Plan of Study

The curriculum of the Technical Design and Production (TD&P) program aims to train those who appreciate the artistry of technical systems as much as the science necessary to execute them, those who enjoy solving challenges through collaboration and who are driven to discover and innovate. And above all, we train those who want to foster a community where everyone belongs.
The program brings together immensely dedicated full-time faculty, lecturers, and production staff members with a primary focus on supporting students in their career goals. In a field that is in constant tension with rapidly evolving technology and spectacle, we train technical managers who put people before product while achieving the artistic goals.
The program weaves hands-on skill courses such as Drafting and Stage Rigging Techniques, theory-based courses like Technical Management and Imagining an Anti-Racist Production Process, and elective courses that allow concentrations in such fields as production management, technical direction, stage machinery and automation, or theater planning and consulting. The program’s faculty and staff offer courses covering a wide range of topics, including production planning, drafting, structural design, rigging, automation, lighting, mechanical design, show control, properties, costumes, sound and video technology, theater engineering, technical management, and health and safety. Seminars introduce students to noted professionals. We encourage students to augment their education with courses from other programs and schools at Yale, including Architecture, Management, and Engineering & Applied Science.
These courses are paired with professional work assignments (PWAs) that further students’ skills and goals. Some PWAs place students in technical management roles including assistant production electrician, assistant properties manager, assistant technical director, associate production manager, associate safety adviser, production electrician, production manager, projection engineer, properties manager, technical director, sound engineer, and stage carpenter. Students can request additional roles or research projects for PWAs. All professional work assignments serve to give students practical management training or research time to complement and reinforce anti-racism training, skills, and theory from the classroom. Additionally, they expose students to new techniques, and students learn how to work with different teams effectively and safely. The successful completion of eight PWAs is necessary for the degree.
The M.F.A./Certificate program includes a research thesis in the final year, designed, written, realized, and presented by the student in the student’s area of concentration. The thesis is an opportunity to investigate and highlight a topic in technical theater that has or will impact the field.

Class of 2025

Year One (2022-2023)

DRAM 9a/b - TD&P Seminar: Shaminda Amarakoon
DRAM 109a/b - Structural Design for the Stage: Bronislaw Joseph Sammler
DRAM 119b - Electricity: Eric Lin
DRAM 149a - Production Planning: Jonathan Reed
DRAM 159a - Creating a Positive Theater Safety Culture with Supporting Technology: Anna Glover, Jonathan Reed
DRAM 169a - Shop Technology: Neil Mulligan, Matt Welander
DRAM 169b - Stage Rigging Techniques: Neil Mulligan
DRAM 179a - Drafting I: AutoCAD: Matt Welander
DRAM 179b - Technical Design I: LT Gourzong
DRAM 199b - Professional Development for Technical Managers: Anna Glover, Jonathan Reed
DRAM 559b - Imagining an Anti-Racist Production Process: Shaminda Amarakoon, Grace O’Brien,

One elective (fall term)
Three professional work assignments

Year Two (2023-2024)

DRAM 9a/b - TD&P Seminar: Shaminda Amarakoon
DRAM 209a - Physics of Stage Machinery: [Not offered 2022–2023]
DRAM 249a - Technical Management I: Jonathan Reed, Shaminda Amarakoon
DRAM 249b - Technical Management II: Jonathan Reed, Shaminda Amarakoon
DRAM 299b - Technical Writing: Nikki Mills

Two courses from History Requirement List (see below)
Six electives (three in the fall, three in the spring)
Three professional work assignments*

Year Three (2024-2025)

DRAM 9a/b - TD&P Seminar: Shaminda Amarakoon
DRAM 399a or 399b - Technical Design and Production Thesis: Nikki Mills

Seven electives
Two professional work assignments*

*Students in their second or third year may request the substitution of a substantial project for one professional work assignment.

Class of 2024

Year Three (2022-2023)

DRAM 9a/b - TD&P Seminar: Shaminda Amarakoon
DRAM 249a - Technical Management I: Jonathan Reed, Shaminda Amarakoon
DRAM 249b - Technical Management II: Jonathan Reed, Shaminda Amarakoon
DRAM 299b - Technical Writing: Nikki Mills

Six electives
Two professional work assignments

Year Four (2023-2024)

DRAM 9a/b TD&P Seminar: Shaminda Amarakoon
DRAM 399a or 399b Technical Design and Production Thesis: Nikki Mills

Two electives
Two professional work assignments

Additional Requirements for the Degree

Anti-Racist Theater Practice Requirement
Technical Design and Production students are required to enroll in DRAM 559b, Imagining an Anti-Racist Production Practice, in their first year in order to fulfill the School’s anti-racist theater practice requirement. Combined with the prerequisite workshop, Everyday Justice: Anti-Racism as Daily Practice, this course offers vital strategies for the lifelong development of individual and communal anti-racist practice.

Theater History Requirement
In their second year of study, students in Technical Design and Production are required to enroll in two terms of any of the following courses in order to fulfill the School’s theater history requirement. Alternative history courses could be proposed by the student but must be approved by the TD&P faculty.

DRAM 6a/b, Survey of Theater and Drama
DRAM 21a, Founding Visions
DRAM 29a, History of Decorative Styles
DRAM 122a/b, The History of Set Design
DRAM 125a/b, The History of Costume
DRAM 129b, History of Theater Architecture
DRAM 155a/b, Evolution of Cut and Cloth

Elective Sequence
Electives are determined in consultation with a faculty adviser and allow each student flexibility in selecting courses in the student’s chosen area of concentration. Suggested electives for common areas of concentration (production management, technical direction, stage machinery and automation, theatre consulting) are offered in the TD&P Guidebook.

Graduation Requirements
For TD&P students to be eligible to participate in Commencement ceremonies at the end of their residency, all courses and Professional Work Assignments (PWA) need to be satisfactorily completed as outlined above except for DRAM 399a/b, where a student need only to be approved to go out to readers with their thesis. Students will receive their diplomas upon completion of all requirements above and submitting a completed version of their thesis to the faculty.

Yale Cabaret
Technical Design and Production students are encouraged to work in all capacities at the Yale Cabaret; however, this participation is understood to be in addition to and in no way a substitution for required program work. Unless assigned as a PWA, no student with a grade of Incomplete, and no student on academic warning, may participate in the Yale Cabaret in any capacity.

Technical Design and Production