News & Notices
Announcements
Lights, Posters, Action!
The Lighting Commission’s fourth annual poster session will be held at the 2016 Annual Conference & Stage Expo in Salt Lake City, Utah.
This is when lighting designers, technicians, educators, and students share information that is not well known, or perhaps of their own invention. It can be a new solution to an old problem, a new problem and its solution, a classroom or management technique, the results of research, or other ideas, discoveries, or developments in the field of lighting. This session has grown rapidly and has offered refreshing ideas such as creating light plots with Origami, monochromatic color theory, and cable management ideas.
Poster presentations often meet the requirements for scholarly publication since all submissions are blind juried by the Lighting Commission Poster Selection Committee. Ideas must be presented in the form of an abstract, no more than 200 words typewritten, submitted to the USITT website. Posters are selected based on relevance to the field, originality, and a clear and thorough proposal. The deadline to submit abstracts is November 15. Applicants will be notified by early January if their submissions are chosen. The poster image and handout will be due February 15.
Instructions for submitting a proposal are available at www.usitt.org/poster or join the lighting community via the Connect tab at www.usitt.org. Contact Poster Session Co-Chairs Deanna Fitzgerald (deannaf@email.arizona.edu), Phillip Franck (phillip.n.franck@vanderbilt.edu), or Alan McEwen (alan.mcewen@mail.wvu.edu) with questions.
PLASA to Host Second Happy Hour at LDI
PLASA will host the second Behind the Scenes Happy Hour -- an evening with music, food, and drinks -- 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, October 22 at the Westgate Las Vegas Hotel during LDI 2015.
Current sponsors include A.C. Lighting, Heartland Scenic Studios, iWeiss, RC4 Wireless, Sapsis Rigging, Inc., Stage Equipment and Lighting, Stan Pressner, and Ultratec Special Effects.
After a successful event in 2014 that was attended by over 400 creative industry professionals, the Behind the Scenes Happy Hour will be the biggest pre-LDI party of the year and will raise money for the Behind the Scenes charity. The charity, an initiative of the PLASA Foundation, brings help and hope in times of great need, and has granted over $500,000 since its inception in 2005.
PLASA seeks sponsorships for the 2015 event. Information on how to become a sponsor is available online. or by e-mailing bts_hh@plasa.org
Tickets for the Behind the Scenes Happy Hour will be $60 in advance and will go on sale later this summer.
Fall Protection Standard Posted for Review
A draft of BSR E1.46, Standard for the Prevention of Falls from Theatrical Stages and Raised Performance Platforms is available for public review through July 13.
BSR E1.46 addresses the problem of people falling from theatrical stages and raised platforms. Falling into an orchestra pit, an open stage trap, or similar openings in stage floors can lead to debilitating injuries, a lifetime of pain, and sometimes death. Health and safety regulations require action to prevent these falls -- there is no exemption from fall protection for the entertainment industry -- but these regulations offer little guidance suitable for theatrical environments.
For more information, contact Karl G. Ruling, technical standards manager, PLASA, 630 Ninth Avenue, Suite 609, New York, NY 10036; 1-212-244-1505; standards.na@plasa.org.
