Savouring new discoveries: Virtual Theatre Productions and the legacy of COVID-19 lockdowns on Australian tertiary design training

This presentation will share the new theatre design training and assessment model that emerged from Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, during the 2020 national lockdown. With no access to equipment, spaces, performers or each other, QUT staff and students collaborated with industry designers, directors and production managers to run the Virtual Theatre Production (VTP) projects. The VTP projects shifted normal production processes into the virtual space using 3D modelling software, lighting visualization, vision content presentation, 3D costume render techniques, videoconferencing and live streaming, and resulted in students presenting fully designed, planned, budgeted and visualised theatrical works (sans performers). As Brisbane slowly emerged from our first lockdown in mid-2020, we were faced with rolling out hybrid teaching activities, always keeping one foot out the door should the next breakout occur. As a result, the pedagogical model that emerged from the VTP projects in the first half of 2020 has informed our face-to-face and hybrid teaching to this day. The VTP projects themselves emerged as an unexpected positive of the lockdown, giving students a chance to focus on digital design processes that previously were unable to fit into the curriculum. As such, despite a return to (predominately) face-to-face instruction, this assessment has now embedded in the course curriculum. In this talk, I will share the model QUT Production staff devised in 2020 to structure this virtual design project, as well as examples of student work; explore instances of the hybrid and face-to-face design projects that followed in 2020; and how we have savoured the discoveries from COVID-19 lockdowns and found a space for expanded digital scenographic techniques within our program.Video: A brief overview of student work from the 2020 VTP projects can be watched here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFdrJq-dx0