Let’s Get Technical:
A Director's Survival Guide

Andrew Okerson

Theatre Designer residing in Indianapolis

Join Andrew as he guides you through a crash-course of helpful stagecraft knowhow. This hour-long presentation is geared toward the music education program director looking to develop their technical skills. The session covers the topics of theatre safety, set and prop construction materials, a quick guide to lights and sound and more.

Andrew graduated from Ball State University with a BA in Sound Engineering, and is currently completing his Masters in Theatre Design from the University of Idaho. Andrew is in his tenth year in education, and is currently the Theatre Instructor and the Technical Theatre Director at Carmel High School in Carmel, Indiana. He is also a member of USITT and sponsors the Carmel High School Chapter of the organization. Outside of education, Andrew designs for stage, screen, and live events all over the U.S. In his (very limited) free time, you will find him traveling his wife, or at home with his many pets.

Download Director’s Survival Guide PDF

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What to expect from an HOA Education Series 4 You Course

The overall objective of our free educational series is to maintain our goals of enriching students’ lives through experiential travel by dedication to these essential values:

Integrity and Fairness – The art of adjudicating live performance is not easy. Through a series of steps, including a third-party off-site scoring system to which HOA staff have limited or no access, an adjudicator fairness agreement and hiring a qualified, diverse and unbiased panel, we can create a culture of integrity and fairness at each of our events. Our assessment method serves as both educational and informative for our competing groups. We infuse our events with multiple layers of experiences. The reason? So that every group performing feels they have various opportunities to succeed in their passion and efforts.

Passion and Professionalism – It takes a village to create our large-scale events. Our dedicated Heart of America production team creates rich and rewarding experiences for all involved. We hand-pick our seasonal staff for positions such as emcee, stage manager, host groups and beyond. From our in-house year-round team to our onsite greeters at each location, we want every student, guest, spectator and director to feel welcome, appreciated and respected. We strive to go above and beyond to make our guests experience these ideals.

Doing the Right Thing – Heart of America takes great pride in always doing the right thing for our guests. Each circumstance is unique and by guiding ourselves with our other values, we have always managed to solve any occasion seeming fair to both the guest and our company. We do not sacrifice relationships with an individual or a group to turn a profit. Nor do we compromise our values to make an individual or group happy. We believe that doing the right thing builds trust and long-term relationships.