What is a theatre consultant? What do they do? Who are their customers? For this month’s PLSN Interview, we spoke with Bill Conner of Bill Conner Associates, LLC. Conner studied under the father of modern stage lighting, George C. Izenour, en route to building a successful career in the field. In this interview, he explains the vital role theatre consultants perform in our industry and why the discipline deserves full-time attention.
PLSN: How did you get started in the industry and what led you to theatre planning?
Bill Conner: In reverse order, I was exposed to the idea of facility planning as an undergraduate, and then again in graduate school at Yale, from George C. Izenour. I took classes with Izenour, but at that time, it was not really an option; there were so few theatre consultants in the 1970s, it was hard to follow that idea as a career path.
So I graduated from Yale and taught all aspects of technical theatre at a college for several years. Then, Bill Warfel at Yale called one day. He had been doing theatre consulting part-time and decided to go full-time. I went to work for him in 1982.
What was that like back then, considering the equipment you had to work with?
Equipment in terms of theatre equipment or in terms of the Radio Shack TRS-80 computers we were working on?
Good point…both. Did you do a lot of your designs manually, or were you using computers?
The only thing done on computers, initially, was word processing. Actually, I started with Warfel at Systems Design Associates in 1982. Gene Leitermann, who is now the head of Theatre Projects US,was also working there with me. Both of us have gone on and done fairly well in the business. AutoDesk introduced AutoCAD around that time, and we bought it at the end of 1982. In terms of tools, we were an early adopter and I’m a CAD geek, not that that’s interesting.
That’s actually very interesting.
We were still doing an awful lot of drawing by hand but we starting to do some by computer in December of 1982.
And what about the gear?
I don’t think it has changed that much.
But technology has changed.
The Strand CD80 was a revolutionary departure from patch panels and 6K dimmers. And now, with the dimmer per circuit system, with the modern console, control systems have gotten better and more powerful. And, dimmers do a little bit more than they did, but there isn’t a huge change. Two things have happened: when I started, the expectation of the number of circuits was growing, so you’d go from 50 circuits, that being a lot, to several hundred. Now, 25 years plus later, I see that changing back because of automated lighting.
Are you adding other types of technology, now?
Yes.
Are those new technologies more prevalent, now? Do you see this as somewhat of a revolutionary time for theatre design?
I think that, in terms of the growth of the use of automated lighting, it is a major change, and also with the introduction of viable distributed dimming products.
Are most of your systems networked, as well?
I stopped using DMX in the wall in about 2000 and realized it was time to go all
Ethernet. That’s one of the hard things; I’ve got to figure out what the technology is going to be when the theatre opens and the years after that, not what it is today.
There are lots of people out there that advocate putting in a lot of DMX wire because that’s what they are used to. But I see that as shortsighted when you’re starting with a new building that’s supposed to last 25 or 50 years. A modern school building isn’t considered a 50-year building anymore, and that’s one of the unfortunate things. In fact, I asked the other day, and the school district said it was considered a 40 to 45 year building before they tear it down and replace it, which is kind of a frightening thought.
Especially if you compare the state of new theatres now, as opposed to when you started — the high school theatre is much more like a professional theatre, now.
Yes — some are. There are clearly a large group of them that are not, which professional consultants are not involved in.
That brings us to a good point: Describe the importance of your role in the theatre planning process.
A hundred years ago, an architect would probably make every decision — mechanical, structural, and electrical — with maybe some input on some of the specialties. On 25 sheets of drawings he would show everything for the building — lighting, heating, the whole thing. Today, the systems have gotten so complicated that there might be 25 consultants on a major project because everything is so specialized. I think the growth of specialization is a significant change. People ask me why things aren’t more coordinated and that’s the answer, unfortunately.
The dirty secret of architecture, and anyone with a little experience will not take exception to this statement, is that construction documents have gone to hell in the last 30 years. It means the systems are too complicated, and even the electrical engineer is going struggle to keep track of what he’s doing with the stage lighting.
The importance of my role is bringing an overall plan to the whole facility. What a professional theatre consultant brings is much more than equipment selection and arrangement.
