Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2003 - 12

Marquette had hired a theatre consultant, Bob Brennan, whose partner was Fred Burke. (Some of you older members
may remember that Fred was one of the early members of the Institute.) Bob asked me if I was going to the USITT Conference
that year in St. Louis, and I said, "No, I don't belong to the Institute and I have never been to one of the conferences." He
said, "You really should go because you might learn something."
So I went to the Dean and applied for funds to go to the Conference. (Strangely enough, none of the faculty in the
Speech and Drama Department at that time traveled.) He had all this travel money that he didn't know what to do with.
Doesn't that sound like the Land of Oz?
He completely funded the trip-all my hotel bills, food, and so forth. If I remember correctly, I think the conference registration fee was thirty-five dollars. And that included a ticket for a free continental breakfast every morning
and a free cocktail every evening down on the exhibit floor. (We had a cocktail hour every night on the exhibit floor
before dinner.)
So I flew to St. Louis, registered for the conference, and on the first morning I went down for a cup of coffee and a sweet
roll, and sat down. As I was sitting there all by myself (I didn't know anyone around me), an elderly gentleman came up and
said, "May I share your table?" I replied, "Of course." In those days the type on the nametags was much smaller, and they
were much more difficult to read. I wanted to know who this guy was, so I leaned forward to read his name, got it in focus, and read, Harold Burris-Meyer. I almost couldn't eat! I know I didn't say anything to him. I was truly in awe of this
gentleman who had written the books that I'd studied and who was right here at the table with me!
Somehow I managed to finish my breakfast and go down to the exhibit floor where I was attacked by the Flying Monkeys-in the form of the Strand Lighting salesmen. (I was fair game because I was building a new theatre.) I was whisked off to
the land of Hancher Auditorium in the state of Iowa to look at the DDM dimming system. This group of New Yorkers from
Strand, and Bob Brenan and I, got on a plane and flew off to Iowa City which was a great treat for the people from New York.
One of the guys looked around at all of that flat land with no skyscrapers and asked, "Where are we," and another
pointed to the horizon and answered, "Look over there. Today is Thursday. That's Friday."

Every year,
as I get
ready to go a
conference, I
feel as
though I am
going off to
some
magical
place, not
unlike the
Land of Oz.

We looked at the dimming system at Hancher, and afterwards went out for a very nice dinner. We got on the plane to fly
back to St. Louis. Spring is tornado season in the Midwest. That flight still ranks as one of the worst I've ever had in my life. We
flew around and through tornados, and I really felt like Dorothy in the movie. We landed at the Quad Cities and then went
on to the greater Peoria airport. I was sitting in the back of the plane with Martin Moore who is from Great Britain.
When the announcement came that we were going to land at the greater Peoria airport, he turned to me and said, "My
god, there really is a Peoria? It's not just a name you make up for the films?"
After we left Peoria, the weather calmed down enough so the attendant was able to offer a beverage service. "Would
any of you like a drink?" Our group was about the only group on the plane, and everyone raised their hands. Martin and
I were sitting in the back of the plane and were the last to be served. Just as we got our drinks, we hit a huge air pocket
and the plane dropped rapidly. I still have this image of all these globs of liquid in the air, and then all these wet people.
Over the years, a number of the Strand folks became good friends and great sources of knowledge about lighting.
We got back to St. Louis all right, and I spent the rest of the time at the conference. I spent a lot of time on the exhibit floor where I saw all the new stuff. Nobody had a memory light board in Milwaukee at that time. I'd come from Seattle and nobody had one there, either.
There were all kinds of things to see-but the people especially amazed me. Not just the salesmen, but also the
people who designed the equipment! And then I found other people who had written the books that I was teaching
from, or had learned from. I also met people who were doing what I was doing- making theatre. I had discovered a
place where I could exchange information and learn things. The conferences have, for me, been a source of post-graduate education for the thirty-one years that I've been attending.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2003