Projection Design for Theatre and Live Performance: Principles of Media Design by Alison C. Dobbins

Abstract

Reviewed by: Projection Design for Theatre and Live Performance: Principles of Media Design by Alison C. Dobbins Fereshteh Rostampour Projection Design for Theatre and Live Performance: Principles of Media Design. Alison C. Dobbins. New York: Routledge, 2022; pp. 117. Although projection design for theatre has been around since the 1920s, the title "Projection Designer" is the youngest in the theatre design category. Unfortunately, only a few books on projection design are available to theatre students who are interested in specializing in this field. The first projection design book for theatre, Davin Gaddy's Media Design and Technology for Live Entertainment, was published in 2017, followed by Alex Oliszewski, Daniel Fine, and Daniel Roth's Digital Media, Projection Design, and Technology for Theatre in 2018, and Jeromy Hopgood's The Projection Designer's Toolkit in 2021. Alison C. Dobbins's Projection Design for Theatre and Live Performance is written exclusively for projection designers in theatre and is a good addition to this collection. Dobbins's book is a sufficient resource but does not cover content creation in depth, and due to the limited number of books written on projection design for theatre, beginner theatre projection designers may benefit from looking at the books written by video designers. However, students must keep in mind that not all video designers necessarily have a theatre background. Video design is a single entity and gears toward a specific purpose such as marketing, gaming, entertainment, and so forth. Video designers mostly focus on visuals to keep the viewer engaged and often work in isolation, whereas media design for theatre must complement all other aspects of theatrical designs, including set design, lighting design, costume design, and sound design. Therefore, projection designers for theatre must collaborate with other designers as well. In Projection Design for Theatre and Live Performance, Dobbins identifies two main components of the projection design: the design process and effective communication with the production team. These are vital skills that a designer must master to produce successful work in theatre productions. The text is very effective in demonstrating the design process in detail and breaks it down into nine sections: Discovery, Research, Visual Style, Storyboard, Framing, Motion, Animatic, Cueing, and Content. The author also includes various illustrations from actual designs to help the reader better understand the process. This process is like other theatrical design processes, which could make this textbook useful to various theatre design areas. The author, however, falls short in deliberating the challenges of collaboration with the other designers, particularly the lighting designer, who would have the highest impact on the projection designer's work. This textbook could be more effective by offering suggestions on preventing or resolving typical conflicts with the collaborators who may influence the projection designer's work. The phrase "Principles of Media Design" is mentioned throughout this book, but there is not enough of an explanation of what these principles are or why designers should implement them in their work for effective content. The Principles—Balance, Proportion, Rhythm, Focal Point, Unity, Harmony, and Contrast—are concepts used to organize or arrange the structure of design elements, and their application affects the expressive content or the message of the work. The Design Elements are the basic units of a visual image and include Line, Shape, Form, Movement, Color, Tone, Texture, and Scale. To control the effect of the design, designers must understand the elements and principles of design and learn how to use them in their creative process. Dobbins walks the readers through the creative process but omits explanation of the functions of the Design Elements and Principles, which are the vital foundations of content creation. It is important to note that the terms "projection design" or "media design" describe a skillset and design discipline that is predominantly relevant in the performing arts. Those same skills and techniques are equally relevant in other fields of design, such as lighting design, set design, and event design. More information on the Design Elements, Design Principles, and composition would be helpful to those students who never took design classes. Projection Design for Theatre and Live Performance is written from a "non-technical perspective," which makes it accessible to students with no technical...