Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1970 - 36

Beginning A Decade of U5ITT:
The First Ten Years
I write this on a jet westbound from New
York to Denver, from which fact, emotionally,
it is easy to extrapolate a symbolism appropriate to reflection on the first 10 years
of USITI.
Much has happened. Much has yet
to happen.
Much has been done. Much has yet
to be done.
Since being asked to provide limited comment on the first 10 years is rather like
being asked to select only the highlights,
I'll give that a try:
· .. The quantitative and qualitative participation of the USITI-stimulated American
delegation to the ITI International Colloquy
on Theatre Architecture, Berlin, 1960. I
am convinced that American theatre technological / architectural personnel and material at Berlin contributed significantly to
subsequent world recognition of the U.S.A.
as a leader and innovator in these disciplines. The diversity of private, governmental, and corporate fundi ng which made
the delegation possible, in retrospect, presaged the kind of moral and material pluralism which many of us have come to recognize as essential to the preservation and future flourishing of the arts inAmerica. There
was an appropriateness, too, to Berlin,
since the initial stimulus for the USITT concept grew out of one American's previous,
accidental and sol itary participation in an
international organization's European world
congress the year before. USITT has since
continued to play an increasingly important
international role.
· . . Apropos of pluralism, the very roots of
USITT are pluralistic in that the initial concept was supported and actively furthered
by such diverse guilds and organizations as
Actors Equity, the American National Theatre and Academy, the International Alliance
of Theatrical and Stage Employees, the
American Institute of Architects, Society of
Stage Directors and Choreographers, Kliegl
Brothers Lighting, Juilliard School, Century
Lighting, American Educational Theatre Association, the U. S. Center of the International Theatre Institute and United Scenic
Artists.
Nowhere, perhaps, is the legitimacy of the
USITT concept and its pluralism better reflected than in the fact that it has grown to
a national membership in excess of a thousand, transcending all aspects of professional, avocational and educational performing arts in all geographic regions.
· .. Realization and publ ication of the unique
to North America USITT Journal was and
continues to be a contribution most obvious
in its scope and objectives.
· .. The development and implementation
of regional USITI sections: Toronto, MidWest, Southern California. Provincialism is
dead! Long live regionalism!

Goals for the Seventies
· .. The contributions USITT has made to
the furthering of a number of what may now
seem rather obvious philosophies:
· .. Technology is rightfullytheservantofthe
creative and interpretive arts. Technologyfor
technology's sake is anathema.
· .. If our nation has seen a series of arts
center catastrophes, (and it has), careful examination of the situation will reveal that
the problem lies not with the architect, but
rather with the sponsor/clients who, however well intentioned, are more than naive
about the arts and their needs. Building for
building's sake; masturbatory monuments to
Kultur (manifestations of our national pragmatism) are anathema. Sound buildings reflect sound programming.
· ..The realization that USITT's day-to-day
and year-to-year business has been carried
out through the moral and material support
of its membership and its dues, solely.
· .. If I may be permitted a maudlin moment
or two (and, frankly, it may be one of the
few perquisites accruing to USITI pastpresidency), there can be no questioning
that my own ten-year involvement with what
really makes USITT-its people-finds me
personally and professionally the richer for
it. For that and the fact that I was permitted
to playa part, my heart and mind are grateful. To the many of you too numerous to
mention by name, thank you for the last
ten years.
It is sometimes said that the past is future.
I wonder. Seated in a 600 mile-an-hour titanium bird, writing this, plugged in and
switched on, I am suddenly conscious of th e
fact that I have almost automatically bypassed the classical stereo channel with its
Wagner and Copland and have, instead,
been listening to the popular channel,
"Aquarius," the Moog, Dylan, etc. Which
takes us to what it's all about anyhow, artistic content. "Hair"; "Your Own Thing,"
the-Who's rock opera "Tommy"; the Armory
show of our time, "Art and Engineering";
the Eclectic Circus at Carnegie Hall, and
Nikolais' most recent "OP" choreography.
The times, they are a-changing, and if I had
one exhortation for USITT it would be this:
We must actively solicit and obtain the participation of that richest of national commodities, our youth, tomorrow's artists, arts
educators, audiences, and arts administrators: tomorrow's arts surrogates. There is
considerably more than just a generation gap
to be closed.
Any of us who were at Expo' 67 had it
most effectively brought home to him that
the film and TV are where it's at, and that
multi-media, mixed media, inter-media are
going to be here for a while. The implications for USITI should be obvious.

THOMAS DeGAETANI
Founding President

As USITT begins its tenth year of activities,
one of our most important tasks is to think
about future goals. It is not that we have
not had admirable goals. Our general aim of
initiating, administering, and promulgating
research and information about theatre technology has been achieved with some considerable success over the past nine years.
But now, as we have learned through the
beneficies of a technical assistance grant
from the New York State Council on the
Arts-or, as we have been forced to take a
realistic look at by this counsel-we must
take time out to formulate a serious and
soberly considered list of specific goals for
the next three to five years.
The Policy and Executive committees of
your Institute will therefore be meeting often
in the next several months to establish definite and numerical aims. Two steps, as I
see it, are primary for the Institute: First, we
must make a final move away from the volunteer (and consequently sometimes undependable) operation on which we have
depended in the past. Instead, we must aim
for and achieve a truly professional operation-professionally run and professionally
financed-so that our activities and services
will be commensurate with our posture as a
professional organization.
Second, we must determine and follow a
program of research projects which will be
securely funded before their initiation (soas
to insure that their completion is not interrupted by other commitments of volunteer
support). Our list of research projects, which
we have considered important to the theatre, stands waiting and, in the main, unattended for lack of funding and personnel
to implement it. We must aim for a truly
professional organization and operation to
make that implementation realistic.
Furthermore, we must aim to increase our
membership so that the theatre of our country
can be even more aware of our services;
we must aim to increase our gross annual
budget; we must aim to increase our personnel and salaries for our administrative
office and for our Journal and Newsletter.
We shall set these goals. And with your
help, we shall achieve them.

C. RAY SMITH
President

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1970