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possess. In our industry, USITT has been a leader and supporter of ESTA’s Entertainment
Technician Certification Program. Why? Because our members are those individuals that
will benefit from the safe practices of riggers and electricians throughout the industry.
They are our members, you know, so it’s incumbent upon us to be proactive and be in the
forefront there, and in other areas as well.
David Grindle: One of the things that we are doing is making sure that other arts
service orgs are aware of us and the activities that we are doing—because for many of
them they have no programming for their production personnel. For example, a strategic
partnership that was actually started in 2009 but has really come nicely to fruition is
with the Educational Theatre Association, which is the organization for middle and high
school theatre teachers. One of the great voids out there is professional development
workshops in technical theatre for these types of teachers. And USITT and EDTA have
partnered together to develop a PDI, Professional Development Institute. We did the
first one in Cincinnati in 2009 and we will do another in Charlotte. We’ll be able to teach
design, technical theatre and theatre safety to high school teachers, many of whom don’t
have a large technical theatre background but suddenly find themselves being a theatre
department of one.
While not all of them are candidates for USITT membership, what we have to offer them
is good for their membership and helps ensure the future of the industry. It also ensures
safe practices in theatre are being taught from the beginning. To me that’s one of the great
partnerships that is developing.
The “Keys to Collaboration: Successful Teams and Building” panel at the 2010 USITT Stage Expo in Kansas City, presented by USITT’s
Architecture Commission. From left to right: Robert Shook, ASTC, IALD; Pete Ed Garrett, AIA; Gene Leitermann, ASTC; and Dawn R. Schuette,
AIA, LEED AP.
“One of the beauties of USITT’s membership is
the vast expanse of experience that it covers.”
—David Grindle
Justin Lang, iSquint.net
One of the benefits of USITT is the huge amount of knowledge and history available to all members—the 2010 Expo included an
exhibit on advances in incandescent luminaires.