Show Case: Developing, Maintaining, and Presenting a Design-Tech Portfolio for Theatre and Allied Fields

A design tech portfolio showcases a theatre designer/technician’s most prized accomplishments in stage design, lighting, costuming, or makeup. The ability to make a winning portfolio is essential to getting into choice colleges, obtaining scholarships, and getting new jobs in the field. Unfortunately the process can become time consuming and challenging if you don’t know where to start. Show Case offers students, teachers, and aspiring professionals the information they need to know to create, maintain, and show off their portfolio.

This fully revised second edition features new and expanded chapters that explore current and innovative approaches to creating a design-tech portfolio, including branding, social networking, and traditional and interactive e-portfolios. This comprehensive guide also covers planning and developing details such as page layout, content variety, aesthetic sequencing, marketing, personal presentation, and next steps. Each chapter features introductions, samples, and lists of ＂Do’s and Don’ts＂ provided by experienced professionals in the different design/tech fields. Portfolios featured are from an incredible cast of contributors at different stages of their careers, including recent graduate students, officers of renowned organizations and international theater artists, and art directors representing narrative artists in the allied fields of film, TV, and other media. This book is designed as a reference guide, workbook, and an inspirational tool, assisting designers/technicians in the process of developing a showcase that can be used to apply for graduate school, to pursue new jobs in the field, and for career marketing purposes.

Rafael Jaen has been designing costumes professionally for more than 30 years. His work has been seen in regional theaters as well as in film and TV in the USA.Memberships include USA 829 and United States Institute for Theater Technology (USITT) where he has served at the Board of Directors and as the Portfolio Review Chair for the Costume Commission. He has served as national Design-Technology Vice-Chair for the Kennedy Center ACTF and he is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Golden Medallion for Excellence in Theater Education. He is an Assistant Professor at UMASS Boston and he is the author of SHOW CASE (USITT Golden Pen 2012 nomination 2013). Web site: www.rafaeljaen.biz