All the Screen's a Stage Students learn theater design with computer help. In the Department of Theatre Arts, the AutoCAD program is quickly becoming an essential tool. Originally developed for engineering purposes, AutoCAD (CAD stands for "computer-aided drafting") enables scenic designers, lighting designers, and technical directors to better visualize how their work will look on a real stage. It’s useful for rendering a set in three dimensions as well as two, and it has the same spectrum of lighting as do the actual theater lights in Dillingham Center. Since fall 1996 Celeste Rega, assistant professor of lighting design, has been teaching students how to use AutoCAD for theater, and they’re always eager to get into it. For one thing, says Rega, you can make changes in a drawing on the screen without having to completely redraw, as you would if you were drawing by hand. The students work in a theater department lab with eight computers and a large-scale (36" x 24") printer. What they learn there can help them get jobs in an increasingly computerized theater world. In fact, at least five students have been hired right out of IC to do CAD drafting. "But we teach them how to do it by hand first," says Rega. "You need to learn how to count and add before you can use a calculator." — Liz Holmes