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DramaTech Technical Manual

A comprehensive manual covering activities of church drama techies, (and wannabe techies)

Click here for a sample, and table of contents), of this manual.

This manual is supplied as a download for immediate access, better usability and lower price to you.

To order the DramaTech Training Manual click below:

From the success of the original DramaTech manual, and the input from users of that edition comes this new resource! It is a technical manual which non-technical techies can handle, yet will give you the information you need on:

  • Set Design
  • Backdrops & Scrim
  • Painting
  • Theatrical Flats
  • Building 3D Sets and Props
  • Special Effects such as fire, smoke, fog, snow and rain
  • Lighting
  • Makeup
  • Costumes
  • Color-Light & Paint
  • Sound Systems
  • Building a Model of the Set
  • Terminology
  • over 200 illustrations and detailed technical illustrations
  • BONUS TUTORIAL. . . The Armor of God

One area of almost universal weakness in the church is that of technical knowledge, in sound, lighting, props, sets and all that these subjects entail. Unfortunately church productions do suffer due to a lack of this knowledge. This is why we were so excited when our “Mr. Techie”, Karl Wagner volunteered to put together a “techie manual for non-techies”. And now Karl has completely updated and expanded this resource into a 200 page document. Karl has spent a lifetime in stage, screen and movies, and he knows the wonderfully expensive technical gadgetry there is out there. But Karl’s heart is in church drama, and he knows full well that all those wonderful things simply will never be available to most churches. And so this manual addresses what you need to know, omitting a lot of superfluous and irrelevant information, and a lot of “shop talk”. If what you are looking for is a non-nonsense source of “must know” information, this just might be your reference book.

Here at DramaShare we are proud to be associated with Karl, and proud to bring you this “Teknickle Drama Manyule”!

Comments from Karl Wagner:
I wish I could say that all the answers to all your problems are here, but they probably aren’t. Hopefully this will serve as a basic understanding of how to do some things, and a handy reference tool for planning some of your productions. This manual involves the basics. There is a fair amount of detail on some subjects, and on others like sound and light, it will just serve to educate. You can at least understand how a basic sound or lighting system works, and what some of the components are, and what they do.

For backdrops and flats, and 3-d set pieces, there is more information. Materials to use, steps involved, and some hopefully helpful diagrams and illustrations. There is a very brief introduction to scale drawings, perspective, and creating depth and 3-D with paint. At the end of this booklet, is a long list of Terminology. Acting, Stage, Sound, Lighting, and even script writing terms are here. Is it conclusive? Not hardly. But there should be enough to keep you from feeling totally ignorant. Much of this information started out as responses to questions on CDF, DramaShare’s Christian Drama Forum. As the info grew, we decided it needed to be assembled and made available. This is the result of gleaning a lot of information, and putting it into some sort of understandable form.

Our materials are placed on the Web for the use of all interested in Christian Drama Ministry. Feel free to browse through them. There are some basic rules which we at DramaShare have established in order to protect our clients, our written materials and ourselves:

  • Churches utilizing DramaShare materials are authorized to download for use within your own church or group, and to photocopy these materials for use in your own church. You are not authorized to distribute these materials outside your group.
  • All DramaShare materials are copyrighted, we ask that you make no changes without our prior approval. This is to prevent misuse of materials.
  • We ask that you acknowledge the source – “DramaShare”, when staging or utilizing scripts, manuals, newsletter items or other.
  • We also ask that those who use our materials will obtain an annual membership, to assist in covering the cost of production and distribution of this material. This annual fee permits the user to download, photocopy and distribute within their own group, all DramaShare materials, and to stage any or all DramaShare scripts.

Need further information? Phone us (toll-free) or send your comments.

To order the DramaTech Training Manual click here

If you have any questions please give us a call, we are here 24/7 and the phone call is toll-free when you call 1-877-DO-DRAMA (363-7262)

Doing Drama

Drama ministry – preaching the Word of God through drama. An excellent drama for recruiting people of all ages, for all roles on or off stage, especially amateurs, for the drama program and to get more interest and involvement in the drama program in the church.
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