The Desert State Regional Section had a record turnout for its annual meeting January 18 at Horizon High School. The section appreciates Barbizon Phoenix for hosting breakfast. The keynote speaker was Bruce Brockman, Past President of USITT, and Director of the University of Arizona School of Theatre. Thanks go to workshop presenters Ben Alexander, Cari Koch, Cat Dragon, Chuck Seifried, Clyde Parker, David Empey, Gail Wolfenden-Steib, Jimmie Byrd, Kascey Nelson, Kate Ellis, Mike Arnold, Paul Bridgeman, and Cory Starr.

This year, Northern Arizona University had the largest student representation.

Desert State is observing its 10th anniversary this year, celebrating both the section anniversary and the Institute’s 50th anniversary with a cake at the January meeting. Check the section website, ww4.usitt.org/sections/desertstate/ for further section anniversary events.

Desert State Section congratulates Mercedes O’Bannion and Wrara Plesoiu, both from Arizona State University, and Marie Quinn from Northern Arizona University on winning the student award program this year. They will all receive free Conference registration to the 2010 Annual Conference in Kansas City and free student membership.

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Jake Pinholster, designer and professor, will present the Spring Professional Development Workshop for the Ohio Valley Regional Section. The two-day course, to be held May 22 and 23 at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, is entitled Performance and Image: A Master Class in Media Design for the Stage. It is designed as a stand-alone introduction to many of the theories and practices of media design for performance, also known as projection or video design. Instruction will cover functions of media in performance, basics of content creation, playback options for every budget, and tips and tricks for getting the most out of gear and thinking outside the (white, rectangular) box.

Mr. Pinholster is professor of media design at Arizona State University in the Herberger Institute School of Theatre and Film, one of the first design training programs in the country to offer a specialization in projection/video design for live performance. He is associate artist with Les Freres Corbusier. Off-Broadway credits include: Escape from Bellevue, Dixie's Tupperware Party, and Boozy (LFC, Hewes Award Nomination). New York credits include: David Dorfman Dance's underground (BAM) and Disavowal, Dance Dance Revolution (LFC), and HeddaTRON (LFC).

Regional work includes: The Pee Wee Herman Show (Club Nokia, LA), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Center Theater Group), Hoover Comes Alive! (La Jolla Playhouse), and Current Nobody (La Jolla Playhouse, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company). He is director of the LDInstitute and production manager of the conference sessions at LDI.

The workshops are $150 per participant, $75 per observer.

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