News & Notices
2016 Venue Challenge Set
Information about the 2016 ASTC USITT Venue Renovation Challenge has been completed and is available now to give students and advisors more time to plan.
Entries for the 2015 ASTC/USITT Challenge are now closed, after a successful debut of the event in 2014.
Because of his years in academic theatre, Van Phillips, one of the event’s organizers, realized the academic course work for a degree (especially in graduate programs) was established at the end of new students’ first semester. Most graduate committee chairs know by the end of the first semester if a student or group of students would benefit from exploring the ASTC/USITT Challenge under an Independent Study directed by the faculty member. “But,” he said “(and it is a big BUT) the graduate committee chairs need to see the challenge material a year or a year and a half ahead.”
The 2016 ASTC/USITT Challenge is now official. Information is available on the USITT website at www.usitt.org/astc2016.
Mr. Phillips noted “I had a long 32 year career teaching Theatre Design and Technology at The University of South Florida and then Purdue University. As an ASTC Theatre Consultant I have been part of the group forming the ASTC/USITT Challenge, which is designed to allow students working on degrees to expand their knowledge beyond just production and into the facilities that 'should' serve as a 'platform for production.'”
He continued by explaining that "Jo Mielziner, the great Broadway Designer and also Performance Facility Consultant (who I worked as an intern under and later became friends with), told me he wanted to write a book titled ... 4'-9". Why 4'-9"? Because that was the size limit on the width of a flat you could load on a railroad boxcar. The point of the book (and he had a folder full of notes) was restrictions put on productions because of facility and other physical limitations."
The members of the ASTC/USITT Challenge Working Group hope that participants will see the potential opportunities for expanding the experience for selected students which the Renovation Challenge represents.
