UCI Drama Student Among First to Put Her Master’s Thesis on Interactive Disc

The interactive CD-ROM that Snezana Petrovic turned in as her master’s thesis at UC Irvine this fall has put the drama student in the academic spotlight.

Petrovic is believed to be among only a few students in the nation, and certainly the only one at UC Irvine, to have used a CD-ROM to compose a master’s thesis on scenic design.

What makes this task so unusual, professors said, is that Petrovic took traditional art form and transformed it into interactive display.

Several drama professors have called Petrovic “ahead of her time.”

They said they have had set design students turn in portions of their master’s thesis on CD-ROM but have never heard of anyone doing it in its entirety.

“Usually one has a hard portfolio that one shows . . . drawings, sketches, paintings that are, in part, done by hand,” said Cletus Anderson, a drama professor at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University.

“It’s rare,” said Don Harvey, associate professor of technical design at Yale University’s School of Drama. “She is among those on the cutting edge.”

So advanced is the project in the eyes of UC Irvine officials that they have asked Petrovic to present her CD-ROM to UC President Richard Atkinson today when he visits the Irvine campus.

“I’m so excited and kind of scared because I’m the first with this type of thesis,” said Petrovic, 40, of Redlands. “I’m nervous to hear the opinions of the president and chancellor.”

Petrovic’s thesis, titled “Interdisciplinary Study of the Set Design Process for ‘Man and Superman,’ ” a play by George Bernard Shaw, is the product of a year’s work and involved paring down 80 hours of videotape for the 2 1/2-hour CD-ROM.

But before the native Yugoslavian even got started on the project, she enrolled in half a dozen how-to classes to learn about CD-ROMs.

“I was basically computer-illiterate,” said Petrovic, who arrived from Yugoslavia six years ago and began her studies at UC Irvine in 1992. “I thought artists shouldn’t deal with technology, but that perspective was changed.”

At UC Irvine, Petrovic had access to an array of computer equipment, opening the doors to a cyber world she had never before experienced.

“I’m a visual person, so it’s easier to express myself visually. The beauty of the CD-ROM is it allows visual expression,” she said.

Insert Petrovic’s CD-ROM into a computer and the overture from Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” begins to play as curtains slowly open across the color screen.

With the click of a mouse, a viewer can enter into almost any production stage of “Man and Superman,” a performance that ran for two weeks last spring at UC Irvine’s Barclay Theatre. Petrovic designed the play’s set, from backdrops to furniture to props.

Like a picture storybook, the CD-ROM shows viewers the set design process Petrovic embarked on from start to finish.

“It affords the presenter and viewer the ability to see everything from film rolling to still images as well as textual analysis of work, depending on where you click and what you want to look at,” said Cameron Harvey, UC Irvine’s drama department chairman.

Click on “pre-production.”

A video clip shows Petrovic presenting drafts of the backdrops she designed to the play’s director and producer. They give her feedback.

Click on “shop.”

As electric drills hum in the background, a technician appears in a video clip and talks about how he makes props for the set.

Click on “furniture.”

A three-dimensional chair pops onto the screen and rotates so the viewer can see it from all sides. It’s one of many pieces of furniture that Petrovic designed for “Man and Superman.”

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Click on “audience reaction.”

Audience members selected at random voice their opinions about the play after the “Man and Superman” performance at the Barclay Theatre.

“Trying to write about art in itself is difficult, but trying to capture the image of process is even more difficult,” said Douglas Goheen, a UC Irvine drama professor who is Petrovic’s faculty advisor.

“What’s fabulous about the CD-ROM is it captures process and personal conversation with 100-plus people associated with Snezana’s project.”

Petrovic, who teaches costume and set design part time at Cal State Los Angeles, said she hopes that other drama students will follow in her footsteps by presenting their master’s theses on CD-ROM. “In many ways, it helps you to be more objective about your work and helps you to see things from other people’s perspectives.”

And it also turned out well from Petrovic’s perspective: She earned an A on the thesis.