News & Notices
Students Asked to Design 'Ideal Theatre'
Information and entry forms for USITT's Sixth Annual "Ideal Theatre" Student Design Competition are now available online. This year's competition, overseen by the Architecture Commission, is sponsored by American Seating and the American Society of Theatre Consultants.
The "Ideal Theatre" Student Design Competition promotes collaboration of college and university students enrolled in professional architecture and theatre programs. The competition will run through the 2011 fall semester. A professional jury of theatre architects, planners, artist directors, and theatre artists will judge the entries in January. The competition brief and entry form will be available August 27at www.usitt.org. Competition entries forms are due November 17 with the final submissions of completed work due January 6
The professional jury will select three winning teams to present at the 2012 USITT Conference & Stage Expo, March 28 to 31 in Long Beach, California. The three teams will present their design at a special event on the Stage Expo Floor. For a second year, all conference attendees are invited to take part in the final judging.
The new competition "brief" was written by Joshua Dachs ASTC, President, Fisher Dachs Associates, Theatre Planning and Design. The competition poses the design question, "What space or spaces would be ideal for telling a particular story in a very powerful way?" The task will be to conceive a production concept, and design and illustrate a space or a sequence of spaces - not scenery, but emotionally-laden places - to accommodate a live theatrical production of one of the four works listed below. The design of the space itself should form the environment of the play, supplemented by costumes, props, lighting, sound, actors, and the audience. Production should be based on Macbeth by William Shakespeare (play), Otello by Giuseppe Verdi (opera), Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (play), or Antigone by Sophicles (play).
For additional information, check out the USITT website or contact competition Chair Scott F. Georgeson, FAIA, at sfg@workshoparchitects.com.
