The Differences in Cultural Values of Actors and Technicians in Theatre by Sean McCain

Being a theatre major, my life is surrounded by theatre and the various people involved. I have had a well-rounded experience in theatre, holding positions ranging from actor to stage manager. There has always been a large division between actors and technicians in respects to understanding each other and getting along. While doing theatre, I have noticed the very distinct divisions between these two groups of people. The cultural values of actors and technicians can be compared and contrasted by examining their masculinity and femininity perspectives, tolerance of uncertainty, and individualistic versus collectivist achievement.

Before the actual analysis, it’s better to know the exact definitions of actor and technician. The actor is self-explanatory. They are the part of theatre that the audience tends to relate more with because they are living human beings who are seen onstage. The technicians are more overlooked because their work is not alive: it is in the sets, the lights, or the sound. The audience sees it, but the technician’s work, if done correctly, blends into the environment. Roles of technicians range from stage manager to deck crew chief to technical director to various designers.

Masculine and feminine perspectives are based upon why people communicate with each other rather than on the content of the communication. In a culture with a masculine perspective, the people tend to value aggressiveness and independence. The masculine perspective culture tends to communicate more for the purpose of sending a specific message. In other words, the masculine perspective culture is more concerned about the content of the message. However, the feminine prospective culture tends to communicate to establish relationships with other people and is more apt to try to form an emotional connection and understanding with others.

In the theatre environment, the technicians would be considered a masculine perspective culture due to a couple factors. First of all, the fact that the technicians are involved with the actual running and build of the show, their communication is more content-oriented. For example, the set designer must draft out all of the renderings of the set design. These documents must be precise as the designer must communicate with the technical director to let them know what has to be built for the shows. The set designer and the technical director work together in overseeing the project. During which, the set designer has to communicate the exact reason why he wants the house to be blue instead of red. This requires content-oriented conversations between the two. Secondly, while working backstage during a show, the stage manager sits in the booth and calls light, sound, and special effects cues. The communication the stage manager must have with the technicians who are on headset waiting for their cues must be all content-oriented as the timing is very important for the show.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the actors can be found with their feminine perspective culture. The actors must be able to relate to others when they are onstage. As a result, actors tend to favor forming emotional connections and relationships with people rather than worrying about content-driven communication. Their conversations tend to be more superficial, as actors are most always worried about their image—as image is everything in the acting industry. Since part of their business is relating to others onstage in a very realistic sense, it carries over into their personal lives.

Tolerance of uncertainty can be best defined as follows: how much does one have to know to feel secure and comfortable? A person from a culture with a high tolerance of uncertainty can be said to live day to day. They are comfortable not knowing what’s going to happen tomorrow. They also live more loosely and don’t have a rigid set of rules like someone from a culture with a low tolerance of uncertainty. When planning a vacation, a person from a culture with high tolerance of uncertainty might plan the destination, but not what he or she is going to do once they arrive. The exact opposite can be said of a person from a culture with a low tolerance of uncertainty. This type of person might have every second of his or her day planned out, and when making plans for a vacation would have activities planned for when they arrive at their destination.

Technicians come from a culture with a low tolerance of uncertainty compared to that of the actors’. Technical theatre is a special kind of art form. The art of technical theatre can be practiced and learned. For example, a person running a special effect during a production can learn how to use the pneumatic device or the pyrotechnic. There are also many rules that the technicians must follow. These rules are set in place for safety and to keep from distracting from the action of the show. These are rules such as being quiet backstage and keeping a light on in a theater at all times so that no one will wander in and fall off the stage when the lights are off. However, actors tend to have a high tolerance of uncertainty. Actors realize that they are partaking in live theatre. This means that things change from night to night. The actors must be prepared for everything. If someone says a line in a sarcastic tone one night instead of an honest tone, they have to be prepared to react to that. Also, the chance that someone will forget a line is a scary thing for those who have a low tolerance of uncertainty. The actors knowingly go into a situation in which anything can happen.

Cultures can also be labeled as individualistic or collectivist. An individualist culture is one that values personal or individual achievement rather than the group achievements. The antithesis of the individualistic culture, the collectivist culture tends to value group or team achievements over personal achievements. An example for each of these different cultures is how they would work on a project in the workplace. The individualistic culture would divide the project into smaller parts and have individuals work alone on part of the project. A collectivist culture would work as a team and collaborate on different ways to finish the project.

Actors have always had the reputation of having huge egos. That is because the culture the actors are from is individualistic. While on stage, an actor is maintaining his or her image. If the actor does a good job, he or she will get personal praise such as comments from audience members or a good review in the paper. Acting is a dog-eat-dog world, so he or she has to make sure she is playing her role as best as possible. Although they still have to relate and interact with other people onstage, their work is primarily to satisfy their need for individual success. Technicians, on the other hand, are very collectivist. They work together to build the show and maintain the concept that the director desires. Cooperation is necessary especially for those who build the sets. Imagine putting a 26-foot wall up all by yourself: it just isn’t possible. Technicians work together to make sure the set and all other technical aspects work well together to make the show look as good as possible.

Analysis of the actors’ and technicians’ cultural values helps to understand both groups of people a little more. As actors and technicians have always bumped heads when it comes to working on a production, it was interesting learning the differences in the two groups. Maybe it actually is their differences in masculine and feminine perspectives, tolerance of uncertainty, and individualistic and collectivist achievement that has created the rift between actors and technicians. Knowing this, the question comes to mind: can you change a person’s cultural values in order to get along better, or do you have to just learn to deal with the differences in cultural values?