Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1976 - 10

The Program and Executive Committees met in Prague
in October, 1970 and accepted membership appl ications
from Great Britain, Finland, the Netherlands, Rumania
and Sweden. The theme for the 2nd Congress was rearranged to deal both with theatre in multi-purpose halls
and new expressions of theatre and scenography.
The Program and Executive Commissions met in East
Berlin in Feburary, 1971. A second part of this meeting
dealt with problems in theatre ed ucation with speakers
from seven countries reporting on their current methods
of training. As a result OISTT initiated a commission on
Theatre Ed ucation to be Chaired by Paul Jahnichen of the
German Democratic Republic.
2ND CONGRESS OF OISTT

Right: The late Prof. Dipl. Ing. Walther Unruh, GFR,
First President of GISTT. Left: Then Vice-President
Dr. Joel E. Rubin, USA.

The 2nd Congress of OISTT took place June 6-12,
1971 in conjunction with the Prague Quadrienalle, the
international exhibition of scenic design and theatre
architecture. Over twenty papers were delivered including
major contributions by Strezlecki of Poland, Schechner
of the United States, Svoboda of Czechoslovakia, Wever
of the German Democratic Republic, Bablet and Guillaumot of France, Bykov and Krasilnikov of the Soviet
Union. Thirty countries were represented with over 200
attend ing the Congress alone.

United States. Commissions established at this initial
congress were:

Concrete proposals were submitted at this Congress
for O.I.S.T.T. commission work including:

Technicians:
many
Architecture:
Scenography:
slovakia
Publications:
States

An International Dictionary of Technical Theatre
Terms in seven languages.
An International Documentation Center for OISTT
Archives
The establishment of an OISTT quarterly bulletin.
Safety Regulations in Theatres
International Guide to Principle Theatre Buildings
A Publication on Multi-Purpose Theatre Buildings

Chaired by Thomas Munter of West GerChaired by Jacque Neuckens of Belgium
Chaired by Lad islav Vychodil of CzechoChaired by Ned Bowman of the United

A fifth commission established at tliis time has proven
of the utmost importance to O.I.S.T.T. growth and
development. This Program Commission was composed
of the Chairpersons of the four other commissions and
had, as additional members, distinguished theatre workers
from, at the time, non-member countries of OISTT.
It is the Program Commission's task to plan the further
congresses of the OISTT. Its initial composition of representatives from non-member countries served to draw
most of these countries into O.I.S.T.T. membership.
The first Chairman of the Program Commission was Dr.
Denis Bablet of France.
ADDITIONAL MEETINGS
Following this 1st OISTT Congress, and before the
next Congress which was set for two years later, June of
1971, five meetings took place which served to firm the
foundations of the newly-established O.I.S.T.T.
The Program Commission met in Prague in October,
1969 under Chairman Bablet to begin work on the 2nd
Congress, choosing the subject of theatre architecture.
The Executive Commission met in Prague in February,
1970 to implement activities of the various commissions.
Professional members of OISTT met in Ulm, West
Germany in July, 1970 on the occasion of the 37th
Buhnentechnische Tagund for a one-day conference on
lighting and acoustics.

FALL,1976

At this Congress Dr. Ota Ornest the Secretary-General
announced his resignation due to "pressure of other
work" and the Secretariat was temporarily assumed by
the staff of the Prague Theatre Institute. In the elections
for officers, Prof. Unruh declined to run for a second
term. Dr. Rubin of the United States was elected President with Mr. Ciulei of Rumania and Mr. Vajda of Hungary elected as Vice-Presidents. Three additional memberships were accepted, those of Poland, Norway and Egypt,
making 17 member nations of OISTT.
MEETINGS BETWEEN THE 2ND & 3RD CONGRESSES
If the first OISTT Congress had agreed on a need for
an international organization, the second had shown
that the organization could function democratically.
Faced with the unexpected resignation of Dr. Ornest
the members of the various nations agreed on a discussion
procedure that avoided recriminations and polemics.
The debate was remarkably free from bias and regional
politics and provided the opportunity to hunt for a
successor without forcing the election process. This
procedure was to prove effective again in late 1975 and
1976 when world political issues were suddenly interjected into the 4th OISTT Congress and the delegates
responded again as world theatre people, not political
representatives of anyone country.

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

USITT

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