My First USITT: An Unforgettable Experience
By: Morgan Porter
Student Scholarship Recipient- The NORCOSTCO-John Mullen Scholarship
As a young theatre professional, I have always wanted to attend the USITT Conference. It is a great place for connecting with people in the technical theatre industry, and as a soon-to-be graduate that is very important to me. Unfortunately, as a young theatre professional, I did not have the money to go. Between admission, travel, and a hotel it felt like the only way I could attend the conference was after I was already an established professional. When I found out about the Northern Boundary Section Scholarship I was overjoyed that there were opportunities for students to afford to attend USITT. I was even more overjoyed to discover that I had been awarded the scholarship. The USITT Northern Boundary Section Scholarship gave me the opportunity to attend a conference I had always dreamed of.
Two professors, a grad student, and I all carpooled to the conference on March 8th. After 8 hours in the car, we arrived to St. Louis and unloaded our bags then walked over to the convention center. I was incredibly excited to be there. Since the first day was mostly a travel day, a lot of the seminars and workshops were wrapping up for the afternoon. I decided that was a perfect time to see the Cover the Walls Exhibition. That was really cool because I was able to see work from a variety of professionals all around the country. I am a costume designer and technician so naturally I was really drawn to those posters. I really loved how different people interpreted a variety of shows. I also enjoyed anything on a dress form because there is nothing like seeing the costume in person.
The next day, I was able to attend more workshops, and of course the Stage Expo. I went to a costume curation lecture as well as a poster session. I really enjoyed the costume curation lecture because it was mostly about costume history and how to showcase historical costume pieces in a museum setting. I am really passionate about costume history and curation is something I am very interested in. I was even able to meet more people in the costume industry than I had before. I also really enjoyed the poster session because I loved how people approached technology and research. Since the designers were standing by their posters, it was also a great way to ask questions. I saw everything from molding faces for prosthetic pieces to 3D printed jewelry.
The Stage Expo was like nothing I had ever seen before. I have never seen such a large quantity of technical theatre professionals in one room. I was blown away with all of the technologies that were being showcased, and just how big this conference really was. My first lap around the Expo floor, I definitely got lost. There was such much to see between all of the universities, major theatre companies, and the occasional person flying in the air. I was even able to see people I worked with at past summer stocks and reconnect with them. By the end of my second day, I was already gathering my game plan for which booths I was going to visit for grad school the next day.
The next day on the expo floor I came prepared with my portfolio, a handful of resumes, and a bunch of business cards. Thankfully by the time the conference rolled around, I already had summer employment lined up so I was mostly looking for grad schools. I definitely want to attend grad school within the next three years and this was a great way to narrow down my search. I was even able to show my portfolio and get feedback on it. I narrowed down my search on grad schools, and discovered I will start the application process for those in 2018. Later that day, I attended a workshop on embroidery stitches for sergers. That was the first demo I was able to go to and it was really cool to work with new technologies.
We left on Saturday morning, because the following Monday was midterms. We packed up our station on the expo floor and made our way back to Vermillion, South Dakota. While I was very exhausted, I was so happy to have been able to attend the conference. It was amazing to meet people and see new technologies and finally attend the conference I had heard so much about. I thank the Northern Boundary Section for awarding me the scholarship because USITT was an unforgettable experience and I look forward to going again in the future.