With Broadway Experience, Alumni Scenic Designers Offer Advice: Be Confident, Take Constructive Criticism

Now working on Broadway in scenic design, three alumni from the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama(opens in new window) said the program helped them process feedback and balance different projects at the same time while building their confidence.

Scenic designers serve as part of the team that creates the visual environments for stage production, film or television in line with the vision of the director to convey the location, tone, atmosphere and time frame of the story.

During a recent interview (edited for clarity), they discussed how CMU taught them about time management, collaboration and more.

Q: What professional skills does it take to be a part of a scenic design team and how did Carnegie Mellon help you hone those skills?

Adam Koch: I realized in the conservatory approach you're working on a thousand things all the time, from class work and productions, and it's in that continuous chaos in which everything happens. There's never a finish line. There's no easy stops in between what you're doing. 

So I got used to being the tightrope walker, who essentially finds balance by being unbalanced. I’ve been humbled, and I realized that the faculty were right: It never stops, and within the chaos of working on a thousand things, it all gets done. I'm going to do a lot of hard work and organize them all. And that's the energy you have to learn to adapt to, because that's the way the industry is structured.

Erica Hemminger: What goes along with that is the ability to hear and take in constructive criticism as part of the process. That's a confidence thing for sure, because when you start hearing criticism, it is really hard. There were times you would go and cry in the corner, but it's really more that you recognize later, wow, that really prepared me to be able to hear what people were saying, then run through it in your head. Now I find it's super helpful to have had that background, because of the way that I'm able to process feedback, then move on and think about the next thing or develop an idea and keep developing it, is much stronger.

Chen-Wei Liao: When I got to grad school, the language barrier was something I had to work on, because I moved to an entirely different country. Time management was also very important because I learned to allocate my energy and time in the right places, the necessary places. At the same time, I was dealing with how to work with an American shop, how to work with people from completely different language spaces. It was a little bit of a struggle for the first semester, but after that Carnegie Mellon helped me learn a lot of tolerance and listening skills. My classmates at the time were all very helpful and created a great environment. I love Carnegie Mellon. The amount of work we had to do was kind of perfect, because that's how real life is. You have to deal with personal things and work. It's all there, and give it a try as a student, then learn how you spend your time and allocate resources in the right places.

Hemminger: I'm right there with you. The time management took me the longest to figure out, until junior year. It took me until then to feel like, “OK, I got this now,” which was a lie, but I felt like I got better at it. I realized I don't work well past midnight, and figured out I could get up at 5 a.m. if I had to. Learning that about yourself, it prepares you for working after you graduate, and are working multiple jobs for different people, and you have different projects. Knowing how long it takes you to do certain things — if you're a fast model builder or renderer or dresser — learning where your strengths lie is important too.

Q: How do you work as an individual artist, then contribute your voice to the creation of the design as a part of the team?

Koch: As the years go on, the things that got me excited as a kid are still the things that I think are interesting today. There's that part of life where all your weird eccentricities and interests as a kid are shoved under the rug because they seem too strange. But sometimes I try to tap into the things I thought were exciting as a kid.

The same passion can inspire things today. You don't have to become someone else to think of a good idea. I was always so intimidated that my ideas weren't right, but now I trust my instincts. What got you excited as a kid, makes you unique now. If you're doing a particular show, everyone is going to look at the same research, but what do you think is interesting about it? And what are the parts that you find exciting?

Hemminger: Another thing I found very hard was making a decision. Don't be afraid of the “wrong” decision. There isn't one. Just make one and go with it. And, you can always change your mind, but to get the ball rolling, you’ve got to make a decision. Just do it. It's okay. It's such a hard thing. It takes confidence to trust yourself. You have to trust that you know yourself and know what you like. It's not easy, but as soon as you do, it just takes off.

Liao: I learned how to balance artistic vision and reality. There are dreams, but also physics. Carnegie Mellon gave me a very balanced view between your dream and the budget. You need some of the dream, but you also have other things to work with. When I got to Carnegie Mellon, I was a little experienced, but I know how hard it is to want an idea to work so badly, but gravity never lies and you just have to deal with it. Carnegie Mellon gave me that solid perspective to step back a little bit and look at both, then tap find, find a good middle ground. I also learned at school, and still think stress is good — not all that good, but still good.

