Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1983 - 32

T.O.L.D. II
by Lee Watson
Sixty-twO lighting educators and industry
leaders met for two hours in a working luncheon in New York Ciry during the
LIGHTI G WORLD II architectural conference at the Hilton Hotel on Tuesday, April
26th. This continuation of the original
TO.L.D. conference (Training of Lighting
Designers) was jointly sponsored by USITT
and IALD (I nternational Association of
Lighting Designers) with luncheon provided
for the invited conferees by lark Sherwood,
President of Kingston Industries, and IALD.
The focus was on lighting educators and
what could be done to assist them in more
rapidly pUlling into practice the earlier
TO.L.D. recommendations for the restructuring and improvement of lighting education in the American university system. (See
TD&T, Summer 1981.)
Dean David Levy of the Parsons School
of Design (a division of the ew School For
Social Research) greered the group on behalf
of Parsons' new Lighting Institute, headed
by Prof. James uckolls. Levy urged the
advisability of selecting a faculty of working
professionals who teach rather than a faculty
not actively practicing in the relati\'ely new
dynamic field of lighting design. Parsons is
the first school to have implemented major
ponions of rhe TO.L.D. recommendarions
in their current undergraduate Lighting Instirute program. He announced rhat Parsons
would have a Masters degree in place in
lighting design by September 1985.
IALD President Lesley Wheel spoke of
architectural lighting designers' continued interest in T.O.L.D. "We invent our
employees. We are tired of training our own
staff. We would love ro see more of the job
done (by the schools) before they come to us.
IALD will publicize any and all programs in
lighting design and welcomes rhe input from
educators. The demand still exceeds the
upply for architectural lighring specialists.
TO.L.D. is far from finished. Something
u eful has to come out of lighting educator
talking to each orher. IALD \\'ould like to see
this dialogue continue."
Fran Kellog Smith Benolone. new IALD
Educarion Commission chairperson, ourlined rhe problems of those in interior lighting design. Prof. Richard De\·in. Director of
Theatre De ign and Technology at the
Uni\'ersity of \\'ashington and USITT
representati\'e to TO.L.D. II, expressed his
\'iew rhat lhe TO.L.D. program could only
be readily actiyared in the larger uni\wsiries
and would be some time in affect ing instrucrion in the smaller institurions with more
resrricted faculty and funding resource,. Lee
Walson, init iator of the original TO. L. D.
Conference ar Purdue Uni\'ersity during his

term as President of USITT, chaired the remainder of the luncheon. Wat on spoke
briefly of progress in persuading numerous
accreditation agencies to Ulilize the TO.L.D.
program in evaluation of all lighting instruction. David Reyes-Guerra of ABET (accrediting association for twenty engineering
societies) and COPA (rhe umbrella organization for the 67 authorized accreditation
organizations) offered the first public statement of engineers interest in the TO.L.D.
objectives. Reye-Guerra spoke of the need
for cooperative effons between engineers
and designers in accreditation. "We in
ABET are very much willing to listen to different ways of approaching accreditation.
We will respond to your needs-you have us
on board."
Howard Brandston, Roger 10rgan and
Nan Porcher each stressed the need for a
basic well-rounded education prior to any
specialization in lighting ans and technology.
Others spoke of the necessity and the difficulty of teaching the design skills rather
than stressing the more readily teachable
mechanics and technology of lighting. Most
agreed thar rhe engineering oriented srudents
need more instruction in design and that the
designer should benefit from more engineering knowledge and approach. Many
underlined the imponance of developing
communications skills (verbal, wrillen and
visual) as vital to effective lighting design
progress in any specialty area.
Watson also spoke of progress in interdisciplinary instruction in lighting-at the
hean of successful graduare specialized instruction. Both Lesley Wheel and Howard
Brandston stressed the crisis in lighting
education today, emphasizing that much rhat
is now raughr is useless to the srudent following graduation. Borh felr rhat beller entry
level training is needed and rhat there should
be more support for interdisciplinary
insrruction.
Nearly e\'eryone present believed thar
lighting education should be primarily on rhe
gradl/(Ile lel'el. Undergraduate rraining
should not be highly specialized. "We cannot (normally) rum our potential working
profes ionals in an undergraduate program,"
\\'a a rheme. There was al 0 funher di cussion of the IES (Illumination Engineering
ociery) program through their Educational
Ad\'isory Commirtee to rna si\'ely fund impro\ement in educational program training
architecrural and interior lighting specialisrs.

