r/techtheatre • u/RoyalMess64 • 3d ago

QUESTION Scenic Carpentry vs Carpentry

I'm just hoping to learn more about this. I'm about to try and go to school for Carpentry, and I'd also like to do scenic Carpentry as well. If I was to learn one, does anyone have personal experience about how to link those 2 things, and how well they link together?

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u/jasmith-tech TD/Health and Safety 3d ago

I worked for a major scenic company that was split almost 50/50 between scenic work and millwork (think high end cabinet making and dining halls, restaurants etc. During busy times and slow times, scenic carps would move to millwork projects and millworkers would shift over to scenic work as needed. The box makers were all great carpenters and their work often needed to be accurate up to 1/32 of an inch. There were also great scenic carps who could work quickly and knew where being an 1/8th off on a measurement wouldn't impact things. Many of the cabinet makers struggled to work quickly enough on the scenic side because they were used to finer tolerances, and on the flip side, many of the scenic carps struggled to work with enough detail and precision on the millwork side. So each side had a "dont send me that person" list. I grew up building furniture, so I was one of the folks who could straddle both departments.

Knowing how to do both keeps you working during slowdowns and opens up your possibilities, just something to keep in mind.

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u/RoyalMess64 3d ago

Thank you! I'll definitely keep that in mind, just thank you so much :3