“I couldn’t have envisioned a more exciting opportunity: to create a new state-of-the-art theatre from floor to ceiling.”
In the decision to build a tech-laden “laboratory” theatre between Anderson Theatre and the Nobel Hall of Science, including supporting spaces for costumes, scene building, and storage, Wilkens found herself at that nexus too.
As the Gustavus lighting and sound designer and a continuing faculty member who has also taught computer-aided design and drafting, “My job over the last few years has been working with the consultants on lighting and sound systems, finding out what’s new out there and what we can really do.” She often literally drafted plans that were then handed off to architects.
What can we do now? Real-time monitors to the stage in a new green room. Wireless headsets so tech staff can talk to each other. Moveable seating, lighting, and sound to create any audience- performer experience. (Ready for theatre-in-the-round?) Sound and lighting programmable for thousands of situations. A scene shop with accessible loading doors and space to build more scenic elements than was possible before.
“It was a lot of decision-making,” she says, with her students empowered to be a part of the process. “A student drafted our dream catwalks. A student drafted a dream scene shop.” The ability to both teach and learn in the design and technology theatre track has grown exponentially. For instance, there is now a tech booth that can hold a class of 10–12 students, with equipment that rivals any college theatre in the country—and many professional ones too.
And all attached to the Gustavus epicenter of interdisciplinary learning. “It’s exciting to hear STEAM [A is for the Arts] instead of STEM,” she says of her collaborations with science faculty. The meetings have been really fun, and full of surprises. “It’s not often in theatre meetings that we talk about radioactive isotopes and hissing cockroaches,” she says. “I’ve learned so much.”