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Man-o-man, have i been champing at the bit to share the info about my own entry in this, but since there's an exhibit and a published catalogue that goes along with it, i felt that it would be best for the info to remain exclusive to the conference until after the fact.
So now, yay, i can write about it.
Tech Expo is a juried exhibit and accompanying text for which innovations in technical theatre are submitted, and the winning 20 or so articles are published in a bound catalogue, with an exhibit of the work on the Expo floor during the USITT conference. Usually, the vast majority of these are scenic machinery and props, with the majority of the costume submissions being crafts artisanship.
This year, i wrote up a submission for the parasol in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, which we created at PlayMakers earlier this season. The parasol was a true collaboration between myself, props master Meredith Rapkin, props assistant Elizabeth Moss, and master electrician Liz Vella. However, at the time that the abstracts were due, i was the only paid-up member of USITT so my name's the only one cited as an author. Credit is throughout the printed article however, and the accompanying poster and video also cites the contributions of local stage magicians and combustion consultants Michael Casey and Jon Ferrante.
Check out this video to see how it works:
In the coming weeks, the 2011 Tech Expo catalogue will get added to the USITT online bookstore, should you wish to read the article that goes along with it, which includes a full list of supplies and costs and the methods by which the flame-resistant canopy and ignition frame mechanism were created.
I will note a caveat here though, in case the video inspires anyone to reverse engineer it by intuition:
Make sure you have all the proper permissions and safety precautions mandated by your local Fire Marshall before attempting to create or deploy this stage effect. Make sure you have the knowledge and, if required by your state/city, licenses for working with pyro, flash paper/cotton, etc.
There were a bunch of other cool exhibits in the Expo, so click through for photos of a couple more...
( Read more... )
So now, yay, i can write about it.
Tech Expo is a juried exhibit and accompanying text for which innovations in technical theatre are submitted, and the winning 20 or so articles are published in a bound catalogue, with an exhibit of the work on the Expo floor during the USITT conference. Usually, the vast majority of these are scenic machinery and props, with the majority of the costume submissions being crafts artisanship.
This year, i wrote up a submission for the parasol in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, which we created at PlayMakers earlier this season. The parasol was a true collaboration between myself, props master Meredith Rapkin, props assistant Elizabeth Moss, and master electrician Liz Vella. However, at the time that the abstracts were due, i was the only paid-up member of USITT so my name's the only one cited as an author. Credit is throughout the printed article however, and the accompanying poster and video also cites the contributions of local stage magicians and combustion consultants Michael Casey and Jon Ferrante.
Check out this video to see how it works:
In the coming weeks, the 2011 Tech Expo catalogue will get added to the USITT online bookstore, should you wish to read the article that goes along with it, which includes a full list of supplies and costs and the methods by which the flame-resistant canopy and ignition frame mechanism were created.
I will note a caveat here though, in case the video inspires anyone to reverse engineer it by intuition:
Make sure you have all the proper permissions and safety precautions mandated by your local Fire Marshall before attempting to create or deploy this stage effect. Make sure you have the knowledge and, if required by your state/city, licenses for working with pyro, flash paper/cotton, etc.
There were a bunch of other cool exhibits in the Expo, so click through for photos of a couple more...
( Read more... )
