The Forward Momentum of Change and Learning at USITT
by Claudia Errickson
The conference has been a really central part of my experience as a growing young designer and technician and I am so grateful for the opportunity to attend with the support of the NBS community. As a new-comer to the design/tech field it is challenging to make the contacts necessary to be successful, and to keep up with the ever changing technology in the field. Involvement with USITT is a really helpful way that I have found to jumpstart that process. This is my second year attending the Annual Conference & Stage Expo. One thing I think is really helpful that I have always gotten exposure to at USITT, is learning about the paths other people have taken in the field. One aspect I like most about the Expo floor and the many sessions is that you can talk to a lot of different people from around the country and discover that all took different paths to get to where they are. In a field that can seem very rigidly defined, and then incredibly boundless, it’s helpful to understand how different people have worked to achieve the things they have; and it’s a reminder that there is no wrong way to go about being a theatrical practitioner.
The conference helps me understand what different opportunities and avenues are open to emerging designers and technicians. Being able to look at student and professional designers work as well as talking to different theater companies is helpful when getting a grasp on our community as a global network. It is also really helpful to see how the Annual Conference works to disseminate that information through sessions and on the Expo floor. The conference is something that really informs how the USITT student chapter at my university operates on an annual level as well- we model our sessions and panels after the ones our students see when they go to the conference. Something I didn’t expect to learn from USITT has been event and panel operation. Getting exposure to different ways of communicating information has helped me better understand how to do that in our own student group.
One thing I really appreciate about USITT is how it combines a lot of different art forms and how the sessions often go into a lot of different topics. One area that I really like to study but don’t practice, is architecture and learning about theater space design. I attended a session on Greener Design and Production (specifically, lighting, sound and media design). One thing I really appreciated about the session was that it went into aspects I wouldn’t have considered to be a part of theatrical design. The session also talked a lot about how buildings can be designed using greener design, and what things you can do as an art maker to a building to make the entire building greener. On a completely different thread it also focused on how theatrical projects can be developed where green solutions are created for typical theatrical problems and then those technical solutions become a part of the art. Sometimes you can challenge yourself to make better theater by embracing limitations and then using the solutions you come up with to fuel your art. I really appreciated how there were a lot of sessions about greener design routes, I think it’s necessary to learn sustainable ways of doing our craft, especially when the nature of our work is that it can’t be permanent. It’s important to me to keep making work that takes care of our environment, particularly when so many of the plays that I’m drawn to are about environmental issues and climate change. I want my work to reflect the values I try to uphold, and its really uplifting to see our larger tech and design community responding in the same way.
Ultimately I feel strongly that the USITT Annual Conference and Stage Expo always opens up my understanding of our craft, and it’s nice to come home once a year to such a large community of people who want to learn. There are so many things about the conference I appreciate, but ultimately, I’m most grateful for the moments where a stranger gives you book recommendations about theater history, or when a fellow student gives you a pep talk before an interview. [ ]
Claudia Errickson is a USITT NBS scholarship recipient and student at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.