Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2000 - 31

HIGHLIGHTSfrom the Past and ( HAL LEN GESfor the Future
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tional TIleatre and Academy) on \Vest 52nd Street. There were also numerous committee meetings to attend since all of the committees met at least
montll1y in iliose early heady days.
USIIT's first honorary event featured a tribute to Stanley McCandless at tlle
1964 conference. Among oilier guests, newly welcomed to USIIT on iliat
occ.1Sion, were Edward EKook andJo Mielziner.
In November of 1964 ilie Institute presented tlle designers and programmers of tlle newly opened Jew York State TIleatre at Uncoln Center at an
open forum. We attracted an audience of over 2000 and doubled our
membership overnight.
Wallace Russell helped us organize ilie first Board of Directors meeting
outside of ilie nited States, in Toronto, Canada, in 1964.
GaI)' Gaiser hosted ilie first out-of- ew-York SlIT conference in 1965 at
tlle niversity of Indiana, Bloomington. [The so-called lew York Mafia
crossed tlle Hudson River and headed out into ilie hinterland.)
At tllat same conference Ned Bowman, ilie initiating editor of Theatre Design and Tecbnolog)', presented me wiili a plaque which was ilie printer's
plate for tlle front cover of Volume One, 1 umber One of the journal. Of ilie
se\'eral SlIT citations I have received before and since, this plinter's plate
is ilie most meaningful because it signified to me iliat SlIT had reached
an enviable level of maturity within four short years of its founding.
The Montreal Colloquy on Theatre Design took place at Expo 66 in 1966.
Ed Petersen was Sill's programming representative. That conference
convinced us iliat we needed to establish a truly viable international organization representing our disciplines since ilie existing organizations had
become higll1y political. Donald Swinney, my successor as president,
asked me to create a position as USIIT international representative.
Rosamond Gildel; tllen president of ilie International Theatre Institute
(and of tlle .S. Center) was e,\1remely helpful \viili contacts and diplomatic advice.
C. Ray Smitll, tllen USIIT president-elect, introduced great style-formal
dress requested-to ilie conference banquet held at ilie St. Regis Hotel Roof
Ballroom in 1 ew York City in 1967. I had ilie pleasure of presenting
RosanlOnd Gilder \\~ili her alation as recipient of Sill's first illetime
Achievement Award (ilie USIIT Award).
Gary Gaiser and I were ilie U.S. delegates to ilie programming meeting to
establish OISTI (later OISTAT) in Prague in 196 ,held under ilie watchful
eyes of ilie International Theatre Institute and ilie guiding hand of
Rosamond Gilder. At ilie first International Congress of OISTI in 1968 I
was joined by colleagues Ned Bowman, Gary Gaiser, Hans SondiJeimer,
and Richard Schechner. \Valilier nruh of West Germany was elected
president, I was elected 1st vice-president and Ferenc Vajda of Hungary
bec.1I11e 2nd vice-president. TI1ese events were ilie start of my more tllan
tltirty-year adventtlre \viili OISTAT as .S. delegate and a similar tenure as
founding chair of USIIT's International Con1l1tission.
My tern1 as president of OISTAT, from 1971 to 1978, was during tlle heigllt
of tlle Cold War. We learned iliat our good friends behind tlle iron Curtain
frequently c.1I11e to OlSTAT meetings burdened \viili political agendas

Joel E. Rubin

wltich iliey had to get on record. I made it my policy to avoid taking votes
when such issues arose. Our international membership increased from
twelve to twenty-eight during my tenure including ilie Soviet Union and ilie
People's Republic of China as new members. I feel that our contacts \viili
ilieatre people in ilie eastern bloc countries, ilie exchanges of literature,
and tlle meetings we set to bling visitors to ilie west, were important contIibutors to tlle movement iliat eventually opened up ilie iron Curtain.
* Over some twenty-five years our USIIT International Master Classes
brought Josef Svoboda, Helnmt Grosser, Fred Beniliam, Denis Bablet, and
nearly tlrree-score of oilier masters from a score of countries, to speak to
ilie national conferences, USill regional sections, and sponsoring colleges and universities.
* As producer of ilie United States Exhibits at ilie Prague Quadrennial in
198 and 1991 (ilie first designed by John Conklin and Jennifer Tipton,
ilie second by Eric Fielding) Iwas gratified when the United States won the
Golden Triga (ilie Grand Prize Gold) in 1987 and ilie Gold Medal for
Theme Exhibit in 199 I. The warm up for iliese e,xhibits started in 19 5
when 1was a member of ilie Steering Committee of ilie exhibit sponsored
by ilie .S. Center of I.T.I. witll colleagues Ming Cho Lee, Eldon Elder and
Donald Oenslager.
* As "Shepherd" of ilie (first) World Congress of Costume Designers and
Costume Technicians in association with USill's Cosrume Commission I
was pleased iliat we had ilie participation of over 120 delegates representing 25 countries at ilie 1995 USIIT Conference & Stage Expo in Las Vegas.
Peroration
As I review iliese highlights from the past I realize how privileged I have
been and how important to have been blessed with great colleagues. It is

also long past time to publicly thank my wife, Lucille S. Rubin, for her
support and guidance as we formed SlIT and OISTAT and thereafter
continuously through all these many years (and for many nights spent
alone \viili our children when I was at meetings or traveling). Lucille is
internationally recognized in ilie field of voice training for actors, and I
believe very much regrets that SlIT has largely abandoned its early interest in the needs of actors, directors and playWrights.
Tonight, we are here to celebrate what USIIT has accomplished.
This week iliere is plenty to celebrate. However, it seemed to confirm my
sense that we are getting a bit moribund when I read in a pre-conference
issue of Sightlines iliat we now have official "Guidelines for Obituary 0tices." This is a new era in the theatrical profeSSion, in the industry, and
in theatre training. We need not only to be aware of the changes but we
need to be the leaders of many of these changes if we are to remain vital.
It's a lot easier, particularly when it's not your time that is involved,
to think of things that it would be good and important to do. In our volunteer organization thousands and thousands of hours are being contributed by those who are making USIIT work as well as it does. Leon
Brauner has recently written quite brilliantly on this subject.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2000