Funds from Digital Arts and Technology Alliance used for $32,000 lighting board
Mike Ziegler
– Staff Writer –
The STLCC-Meramec Theater Department has a new addition this year in the form of a $32,000 light board purchased with funds from the Digital Arts and Technology Alliance (DATA).
DATA is an umbrella organization that supports various academic programs and provides professional level workshops within Meramec. There are four centers of excellence, DATA included, among the STLCC district. Each center presents a budget to the college presidents to determine how money is to be distributed among the centers of excellence each year.
The money used to fund the centers of excellence comes from the Missouri’s Regional Technical Education Council, as described by Manager of the Digital Arts and Technology Alliance, Michael Burks, Ph.D.
“With [DATA] we are able to offer opportunities for students that are found at only a few institutions in the country, and in the St. Louis area, only Washington University compares to us,” Burks said.
Theater students and faculty attended the United States Institute for Theater Technology Conference last March to find a new lighting system for Meramec.
The system they came back with, called the ETC Eos, adds capabilities that were not possible with the prior system.
“Instead of having two different boards that controls intelligent and conventional lighting, this board can control everything from one board,” said Ian Cornelius, lighting and techincal theater student.
Intelligent lighting, as described by Cornelius, includes the lighting instruments that move while conventional lighting includes instruments that remain stationary.
“Right now we don’t have enough intelligent lighting to say that we’re not going to deal with conventional lighting anymore,” said theater supervisor and designer Darren Thompson. “There are still a lot of theaters out there that have the conventional instrument is part of their standard kit. So we don’t want to completely let go of that.”
Included with the ETC Eos lighting panel is an app designed for Apple products running the iOS operating system.
“That is one of the coolest things that is out there,” Cornelius said. “You can control just about the whole board from any location while you’re connected to the network.”
Thompson echoed Cornelius’ sentiments about the app.
“You’re not always having to run back and forth from the board,” Thompson said.
Thompson said due to the design of the app students are able to easily use and find functionality within the app after minimal training on the theater owned iPad, also purchased using DATA funds.
“I love that I can bring a student in and they can take ownership of it,” said Thompson.
Meramec offers students opportunities in the theater department that isn’t be found at most other schools within Meramec’s region of Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, Thompson explained.
“We can provide them with that most places don’t have the time, funds, or personnel to do. We are both regionally and nationally recognized for the work we do in Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Not a lot of schools can make that claim, or even try to be because they are just trying to keep their heads above water,” Thompson said. “Some students have come from other schools or toured other schools and said this is one of the best experiences they’ve had theatrically.”
Theatre students seem to agree with Thompson.
“When I first got here I had no idea what I was getting into. What is offered here is fantastic,” Cornelius said. “The staff here is so helpful.”
Access to the level of technology offered in Meramec’s Theatre is a necessity Thompson said.
“We’re seeing so much of this high tech equipment come out it’s becoming a necessity if you want to train to people in the field of lighting in technical theater,” Thompson said. “They have to know how to deal with it.”
