As the entertainment industry evolves, the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film is beginning to reshape its curriculum to prepare students for a rapidly expanding range of careers, many of which extend far beyond the traditional stage.
The Carson School is updating its academic offerings in theatre and entertainment design to better reflect current industry demands and emerging technologies. The changes are designed not only to broaden student opportunities, but also to help prospective students better understand the scope of careers available in the field.
“One of the first things I wanted to do was rename the degree so that it more clearly reflected both the discipline and the opportunities available to students,” Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film Director Hank Stratton said of the school’s entertainment design and production program (formerly the B.F.A. in theatre arts with an emphasis in design and technology). “It reflects the marketplace and the job opportunities.”
The Carson School’s evolving curriculum also includes expanded opportunities within its Bachelor of Arts degree program. While the Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting focuses on professional actor training, the Bachelor of Arts now emphasizes theatre creation, leadership and management.
“That’s anything from your playwrights to your directors to your dramaturgs,” Stratton said. “In terms of management, it’s anyone from your artistic directors to arts administrators and producers.”
The Carson School is now working on developing revised curriculum for the entertainment design and production program that will include pathways focused on live, immersive, recorded and virtual experiences. While traditional theatre production remains foundational, the new approach recognizes the growing demand for professionals who can work across entertainment platforms ranging from live performance and themed attractions to gaming, motion capture and film production.
“The live experience is what most people think of as traditional theatre, from proscenium productions to other forms of live performances,” Stratton said. “Immersive entertainment encompasses experiences like those created by Meow Wolf, where audiences move through and interact with the environment. Recorded entertainment connects directly to our film and acting programs through work created for screen and digital media. We’re also exploring virtual and emerging technologies that are reshaping how audiences engage with storytelling.”
The Carson School has added a storytelling position whose background is in game design and creation to its emerging media arts faculty and is exploring expanded opportunities in voiceover work, projection design and motion capture through collaborations with emerging media arts.
For Stratton, the curricular changes are rooted in the simple reality that demand for these technical and creative skills is growing rapidly.
“Our students don’t even know that building a stage in 48 hours and taking it down and moving it to the next city in Europe is a career,” he said. “It’s a special skill.”
Technical theatre professionals, he said, are increasingly difficult to hire because the industry demand is so high.
“Our technical theatre students are going to work anywhere,” Stratton said. “They’re in such high demand.”
He also pointed to the growing relationship between film and live entertainment industries. Major entertainment companies increasingly rely on immersive experiences, theme parks and live productions to support film franchises and audience engagement.
“Disney is releasing ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ so that they can drive traffic to the theme park,” Stratton said. “Somebody has to build that theme park, somebody has to imagine it, somebody has to program it, somebody has to rig everything. It’s all live entertainment, but those are careers that, because we’ve always been a theatre discipline, were being ignored or left out of the conversation.”
The Carson School is consulting with Tal Yarden, a theatre designer, director and creative technologist whose work spans live performance, immersive entertainment and emerging technologies, to help develop the new entertainment design and production curriculum, as well as to develop new online competency-based learning modules in software programs such as Vectorworks and AutoCAD, which will allow the school to reach a broader audience of students and professionals worldwide.
“Tal’s career represents where the industry is headed,” Stratton said. “He is a theatre designer, technologist and director whose work bridges traditional performance, immersive experiences and emerging technologies. That intersection is exactly the kind of creative practice we want our students to understand and engage with.”
Stratton believes these curriculum changes will also help retain talented Nebraska students who may otherwise leave the state for specialized training opportunities.
“Our local high schools are training students so well already in technical theatre and in those disciplines,” he said. “I want to create an opportunity for them to realize that they don’t have to go out of state for college, while also attracting students from around the country and around the world for our comprehensive training.”
The Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film has renamed its design and technical production program to entertainment design and production to better reflect the discipline and the job opportunities available to graduates of the program. Photo courtesy of the Carson School.