The Theatre School’s Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in Sound Design trains students to be successful sound designers and engineers in all levels of the theatre and entertainment industries. Sound design students learn techniques for sound editing, recording and composition using the hardware and software that are the standard tools of the industry. Students collaborate with directors, other designers and our professional production staff to get practical experience designing and rigging sound as part of our production program.
Students learn from a distinguished and award-winning faculty of professional designers, artists and technicians both in the classroom and through individual guidance and advising during production work. Students receive formal and informal feedback from faculty through portfolio presentations and exhibits of their work each year.
First Year.The first year curriculum is taken in collaboration with other design and technical students and is an immersion into the culture of production and design. Students explore thinking metaphorically and abstractly with an appreciation of design and technology as an aesthetic distinct from other art forms and begin a drawing and technical drawing progression. Students complete three production crew assignments in our public production season.
Second Year. Students begin to focus on the specifics of sound design and sound technology for the theatre through an introduction to the history of sound design, sound acoustics and the science of sound. Students learn to work with sound software including Pro-Tools, Logic, Peak, and QLab to begin creating, editing, sequencing, and arranging sound cues in order to experience the art of collaboration with directors and other designers and gain experience translating design concepts for execution. Course work in sound technology exposes students to a range of audio components and specifications to prepare students to design and construct complete sound systems. Students work throughout the year on productions in our public season as sound designers and technicians.
Third Year. Students receive an introduction to music theory and history to begin a greater focus on sound composition. Students learn to create compositions using Midi, hardware and software samplers and keyboards to allow them to create several pieces of composed music, score a theatrical script and score part of a film. Students learn to integrate design and composition skills to create larger and more complex sound designs. Student continue to hone their skills with practical experience in our production program while exploring period style elements through a survey of art, architecture, fashion and furniture and work collaboratively with designers to implement and construct their designs.
Fourth Year. Students complete a thorough study of studio practices for recording instruments of all types, orchestras and live events. Course work covers mixing music tracks, mastering and other methods of recording musicians. Students learn the complexities involved in creating and controlling sound design for musical theatre using wireless mics, mixing actors and orchestra mics and monitors. The final year is also a transition year, both further developing students abilities and preparing students to enter the profession through portfolio development and developing professional networks including the option of a professional internship of their choosing.
Graduate Showcase. At the end of each year, The Theatre School hosts an event to showcase the work of our graduating students. Under the guidance of the faculty, graduating students prepare a showcase exhibit of their portfolio – which is presented in Chicago for artistic directors, technical directors and other members of the theatre, film and television industries. The Graduate Showcase includes alumni networking events to introduce and connect our graduates to our large alumni network.
Liberal Studies. In addition to the theatre technology training curriculum, students complete 52 quarterly credit hours (13 courses) in liberal studies. Courses are taken in theatre history, English composition and rhetoric, quantitative reasoning, philosophy, religion, lab or quantitative sciences, world history, multiculturalism and electives. These liberal studies courses are scheduled during the first three years of the program.
Evaluation. Every student receives quarterly evaluation and feedback from the faculty each year. Students’ evaluations are based on discipline, collaboration, professional potential and progress in the program. Based on this evaluation, students are continued from year to year at the invitation of the faculty. There are no pre-determined limits on the number of students returning to technical programs. An invitation to return to the third year of a technical program is for the duration of the respective program provided that all academic requirements are met, and that professional discipline is acceptable.
