“I have a unique set of skills but cannot find a job” is said far too often within the theatre industry. I have heard this statement, and many like it, from countless designers and technicians trying to work within the traditional theatre field, for years.

We have all heard or maybe even used the term ‘starving artist’ at one point in our theatrical career. The term has been coined and used continually because of a multi-generational problem: Not enough jobs in traditional theatre for the amount of designers and technicians ready to work. With the growing numbers of students graduating and ready to enter the entertainment workforce, we need to solve this problem to keep our industry healthy.

The starving artist is a problem our industry can fix simply by doing what we do best–thinking outside the box to generate solutions. To be clear, I am not speaking about the theatrical or entertainment actor but rather the designer, master electrician, scenic carpenter, technical director, production manager, etc. Integrating fringe entertainment careers into our educational and pre-professional training programs is pivotal in generating more student enrollment, more avenues to success, and more opportunities for those in our industry to apply their unique skillsets to a multitude of employment opportunities.

Theatrical and entertainment programs around the country are producing great artists every year but many undergraduate programs want for more majors, while most graduate programs wish for a further diverse and plentiful candidate pool. Graduates of these programs want more career opportunities and job security. We need to educate our current industry members, as well as the future makers of theatre and entertainment, about the excess of unique and fulfilling career opportunities outside of traditional theatre available to those with these valuable skills.

My name is William J. Digneit and I am someone who has created a career working outside the traditional theatre setting. I have worked within the corporate theatre, night club, and event industry world for the last 15 years. I have skillsets based in a traditional technical theatre education but have applied them successfully to multiple industries that most would consider fringe entertainment careers. I assure you, many industries are in need of what we do in the theatre, and I want to bring a spotlight to the multitude of jobs outside the four walls of the theatre.
I support and advocate for young artists to get theatre and entertainment undergraduate degrees and push on to advanced degrees, but we are not going to secure these students in the world today without educating ourselves and our community about traditional and non-traditional career choices within the entertainment arena. How can we convince these future makers of theatre to pursue a theatre degree with the thought of possible student loan debt and the promise of being a “starving artist”? I believe the solution is two-sided, beginning with our educators who must seek out these new job paths. The students must then be enlightened to the many directions in which they can take their training. Educators need to be training for the production and design work of the future.

Where are these careers? When you search for these jobs how do you find them?

There is a growing need for theatre-trained individuals within many different industries including nightclubs, music festivals, retail, manufacturing, award shows, corporate trade shows, and more. The need is coming from the global demand for higher production values. Just one slice of this massive entertainment job market are the many industry trade shows producing large events using our industry’s gear, crew, and designers. Industry parties are no longer at the hotel lobby with a complimentary cocktail. These events are huge productions that require lighting, sound, technical designers and crew. Designers are not limited to designing for the stage–we see many of our top industry professionals calling fringe work a side project or just a fun thing, but in fact this is the future growth opportunity of our field.

As we head deeper into this conversation, I will be providing a look into some of the exciting fringe careers that are growing exponentially. We will be interviewing top industry professionals in these fields and asking questions like how they got to this point in their career, what they look for when hiring, how their theatre training has helped them, and most importantly how we can find these job opportunities. As an industry, we can revolutionize our idea of what doors our theatre degree will open for us. We need to update our job training to have our educational programs, students, and industry ready for the jobs of the future.

This is a discussion on our industry’s future so get involved, and let’s build it together.

William “Bill” Digneit is the current production manager for the annual LDI Conference Program (including LDInstitute and LDIntensives) in Las Vegas and also for LDI Mexico. He has been working in production management with LDI for over 10 years. He is passionate about technology education and the push toward  the entertainment industry. Bill created the LDI Club Tours five years ago out of the necessity to educate the growing festival and club markets. Bill is also the Director of Theatre and Dance at Northern Michigan University. At NMU, Bill oversees the academic programs, markets and promotes the current season, and teaches classes focusing on technical practices applicable in the nightlife and festival venues. Bill is the co-owner of Double Trouble Entertainment, a Michigan based entertainment and production-company focusing on nightclub design and outdoor events.