Hemminger: I don’t disagree. Being pushed is a good thing. I also think failing is a good thing. It's OK. I failed miserably my first year. The point is that you get up and you try again. This business is all over the place, it's a roller coaster, and you're not going to get it right 100% of the time. A lot of times “right” is a subjective thing anyway, but it's gonna throw you for a loop. And having a place like Carnegie Mellon that pushes you, you learn about yourself before you go out into the working world is a good thing. I like a little bit of stress in moderation.

Koch: When you’re in school, there is an unnatural pressure where designing feels like it’s all "on the line" because it may be your first production. Whether it’s your big senior show, or big junior show, you may feel a pressure to prove and represent yourself all in one design.

But, imagine yourself in 10 years, you've done hundreds of shows, and while the professional pressure is present, the artistic pressure gradually lowers over time because you realize that you’ve done many shows in the past and will do many more shows in the future. It becomes a lot more artistically fun when you realize that you don’t need to prove yourself in any one particular design. You can relax and have fun trying different ideas and approaches, taking risks, and knowing that there will be many projects in the future to explore other ideas.

Liao: Carnegie Mellon prepared me with the mindset of looking at challenges. It helped me to have a neutral mindset. Set up the problem, look at the reality in front of me, and then work on it. You are put into an environment where you can be strong, then you have the tools to deal with stress or artistic vision or collaborations or challenging ideas or demands from the director. It ends up being very fun.

Q: How important have mentors been in your careers, and how has the network and community that comes from generations of Carnegie Mellon graduates working in the industry impacted you?

Koch: We've all studied the hero's journey (storytelling model), and you always meet the wizard or the magician in the beginning, who points the way and gives advice. You shouldn't underestimate that person. If you don't know who they are in your life, maybe you haven't met them yet, but find someone that can guide you and tell you what's going to happen before it happens. Personally, Dick Block(opens in new window) essentially found me in Ohio, and pointed me in the right direction. The rest is history. 

Hemminger: I'm the oldest of the three of us here, so back when I started looking for internships, there was no email. You had to cold-call people and ask them to give you the job, then mail them your resume. I was lucky enough to be put in contact with Ted LeFevre, a Carnegie Mellon alum, and he gave me my first internship on “Aida,” which was led by Bob Crowley as the set designer. 

What might have been a summer of just cataloging things turned into a summer of redesigning the set and costumes. I made real models for the first time. I made a one-inch scale model box, which I stood in to make, because it was so big. I went fabric-swatching, which I'd never done, and I spent half my life on Canal Street at Pearl Paint. It was this amazing view into the world that I was really where I wanted to be. But I wouldn't have made that connection without Carnegie Mellon.

If you've been in the program, there is an understanding of who the type of person is that you're getting: a hard worker who knows how to multitask and how to use their time, who understands the hierarchy of a studio setup in terms of the roles of designers, and who is open and listening, and has a really good base knowledge of drawing and color theory. 

Liao: We, as Carnegie Mellon alumni, have such a broad base of knowledge. I will never forget Dick Block’s Art and Decor giant glossary — I’m still looking at it every now and then — because I moved to the U.S., thrown in to the theater environment and that class helped me with all the Greek words and French words. It was solid training for me in a different country to transition to the professional world. He was my mentor. He not only supported us professionally but emotionally too. There was a lot of stress and sometimes you need a room to cry and his was the room. I still text him every Sept. 28 because that’s Teachers Day in Taiwan. Someone who is once your teacher is your lifetime mentor, that’s how I see it. My first work in New York was as Narelle Sissons'(opens in new window) assistant on her show. I love them both.

Q: Did the interdisciplinary ethos of Carnegie Mellon help your approach now as a professional?

Liao: When I was in school, Carnegie Mellon had classes in the projection design discipline (through the bachelor of fine arts video and media design option(opens in new window)). It’s great that I know their process because it’s very important with projection design to collaborate from the very beginning because, after all, they need something to shoot at. It’s not enough to simply say, “Here is your surface, project something on it.” Meaningful work requires early and active collaboration on the concept, starting from where and how content will live within the design.

