Moreover, this area is projected to grow by 14% in the next three years. This is steady, sustained growth that will provide good jobs for our graduates. Moreover, there are numerous four year programs in the field for which our graduates will also be prepared should they decide to transfer.