The much smaller TO.L.D. II continualion meeting ar Parsons on Thursday offered
rive specific furure acti\'iries to be pursued by
rhe TO.L.D. inter-sociery group: (1) conrinue inrer-communication between rhe
\'arious lighring disciplines through the spon-

soring socieries, (2) initiate a coordinated
Speakers Bureau through the constituent
sponsoring organizations, (3) assemble a
master mailing list of all lighting educators in
all fields, (4) find a means (Q share
educator's syllabi, lides and training films,
and, (5) seek limited funding from the six
sponsoring societies to achieve these
objectives.
Anyone who has not supplied his/her
name, address and area of instruction in rhe
lighting field who is currently teaching
should send this information to: Prof. Lee
Watson, Apr. #48, 2501 Soldiers Home
Road, West Lafayelle, Indiana 47906. We
wish to compile the list of lighting educators
at the earliest possible date.
Among the educators in allendance were
Lester Polakov (Polakov Studio of Scenic
Design, NYC), Charles Elson (retired from
Hunter College, YC), Prof. Wm. Warfel
(Yale Drama), Prof. Eleen C. Ward (Sterling,
Va.), Prof. Andrea Daugherty (Louisiana
State, Baton Rouge), Richard Kerry ( YC),
Prof. Craig Bernecker (Architectural
Engineering, Penn State), Elwyn Gee
(Fashion Institute of Design, San Francisco),
Prof. Charles Firmin (Theatre, Penn State),
Prof. Dee Ginthner (Design, University of
Minn., SI. Paul), Prof. Dan McKendrick
(TV Lighting, Univ. of Wisc.), Prof.
Franceska Bellridge (IALD Secretary and
Parsons School and FI.T .S., NYC), Prof.
Jane S. Grosslight (Florida State U.,
Tallahassee), Prof. Glenn J. Schorr of Los
Angeles, Prof. Gerry Zekowski (Univ. of
Houston), Prof. Mary S. Picken (Iowa Srate
U .), Prof. Donald McIntyre (School of Architecture, Univ. of Waterloo, Ontario,
Canada), Prof. Joseph Reyes-Barbara (Dept.
of Human Environment, Univ. of Ky.) and
Profs. uckolls, Devin and Watson.
Among the professionals and those from
other areas were: Imero Fiorentino, Fran
Kellog Smith Benolone (IALD Education
Chairperson from Los Angeles and San
Francisco), Tom Lemons (IALD Treasurer
from Boston), Broadway lighring designers
Roger Morgan, Ken Billington and ananne
Porcher, Charles Levy (Strand-Century,
NYC), Da\'id Reyes-Guerra (ABET accreditation executive, YC), Sheila i\IcKay
(NYC Lighting Designers Forum head),
Howard Brandston (Pres.-Elect of IES,
NYC), Sonny Sonnenfeld ( YC), Paul
Killa (1 YC' Lighting Professionals, Inc.),
Richard Kerry ( YC), Bridger Beier (I YC,
Kellerman As ociates), Franz Euler II
(Lighting De ign & Engineering, Hingham,
\Iass.). Glenn J. Schorr (Los Angeles), Lou
Erhardt (retired author-engineer, Oxnard,
CAl, Dr. Ron Olson (USITT President,
;\IYC). ;\Iicki Wood (IES Education
chairperson from Lithonia Lighting, NYC),
Dr. Rogers B. Finch (IES Executi\'e V.P.).
Sidney Feltman (NYC), Stephen Bernslein
(;\lYe), and Lesley Wheel (IALD President,
:\YC).

Lee Walson is immediate pasr President of
USITT

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1983