Later on, when working on professional productions, whether I’m collaborating with projections, lighting or any department, I often find myself drawing on the training I received at Carnegie Mellon. The environment was structured much like a regional theater, and I feel very fortunate to have had that kind of experience early on. Everybody is there, and then you get to talk to people. You get to talk to your colleagues or to your mentors, then they will share their experience. Every project is different and you have different things to worry about, but the base mindset is the same: how you collaborate with other departments, what are each other's needs are, and how to reach mutual ground so that everybody has a great canvas to play with. I love that.

Koch: Technology is the road that never stops. There’s no limit to how forward-thinking you can be and technologies you can integrate, so you've got to kind of ride the front edge of the wave. My main talent is drawing with a pencil, so I've had to bring myself along, figuring out new ways that my primary talent can be useful in a technical sense. It's about merging the old ways and the new ways consistently as you move forward. Especially with your sets, it's ultimately a physical thing. 

Anne Mundell(opens in new window) said whatever medium you work fastest, do it that way. And that was a big discovery in my life. Just get it done — to your point earlier, Erica: just make the decision. Just get it on to paper in any God-given way you can, so you can move on to the next step. Everyone's skewed a different way when it comes to technology, so keep an eye on the future, of course, but also just use whatever is fastest for you.

Hemminger: I'm going to get on my hand-drafting soapbox and say, please make sure that the program does not lose that, because what makes you a better computer drafter is being a hand drafter. You have to use your brain in a different way. You have to think about how you're setting up your piece of paper. You have to think about how you're ending things. You have to think about how you're going to draw something before you draw it, because erasing is a pain, and it teaches you about lineweight and form, understanding more about a build, like what you're cutting through and what you're not cutting through. It's such a better teaching tool than the computer will ever be. So that is my soapbox.

Koch: 100%. I joke that nowadays people don’t read. Even if it’s vector work, a CAD (computer-aided design) page, when you look at it, the composition of it has to let you know what you’re looking at. There’s something about the lineweight — whether it’s hand-drafting or virtual, the lineweight, the form, the way it’s laid out — it has to visually make sense. A technical drawing is like a black and white painting. It has to look good, so people can look at it and understand what it is. Composition you learn from hand-drafting transfers to the artistic way you compose a CAD page. It’s subliminal, but it makes a big difference for people who are reading it. It makes it look better and more comprehensible, which is the point of the whole thing.

Hemminger: And the shop won’t overprice you if you have a good sheet of drafting, because they won’t get confused.

Koch: Yes, every time! Because bad drafting can make something look complicated.

Hemminger: It's logic, it's the way you think about things ahead of time. It's the way that you put things in a plan … it actually speaks to how organized you are as a person. It doesn’t have to be either/or, we still hand-draft things. We’re designers, we’re not builders. It’s not my job to tell you how to build it, my job is to tell you how I want it to look in the end. Whatever tool works best.

Q: Any other advice related to your memories of Carnegie Mellon and the way your time as a student has informed your professional career?

Koch: Like Marley coming back to warn Scrooge, the only advice that I'm consistently relearning myself, is that: Whatever your habits are when you're in school, if you don't actively work to change them, they'll be the same in five years. Whether it's time management or stress or or good drawing, bad drawing — whatever you are right now, you'll be in the future. If you don't like it, change it. 

For me, I wasn't very good at time management school, but I thought that would iron itself out, except that's not the way habits work. If you look around and find that you are lacking in certain areas, those are the areas you should work on. Just because you graduate doesn't mean they'll go away. You’ve got to proactively work on things you want to get better at. I had to learn it myself. 

The other thing that is so true, Anne Mundell said on day one: “Look to your left. Look to your right. Those are people you're gonna be working for.” At the time, I was like, “Yeah, yeah, you don't know what you're talking about.” But It's absolutely true. Now, look to your left, right. The keys to what you want to do next in your career, you already know them. They're already in the room. Although they don't have that power at the time in school, someday, that circle of people — you already know the person that's going to lead to the next project. It's not these people that are mysteriously out there in the distance. Some of them are, but whatever you want to do next, the people in your class can probably help some someday in the future.

Hemminger: I would say again, don't be afraid to fail. It's okay. iIt's what you do afterwards that makes the difference. Get up, try again, ask for help, ask questions, figure it out. The failure isn’t the end game and it's not the finish line. There's more after that, so try really hard. It's going to suck. You're going to cry. But pick yourself up, brush yourself off and get back into it. And you'll feel better when you do, and you will look back and go, “You know what? That was a good moment.” I would say there's so much more after this. Keep going.