Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1967 - 3

EDITORIAL AND NEWS
CONFERENCES
Four conferences of the leaders in theatre in less than a
month, three of them specifically international, is a new
phenomenon for this ancient art. That these interchanges
happened to take place in New York, Washington and Montreal further underlines the continental scope of this activity
and growing governmental sponsorship in the Western Hemisphere. The stimulating relationship between the fast-growing
theatre and these life-promoting exchanges stood in clear relief on these occasions. Because some doubts have been
raised about the value of such meetings, because international meetings in the field of theatre are new on this continent
and because of the ensuing contributions, we should examine the dividends available in such investment, the growth
environment of our theatre explosion, and the responsibilities
we who are dedicated to the theatre must assume.
To begin we must be realistic in our expectations, however
much the American Utopian dream still deludes us to expect
the creation of an immediate panacea. The problems of the
theatre will probably never disappear; solutions will continue
to be piecemeal: the Proceedings in the following pages
bear ample testimony to re-emphasize the fact of improvement, but slow improvement. However, man ever expected
paradise the moment he was able to conceive it, and happily, his capacities enabled him to piece out a recognizable
if not a perfect facsimile of his dreams. So, though we have
our hem-and-haw detractors who see no purpose in coming
together to exchange our small success incentives and inform each other, we continue to do so, to inspire, to needle
and to help each other to improve. Isolation is not the answer in an ensemble art; give and take is, a practice which
the professional is dedicated to exercise.
The institutional variations represented by these meetings are
significant in themselves: the U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology met May 31 to June 3; the International Theatre
Institute followed immediately, June 4 to 11; the American
Educational Theatre Association was in session as the AETAInternational from June 14 to 18; the Theatre Colloquium
under ITI auspices and with Expo '67 stimulus, took place
in Montreal, June 19 to 25. This concentrated flurry of
meetings not only brought together from many parts of
the world the creative and administrative leaders of all departments of theatre, they also made evident that the fast
pace of change in our contemporary world had left its impact on the theatre. In journal after journal, book after book,
and pronouncement after pronouncement, including those of
blue-ribbon fact-finding committees, the revolution of computerization and automation, the increasing use of plastics,
the massive electronic takeover in control guidance and
communication, the refinement and increased use of strength
metals, the shrinkage of space and time in the solar system
and galactic spaces have been emphasized and explained;
above all, among and with these, systems analysis, because
of its potential for unifying functional planning, is breaking
down traditional resistance as an orderly organizational force. 1
In sharp contrast to this optimistic picture, a further series
in this communication revolution, sometimes in the same
pieces, reveals the explosive crises that are threatening to
engulf our successes with mushrooming problems. We are
tumbled out of our complacency. In fact, in response to this
crisis, the 50-year-old American Institute of Planners had its
second of three closely-spaced meetings in Washington,
D.C. to spell out the implications of these changes.

OCTOBER, 1007

The rate of change in the pre-twentieth century has increased at a snailpace. It is largely dependent on the discoveries of science, the translation of these into use by
technological invention and innovation, and the slow appearance of their implications in the philosophy and temper of
an era. However, in the 20th Century we have been impressed by the increasing pace of this rate of change: it
not only increases at a growing rate, the areas of change
are engulfing human pursuits over the entire globe. The significant and almost unappreciated element of this contemporary increase in rate of change is to be found in the
movements and activities in the arts and areas of social intercourse generally. It took modern art fifty years to make a
viable appearance in the theatre of the absurd. Impressionism in the literary and plastic arts was some three centuries
removed from its original philosophic stimulus and such a
classic as Dante's Divine Comedy presents a reasonable
facsimile of Aristotle's scientific and philosophic framework,
two points in time separated by more than a millenium and
a half. Obviously, this is an extreme example and other influences are discernible along the way. Yet particularly in
the Twentieth Century, there is a quickening response to
the increasing rate of change; there is hope that these unifying influences now at work, in part due to the information
explosion, will so express themselves in the arts and in the
social areas generally that there might be "one world" in
action as well as geographic fact, a whole man in action as
well as physiologic fact.
This translation is particularly apropos the rich resources
available from the social sciences as they relate to Man in
his many role-playing guises. The theatre is increasingly recognized for its potentialities and used for its contributions
in helping the participant to refresh and free his spirit in the
enlivening portrayal of the beauty, dignity, and vitality of
man. That this is done in a role-playing, problem-solving
context of an imitation of an action and that the drama of
all ages evaluates man's intellectual, social and cultural heritage drives home the need to use the researches in psychology, sociology, economics and government available today.
These meetings again and again amplified the swelling unrest and the creative stirring on the contemporary scene.
The Proceedings which follow in this issue are heartening
evidence of sensitive, vital, and often volatile reactions to
these changes in our world. The fact that these discussions
also reflect the technological revolution is but a comfortable
central tendency encompassed by the name of the organization: the United States Institute for Theatre Technology.
Another significant result of these meetings points to the
formation of an international theatre organization in the field
of technology. At the USITT and ITI conferences in New
York, steps were taken to arrange a meeting. Later at the
Theatre Colloquium through the agency of the Czechoslovakian representative a kind offer to be host and center for
this body was presented and led to action for organizational
steps. (The next issue of TD&T will contain specific details
of these developments.)
The international meeting is not just an extension of the
national: this juxtaposition of people engaged in like pursuits suddenly also exposes national differences. Whereas,
for example, we struggle nationally to bring architect, tenant,
owner, and designer together at one of our meetings not

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1967