How does your role differ compared to professionals that might get involved in theatre planning as part of a separate endeavor?
I think that the subject matter deserves a full-time effort. If part of your time is spent as an educator, or as a sales person, I don’t think you can possibly be as well versed or well founded as someone who does it full-time, nor have a broad of command of the subject. The depth and breadth of knowledge needed to be a part of a building design’s team is different than what an educator, or a sales rep, has.
Who is your primary customer?
I do, generally, work for architects. I’m usually part of a design team that is led by an architect.
Can you tell us about the design process?
In a typical, or best case project, the theatre consultant produces the first program of requirements for the facility that determine everything from seat count, to stage size, and scale of lighting and type of rigging and so on. The number of restrooms, size of the lobby, need for concession stands, and the number of loading docks and so on, are all basic building program of information. It’s a lot more than just equipment.
Most professional theatre consultants, on projects they find successful, develop the first plan of the seating and stage, usually called resource drawings, or general arrangement drawing.
Do you typically start with a big, blank box?
I typically start with a blank sheet of paper and then hand that off to the architect for developing the whole building plan. In the ideal case, they are going to wrap a building around the space that I lay out. There’s a lot of negotiation.
What are some of the more difficult challenges that you face?
Always budget. Because everyone’s dreams always exceed their budget.
In the past, you stated that you work with lots of the same architects. Is it safe to say you’ve gotten to know each other fairly well?
My practice over the years has been a lot of repeat work with a fairly small group, in total number, of architects. Eighty or ninety percent of my work is with the same group of architects.
That might be unlike someone who works with many different architects. You don’t need to re-educate them to help them understand what you are trying to accomplish, isn’t that right?
Yes. But a lot of what I do is education, of both the architect and the client. You talk about the challenge — a lot of it is education of why it’s going to cost so much, and why they say what they want costs more than what they thought. A lot of it is very fundamental education, like why a slab is shaped a certain way for sightlines and explaining the fundamentals of sightlines, for instance. A slab that has more bends and curves costs more, so you’re always trying to defend every recommendation based on cost and value return. I use the phrase return on investment quite frequently for making good decisions.
In our industry, a lot of newcomers see one path, namely design, and don’t see all the opportunities for challenging careers. What would you say to someone who might be thinking about a career in theatre planning?
I think I agree with your statement. I don’t know how some people have ended up, for instance, working for manufacturers or sales organizations. It doesn’t seem that people who are involved with theatre in high school or college are made aware of these sorts of different options. Besides being a Broadway designer or faculty designer, there isn’t much talk about it. Like I said, when I started, this was an extremely small profession. I think there are some pre-requisites in terms of education; you need to understand the basics of theatre and how it works, and some of that may need to be through experience. Secondly, you need to have an understanding of modern drafting and CAD techniques. The industry standard is AutoCAD. The architectural engineering world is based on AutoCAD. Beside those two things, I think you need to send your resume out to theatre consultants.
What project are you most proud of and why?
That’s a good question and not an easy one to answer. There are two. The first is the John Hardin PAC just north of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. It was a breakthrough project in many regards for me but in the end, it is simply a very sweet 850-seat high school theatre with all of the elements pretty well worked out: balcony, full working stage, pit with lift, robust rigging and lighting systems, and support spaces. What is truly remarkable is the county’s commitment to the performing arts and the management they “found” that make it a very vital part of the community. I visit as often as my schedule permits.
But “most proud” has to go to a miniscule project of a campfire ring at the local Boy Scouts of America Council’s camp in Wisconsin, resulting from being asked if I could improve the lighting. I was architect and general contractor, fund raiser, theatre consultant, and laborer, and it was all built in one long weekend. With its raked stage, footlights designed around propane lanterns, combination backdrop, masking and acoustical shell, it has been special from the first “performance” the last evening of construction through every opening and closing campfire each summer since. Out of less than $4,000 worth of materials we probably improved the quality of the events and the experience twentyfold, all condensed into one leader’s appreciative remark and comment that after many years he could finally hear and see his kids perform there.
And that’s what it’s all about.
