Innovation isn't perhaps the first word that comes to mind when thinking of the theater. But for Ed Baker, associate professor and technical director in the Wichita State University School of Performing Arts, it's a passion.

Baker is using that passion for innovation to ensure that when his students graduate from college, they have experience to go along with their diplomas.

“Virtually every university in the U.S. teaches the technical skills for making a play,” he says. “I am building a way to teach students the skills to make a career in the theater.”

Over the next two years, a group of Baker’s technical theater majors will be tasked with developing their own devices for use in productions. It’s more than a class project; the students involved in the development will eventually decide whether to seek patents or sell the rights to what they’ve created.

Baker says Performing Arts faculty are continuing to find other ways to foster innovation in the school with the advancement of “green” theater technology, experimenting with different filming methods and learning more about the intellectual property process.

“This is something that students will benefit from long after they leave WSU,” he says.

Innovation and invention in theater

One of the ways in which Baker is fostering a creative spirit – and providing practical experience – is through the continued development of a device he created 10 years ago when he came to Wichita State.

At the time, the theater program was performing “The Tempest,” a production that required two projectors with dowsers – projector attachments that automatically block “gray light” from the lens when the projector is turned off, allowing for a full blackout of the theater.

The dowsing equipment available commercially would have eaten their entire scenic and lighting budget. So Baker fashioned his own dowser with some cardboard, gaffers tape, paint poles and a pair of freshmen with strong shoulders.

But for their next performance, there was no room in the back of the theater for someone to stand and hold the handmade dowser. After several attempts at a variety of solutions, Baker developed a prototype that was battery operated and quieter than a college student.

The final product, which Baker named the ProDowser and sells hundreds of each year, has been used successfully at WSU ever since, with slight improvements for durability and ease of use. But in that time, it has grown to be more than a device. It’s now a model that Baker is using to teach his students about innovation and invention.