Year 3: A Review
My third year at CCM allowed me to focus more on scenic design. This year I had the opportunity to design the sets for two shows in our Studio theatre and serve as the assistant scenic designer for two shows in Corbett Auditorium, CCM's largest theatre. I was received to make the transition from technician training to design training, because it's what I want to do once I graduate. Entering my third year, I had just come out of a Scenic Design Internship at a very professional design studio. I wasn't excited to return to the academic environment, but I was grateful to begin taking classes in Scenic Design. These classes are some of the more important for me because they're centered around creating conceptual scenic designs for 4 different shows over the course of a year. (Photos of these are available on my professional website, www.theronwineinger.com) These projects are important to a portfolio because they demonstrate my design abilities for a show with a much larger budget than CCM faculty would entrust an undergraduate student with.
One unexpected thing that happened to me this year was that I was invited to participate in a new class about design for immersive environments, such as theme parks, museum exhibits, and trade show booths. As a part of the class, myself and two other graduate-level designers were given the opportunity to do real design presentations for a renovation of CCM's own Patricia Corbett Theatre Lobby as well as an immersive exhibit for the Red Cross Cincinnati. Both of these projects may be produced in the future, and it would be exciting in a few years to see my work realized in an area I was unfamiliar with until recently.
This time last year I was excited about how my new academic advisor was so easy to talk to and made me feel heard. At this point in time, I no longer feel this way. I think this year has taught me to make my own way and not to depend on my faculty to solve my problems. UC's transition from Onestop to Catalyst caused a huge number of problems with my audit affecting my ability to register for classes, and I ended up having to contact the teachers as well as my advisor in the college office directly to fix my problems, all of whom were willing to help. I did not feel heard by any of my faculty this year, but the amount of attention I received during my second year at CCM was a luxury. In the future learning to look out for myself will be helpful, because in the real world I won't have an advisor.
Going into my final year, I would like to tell myself again to remember not to overload myself. I took on a lot of responsibility and extra work this year, and though my resume and portfolio benefitted from my maxed-out schedule, personally I was a wreck. I'm going to use my final year to primarily work on making high-quality conceptual projects as well as registering for a few competitive design competitions and showcases.
I have a few scenic designs lined up for this year, and I'm also going to be focusing on making these projects suitable for my portfolio.
This year has solidified my career goal of becoming a New York-based scenic designer. After talking to alumni who are already out there doing it, I realized that I would love to create art in the theatre capital of the world. After graduation, I think the first step is to move to New York and assist an already established scenic designer.
After completing three years at the University of Cincinnati, I’m excited to finally earn my degree from the College-Conservatory of Music.
