Technology Opens New Doors of Creativity

By Luis Muñoz, Theatre Director | Tuesday, October 02, 2012 12:41 PM

O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't.

—William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act V, Scene I, ll. 203–206

Creativity as a process is something that has fascinated me from the time I was introduced to the concept during a graduate class in directing that I took with James Barton at what is now Texas State University. This gift to imagine and realize is not unique to the artist but, to me, is inherent in the very core of all humanity. We are born with the ability to mimic what we see and hear. As we grow older, we become capable of applying all of our experiences, both personal and vicarious, with knowledge gained through education to create.

Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple, defined “creativity” in the February 1995 issue of Wired in this way, "Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people."

I woke up this morning listening to music from my iTunes playlist. It was an unusual piece from the late 40s that I had always wanted but could never find. This led to my thinking about how the creative process in technology has turned our theatre world topsy- turvy and produced magnificent resources for the creative process in the arts.

Locating music used to be very difficult—calling the few sources out there for an out-of -print album and praying that what you got, if found, was in good enough condition for playbacks. Scratches, noise from dust and jumps were often a part of a used LP. Transferring to reel-to-reel was an art form in itself. Many a finger was cut splicing magnetic tape with a razor blade.

The solutions that have been created by our colleagues in science, technology, engineering and math have revolutionized the way we create. Our search engines have made finding those rare recordings on wax cylinders that I used for “On the Razzle” as easy as a search and a couple of downloads.

iTunes and Garageband along with Audacity have made the creation of soundscapes and soundtracks as easy as downloading and layering and “saving as” or “export to.”  There are iPad and iPhone apps for gels and gobos. Photoshop and Illustrator have given us powerful tools for design and creating props. You need a “Mona Lisa?”  Download the image and print on canvas. Need a “Mona Lisa” with a twist? Download the image, modify it in Photoshop and print on canvas. Need a special T-shirt for a play?  Let your students design and print.

“Let your students design and print”
Luis Muñoz – This Article

“… ay, there’s the rub!”
William Shakespeare, Hamlet

In the July 10, 2010 issue of Newsweek, Po Bronson reported that creativity scores have been declining since about 1990. These scores, as tested using the Torrance Test, had increased until 1990 in the United States. Their research found that too much TV and computer game time may be possible causes. Of even more relevance to us was the lack of nurturing creativity in schools. There may also be a mistaken assumption that encouraging creativity in schools necessarily involves the arts. It also can be encouraged in other subjects. This is a great article and should be read by every theatre educator out there. Here’s a link to it:
http://www.innovatorsdigest.com/2010/07/the-creativity-crisis-newsweek-article.html?goback=.gde_148046_news_154733520

What can we do? Some of the most satisfying moments in my teaching career were the result letting go of the reins. The mature director will see the fathomless potential of the “team.”  If we are the ones that have been delegated the task of muses for our future generations in this period of fact-based learning, then we must let them create and not merely execute our own personal visions. Don’t relegate your students to an assembly line. It’s not about “you” or “them.” It’s about “us.”

Let them play inventor, designer and builder. Let them lead and be there to help them develop those “muscles” that will help them survive high school, higher education, succeed in finding a job, keep that job and perhaps give them a Promethean hunger for innovation in medicine, architecture, mathematics, biology, psychology, anthropology, journalism, computer technology, game development, accounting, political science. Perhaps we can even create great artists while we’re at it.

Conventions 2012-13
Now’s the time to get your rooms lined up for Theatrefest 2013. The convention will be held at the Houston Hyatt Downtown. Rates are down a tad from last year, and the programming is shaping up to be great!   UIL will host the A-Z series and the Contest Management Workshop on Saturday, Jan. 26. The judging organization will be certifying new judges on Friday, Jan. 25 and Sunday, Jan. 27. If you know someone who needs to be on the list, let them know. Check out the specifics at www.tetatx.com.

The Texas Thespians Annual Festival for the Educational Theatre Association is scheduled for Nov. 29 – Dec. 1, 2012 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. The Junior Thespian Festival is scheduled for Nov. 29, 2012, 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Specifics can be found at http://www.texasthespians.org/.