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Where is the University of Virginia located?
Charlottesville is located in central Virginia. 60 miles west of Richmond and about 100 miles southwest of Washington DC.

How large is your department?
- 22 Faculty
- 6 Staff
- 19 Graduate Students
- 80-100 Undergraduate Majors and Minors

Are Graduate Teaching Assistantships available?
All of our graduate students receive Teaching Assistantships. To fulfill assistantship responsibilities, lighting design students share Master Electrician and Light Shop duties and serve as teaching assistants for undergraduate lighting courses. GTAs at the University of Virginia work an average of 20 hours per week in their assistantship capacity.

Are there opportunities for lighting graduate students to teach?
All graduate students serve as instructor for production lab sections and based on interest may have other teaching assistant duties. Students that wish to receive more teaching experience may serve as instructor for undergraduate lighting courses under the mentorship of their faculty instructor.

What is the average course load for the program?
Graduate lighting design students take an average of 12 credit-hours per semester.

Can lighting design graduate students take other courses in the Department?
Electives are available to lighting designers in other design or technology courses in the Department. Independent "mentored" study options are also available for students that wish to explore topics not covered within the curriculum.

Can lighting design graduate students take courses outside the Department of Drama?
Students may take courses outside the Department as electives subject to approval by the instructor of the course. Our current and former students have taken courses in: Art History, Architectural History, 3D Modeling and Visualization, Structural Design, Digital Animation (MAYA), and Computer Graphics for Film Production.

What are thesis requirements?
Graduate design students design a fully mounted production in their third year which serves as their "thesis" production. The project and design process is then compiled and edited into the final thesis document.

What types of productions do you produce?
Each year we produce a main-stage season of six plays and/or musicals in the 575 seat Culbreth Theatre and the 150-200 seat Helms Theatre.

Is there a Dance Program?
There is currently a Dance Minor with a Dance Major in the planning stages. We currently produce two student dance concerts each academic year.

How many productions are graduate lighting students able to design while in the program?
The actual numbers vary depending on the desires and abilities of the individual student. Typically lighting designers are able to design two to three mainstage productions per academic year.

Are there opportunities for lighting design students to design in other areas?
Based on interest it is possible for lighting designers to design in other areas such as scenery and sound.

Do you teach with/use automated lighting technology, Media Servers, and/or LED-technology?
Designing with the latest technologies (including all of the above) along with current standard practices of planning, programming, and troubleshooting these technologies is incorporated into the graduate academic curriculum as well as being applied to the production program.

What computer resources are available to students?
The University of Virginia has excellent computer resources from the Robertson Media Center (image, video, sound digitizing and editing) to dozens of computer classrooms supported by Information Technology and Communication (ITC). Wireless Internet access is available to students anywhere on grounds.

What computer hardware/software are required of students?
Because computing has become an essential part of all of the work we do in lighting from the research phase through to programming a show, graduate students are required to have their own laptop computers and basic design software. Currently: Vectorworks, Lightwright, and the Adobe Suite of applications: (Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Acrobat, etc).

Is your Department mac or pc based?
Our faculty, students, and production shops use computers on both platforms and both are supported by the University's computing support center (ITC).

What internship opportunities do you offer?
The Department of Drama does not have permanent internship programs, but we work with the individual student to place them in internships. Our students have done internships or found summer employment at: Cirque du Soliel, Washington Opera, Arena Stage, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Berkshire Theatre Festival, as well as many others.

It has also been possible for students in their final two semesters to apply to take all or part of the semester on an internship away from the University while still receiving their TA/fellowship stipend and benefits.

Are students able to assist you (lighting design faculty) on professional shows?
As resident lighting designer for Transport Group Theatre in New York City I currently design one off-Broadway show per semester and am usually assisted by one of my graduate students for each of these productions. There may also be additional opportunities especially during the summer months.

Are you a member of United Scenic Artists?
Yes.

Are there summer design or work opportunities?
We encourage our students to secure summer design or production work at other theatres in order to build contacts with others in the profession. We do, however, offer design and electrics opportunities with our summer repertory company Heritage Repertory Theatre. Heritage produces a season of 4-6 shows in our two theatres. The season runs from the end of May through early August.

Does the University support graduate student travel for conferences?
The Graduate School provides limited support for conference attendance in amounts up to $500. There are additional Departmental funds available to support students participating in regional and national design competitions or other academic activities.

Are there opportunities to design or work in other venues locally?
Most of our current students have done design or production work in local venues such as LiveArts, New Lyric Theatre, and The Paramount.

Where have graduates of the University of Virginia Department of Drama worked?
Our recent Alumni have found work in regional, commercial, and academic theatre programs across the country. These include: Berkshire Theatre Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Berkeley Rep., Portland Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Seatle Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Lyric Opera Of Chicago, Washington Opera, Houston Opera, Arena Stage, Chicago Shakespeare, Shakespeare Theatre, Glimmerglass Opera, Shakespeare in the Park, Goodspeed Opera, Nebraska Theatre Caravan, Theatre Four, Barksdale Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Kennedy Center Programs for Children and Youth, The Public Theatre, Wayside Theatre, The Denver Theatre Center, PCPA Theatrefest, Richmond Ballet, on Broadway and off-Broadway theatres, with Ringling Brother's Circus, Vanderbilt University, Lehigh University, American University, Emory University, University of Kentucky, Appalachian State University, Valdosta State University, and College of the Ozarks, Longwood College, and Hollins University.