Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1968 - 3

OFFICIAL NOTICE: 1968 USITT CONFERENCE
The USITT will hold its Eighth Annual Conference Further information may be obtained by writing
in Chicago, Illinois, commencing the evening of USITT Conference, 245 West 52nd Street, New
Wednesday, May 22nd, with cocktails and regis- York, New York 10019; or Glenn Naselius of the
tration and continuing on Thursday, May 23, 24, Goodman Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, who will be
local arrangements chairman.
25, 1968.
The panels and discussions will be held in audi- Members interested in presenting papers or in
torium facilities in the Chicago Area. Among the serving on panels during the conference are invited
sites being considered are The Auditorium Theatre, to register their interest with the Program Chairman
Goodman Theatre, Orchestra Hall, Illinois Institute Bernhard R. Works, 2nd Vice-President, Lincoln Hall
of Technology, and the Chicago Lighting Institute. Theatre, University of Illinois,Urbana,lllinois 61803.

OBITUARY: Harvey K. Smith
Harvey Kennedy $mith, former head of Yale's Stage Lighting Department, died in New Haven on January 26, 1968
at 63 and after a long illness. After several years in the
shipping and aircraft businesses, Prof. Smith returned to
Yale and received an MFA degree in Drama in 1948. After
two years at Illinois Wesleyan University, he returned to Yale
as assistant and eventual successor to Stanley McCandless.

His health forced his retirement in 1967, after which he
served as a lighting consultant and worked on a revised edition of Scene Design and Stage Lighting (Holt, Reinhart
and Winston) which will be released soon.
Harvey Smith's generosity with his time, and his singular
ability to work with young people will be sorely missed.
W. Oren Parker

EDITORIAL: The Theatre Information Game
With this issue, TD&T concludes three years of quarterly
publication. During production of those twelve issues, I have
come to appreciate increasingly the universal truth in that
ironic image of the Wizard of Oz as seen from fore and aft.
It is a properly theatrical image, to be certain. Seen from
the front, a voluntarily staffed professional magazine affects
at least a sense of the inscrutability of the well-oiled, hambertone grey-finished mechanical grace of a publishing house.
One envisions the assembled grandeur of personalities from
the magazine's masthead, seated at a long table and (illuminated by overhead instruments 45° to right and left)
deliberating at length over the imbalance towards proscenium
theatre coverage in recent issues-or on the desirability of a
special mono-thematic issue on Technology· for Emerging
African Theatres. Never mind if the board room is loaned by
a university or an equipment manufacturer, the image should
come to focus.
To the USITT member, still, it should come only as a mild
surprise-if at all-to look behind and discover the imposing
facade is braced with bailing wire, and the only employee in
sight wearing an ink-stained undershirt and fingering a freshman English composition handbook.
One of the true surprises of TD&T's early days was that,
above certain professional level, one man's vital news is
frequently anathema to another, One might expect a lighting
expert serving as editorial committee member to insist on
any reasonable lighting manuscript that appears. But the converse is more nearly true: whether because he's already
learned the same thing weeks ago, or perhaps because he'd
occasionally just like to give that opinion, he's likely to feel

FEBRUARY 1968

there is little of value in the manuscript under consideration
for a TD&T audience. Two other specialists of equally high
competence in other specialties may find the same lighting
article a vital contribution towards chronicl ing the state of
the art--but will simultaneously want to throw out contributions relating to their own specialties in architecture, management, or whatever.
An important analogy can be drawn to the possible benefit
of the majority of TD&T readers. The average New Yorkbased journal reader may find less which is genuinely novel
in its pages than the reader who is geographically farther
afield. Performing arts explosion or not, more new and newsworthy events and ideas are still to be encountered in
Manhattan than on any other similar-sized piece of geography. Early reports and statements of USITT purpose frequently mention the necessity for improved "communication," "dissemination," and "dialogue" as a means towards
better theatre art. The realities of USITT's work-a-day existence require that its daily problems be solved by New Yorkbased members of an Executive Committee. It is important,
however, as the organization expands and its services are
re-evaluated periodically, that primary emphasis remain on
communication: conferences, newsletters, reports (published),
and the journal.
On the USITT member afield falls the responsibility for communicating his reactions (communication being always a twoparty affair). The Institute's officers are never more than
a 6¢ stamp or a 90¢ phone call away (at 212-PL7-7138l.
If you want to change or improve your Institute, then reactcommunicate.
Ned A Bowman

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1968