Friday at USITT

Another good day here at the show. I spent some extra time on the show floor today talking to people and manufacturers. I met Jacob Coakley from Stage Directions, who finally got me to go to www.theatreface.com/join and sign up. At the USA booth I ran into Susan Crabtree. At Thern I took a look at a track I think would be very useful for where I work, as it has alignment pins that keep each section of the track together. Checked out Bad Dog Tools for cnc router bits, as well as talk to loads of others. The floor seems large this year, especially with the extra exhibits around the Expo.

Session wise: I came in late to the Hands-on Pneumatics session, and while it wasn't a "talk" like I had expected at first by reading the session info, it was great!. There were panels of pneumatic effects set up, and you could play with the parts to make them work. There was also a variety of technical solutions that involved pneumatics that you could manipulate as well (Like an air caster out of an older edition of the Tech Expo). Kudos to the organizers.

The flip side of this session - is that I think something like this ought to be in every classroom teaching automation!



The next Session I went to was Partnerships and Co-Productions Chaired by David Grindle. Since I have worked for a variety of Co-Productions it was interesting, but wasn't very new to me. One good resource they pointed out was that Opera America has a Co-Production Handbook. The catch - you have to me a member of Opera America to download it.

Then, with David Boevers (CMU) and Roy Harline (Texas Scenic) I presented A Project -Based Approach to Technical Direction. It seems to go well except for the fire alarm. But we got an audience back and the session continued. I will put a link up for the presentation file.

Then was the Distinguished Achievement in Technical Production Award which was given to Ben Sammler.