2018 OISTAT Education Meeting Minutes, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA

Meeting #1

Wednesday, March 14th: 11:30am – 12:45pm in Hilton Dolphin
 

1. Welcome & Introductions by Chair William Kenyon & Vice-Chair Anders Larsson.
   1. Please check roster to ensure that we have the best email address for you.
   2. Meeting called to order by Chair W. Kenyon at 11:30 am.
   3. A sign-in sheet was made available, and a current roster of the Commission membership was circulated for corrections & updates.
   4. Presentation of Agenda. i. A print out of the agenda was circulated.
2. Summation/acceptance of last meeting’s minutes. All prior meeting minutes are available on the OISTAT website. The prior meeting minutes was accepted by the delegates.
3. Chair’s report on October 2017 Executive Council/Governing Board Meetings in Budapest.
   1. Due to lack of time this presentation was postponed to the meeting march 15th.
4. Chair’s report on upcoming meetings & related events.
   1. OISTAT 50th Event – Cardiff, Wales, UK – Aug. 28th – Sept. 2nd, 2018.
      • W. Kenyon asked Sean Crowley for a general presentation of the Cardiff event. S. Crowley also announced that a new web-page will be opened in a few weeks.
      • It is still time to send in proposals for more activities. As an example of these types of activities is the one related to all types of “tempests”.
      • Focus for the meeting in Cardiff will be the celebration of “OISTAT 50 years”. Pamela Howard will be in charge for the presentation of the historical part of OISTAT 50 years.
      • All presenters are asked to focus more on “the celebration of OISTAT” instead of traditionally “academic presentations”.
      • Accommodations will be offered in the student dormitory.
      • S. Crowley also announced that there will be a call for the “blue army/volunteers” for approx. 10 days.
      • During the celebration in Cardiff there will also be information for PQ 2019 for display and a special call for an internship for approx. 16 students in Prague related to PQ 2019.
      • Hubert Eckhardt offered the historical information from the DTHG 110 years celebration to be (re)-used in the exhibition in Cardiff. The material will be accessible from a special Dropbox for the Cardiff team. In the same time H. Eckhardt also informed about the work of digitalization the archive of historical sources taking place at DTHG.
      • On the web the following information could be found:
        • “OISTAT@50” - A celebration of the work and people who have made OISTAT (Organisation Internationale des Scénographes, Techniciens et Architectes de Théâtre) such an important international and culturally influential part of the performance landscape over the last 50 years.
        • Between the 29th of August and the 2nd of September 2018 at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom, venue for World Stage Design 2013, OISTAT will create a series of public celebratory activities and events to mark its 50th anniversary.
        • Non-OISTAT Members are welcome as the organization hopes to develop new associations and friends.
        • The 5-day public celebration will include workshop and performance presentations, exhibitions, symposium and keynote speakers.
        • The OISTAT@50 event will include presentations and activity designed by the commissions and sub-commissions representing:
          a. Performance Design
          b. Space Design
          c. Costume Design
          d. Sound Design
          e. Lighting Design
          f. Video Design
          g. Theatre Architecture
          h. Technical Theatre
          i. Research
          j. Publication
          k. Education
        • Non-OISTAT members will pay a £25.00 registration fee.
        • Some activities and events will have additional costs associated.
        • BIB/ISDSWE – Beijing, China – Nov. 3rd – Nov. 8th, 2018.
          • In absence of Michael Ramsaur and Marina Raytchinova, W. Kenyon confirmed that the event will take place once again. As before it will be held at CAD – China’s Central Academy of Drama at their new campus in Beijing.
          • As far as we know for now it should not be any problem for students from all over the world to participate. This time we hope that several teachers and students from every participating country can participate. That deadline for application will probably be in the beginning of the summer.
        • 2019 Prague Quadrennial – Prague, Czech Republic – June 6th – 16th, 2019. ii.
          • W. Kenyon asked Markéta Fantová and Brad Lee to present how OISTAT will fit in to the PQ 2019 concept this time.
            • One idea for the moment is that OISTAT could be offered a dance-studio opposite to the Výstaviště fairground for their meetings. In return for that, some of the workshops should be opened for a wider audience than just the OISTAT members.
            • One other possible location for the OISTAT event is for the moment a hotel in the neighborhood.
          • The previous “Scenofest” (founded by the Education Commission in 2003) will now be under the PQ umbrella at the DAMU location in downtown Prague.
          • New for 2019 will be the site 360° where art and tech for light and sound will meet. One of the supporting companies for that will be ROBE. This will be the place for students with special projects to show their work.
        • 2019 Education Commission Meeting – Berlin, Germany.
          • The Education Commission is invited to hold it’s annual meeting in Berlin, Germany, along with Stage|Set|Scenery, just following PQ 2019.
          • Stage|Set|Scenery will run from June 18th to 20th, 2019, and there will be a bus to transport attendees from Prague to Berlin.
          • For the students in Germany, it will be near the end of the academic year (which ends in July).
          • One of the exhibition halls are dedicated to student activities like “live” painting of backdrops, make-up presentations for ex.
          • W. Kenyon will also invite other OISTAT Commissions to join us in Berlin
          • W. Kenyon also introduced Hubert Eckart and Christian A. Buschhoff, both representing DTHG, and they gave a short presentation of the ETTE project for the Education Commission members.
        • Future Education Commission Meeting Locations:
          • 2020 Education Commission Meeting – Helsinki, Finland?
            • The Education Commission has (tentative) started the planning for a meeting in Helsinki, Finland to be held during Lux Helsinki, January 2020 (maybe together with the OISTAT LDWG).
            • This will also be our next election cycle, with nominations due by end of the summer.
          • 2021 Education Commission Meeting – Manila, Philippines?
            • In beginning of March both the Education Commission and Technical Commission received an invitation to hold a combined meeting in Manila, Philippines, February 2021.
          • 2021 WSD in Calgary, Canada – August, 2021 in conjunction with OISTAT World Congress is another possibility.
            • There will be a lot of space for all type of activities but W. