Academics David Underwood - Technical Theater

Teaching Philosophy

"It’s always exciting when I come in here," says David Underwood, Marlboro’s technical director in theater. "It’s high energy all the time – I can make plans, but as soon as I walk in the back door of the shop there’s something happening or someone with a project." David teaches courses in light and set design, as well as supervising the corps of Work-Study students who support the plays, dance performances, lectures, and film festivals that appear in the Whittemore Theater. "I try to emphasize the study part of Work-Study, the part that involves the one-on-one work teaching students how to use the lighting board, how to build sets, how to hang lights."

Research Interests

Inspired by his electrician father and experienced as a carpenter, David has a breadth of practical knowledge in set design and construction, and also a firm understanding of such new technologies as the theater’s computer lighting board. For years David has designed lights and sets for regional productions, including directing the technical side of the Sandglass Theater through a three-year European tour. Over college breaks he volunteers his technical knowledge to help the local elementary school with productions in the theater.

An artist who paints and draws natural landscapes, David’s art is "not just about drawing what you see, but seeing the art in the nature." David brings his artistic sensibility to technical theater. "I think of myself as an artist trapped in a technician’s body. I give students basic building blocks to use to express their creativity, to have a creative concept and to turn it into a creation."

B.A., Southern Illinois University, 1975; M.F.A. Southern Illinois University, 1978; Marlboro College 1996 –