By Ivo Kersmaekers
Our last meeting was at the PQ in Prague in June 2015.
Following that meeting, the Theatre Timeling Group went on a bus trip along several Czech historic theatres, that were renowned for their historic machinery.
We visited the Estates theatre in Prague, the castle theater in Litomyšl and the theatre in Kačina palace.
During the bus ride we were treated to interesting presentations from Bruno Forment, Peter Ruthven Hall, Stefan Gräbener and Chris van Goethem.
Several members also developed individual initiatives.
Stefan Gräbener (DE), from the Initiative Theater Museum Berlin published a very nice book about theatre historic facts, including articles from Jerome Maeckelbergh, Chris van Goethem and Ivo Kersmaekers.
The book is also available as free download from www.initiative-theatermuseum.de
Chris Van Goethem (BE) developed his 1:4 model of the Baroque machinery into a traveling model.
It will be on display at the next Research Commission meeting in Stockholm in June.
Several demonstrations are planned, including for the International Federation for Theatre Research conference.
Richard Bryant (US) is actively expanding the “Archiving Technical Theater History” Facebook page, gathering theatre technical artefacts from many international contributors.
For our next meeting we’re exploring several possibilities, the new electronic equipment museum of AED-group in Belgium being one of them.
We’re still open for all possibilities, and proposals.
