Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1999 - 20

Sarah Nash Gates

OISTAT AT THE
Gillian Choa from the
Hong Kong Academy for
Performing Arts giving a ~~"~~
tour of the exhibits to
students.

SaralJ aslJ Gates'

design lOork was included
in the 1987 and 1991
American PQ exbibits.
Sbe is bead oftbe School
ofDrama at niversi~)' of
lVasbingtoll and is ({ past
president ofUS1TT.
18

TO&T

ince 19 9 tlle Intelllational Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects, and TeciUlicians,
OlSTAT, has held a Small Congress in Prague in conjlUlction \\ith tlle PQ. Oyer tlle years botll tlle PQ
organizers and representatives from OlSTAT haye Hied to organize events which would utilize tlle
talents and presence of tlle best designers in tlle world who are in Prague for tlle PQ. Tllis year tlle OISTAT
Education Conmlission led by Conmussioner Michael Ramsaur created a full menu of Side Programs.
Part one of the Side Program featured tours of the PQ exhibits for swdents led by designers
and teachers from a wide variety of nations. Atour consisted of a group of si., slIldents looking at
an exhibit for an hour and a half. The leaders were free to shape their tours as they wished. The
small size of each group encouraged students from different countries to get acquainted and to engage in discussion about the work. The students signed up in advance at the OlSTAT booth and
tours were in English, except where noted otherwise.
I heard from several tour leaders that they had a wonderful time. My own experience with a
group of three Korean, one Canadian, one Russian, and one Israeli students was fabulous. I had decided early on that it would be difficult if not impossible to talk about the aptness or resonance of
the designs as we all would not be familiar \vith the texts. so I chose to focus our tour around the
many \yays costume designers communicate. via sketching, rendering, collage. etc. This approach
proYed to work \yeLl in that we had energetic discussion, and when our time was up most of the
group stayed together to ask some questions abolll training in the U.S.
Part t\ro of the Side Program \yas a series of diyerse events and presentations offered to the
public. including:
"TIle Work of Vladimir Anson,., presented by Yladimir Anson (Estonia). (Mr. Anson \vas
myarded one of the l'iESCO prizes for emerging artists):
"TIle Work of Ralf Forsstrom," presented by Ralf Forsstrom (Finland);
"Designing for Dance'" presented bv Emma Robson and Ross Cameron (Great Britain):
"Spatial and Multi-Channel Sound for TIleatre: Artistic and Technical Aspects." presented by Jussi Vantanen (Finland);
Tour of the Costume Workshops in Prague, with Simone Rybakova (Czech Republic);
"Media Arts Design'" presented by Laurie Shawn Borzovoy (Canada);
"Lighting Design'" presented by Jennifer Tipton (USA)
"Designing for TIleatre with Automated Lights and a Software Based Portable Control,.,
presented by Chad Bonaker (l >\), Alice Louise Dickinson (l'·\) :Uld Alex Brok (TIle 'ietherl;u1(l~);

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1999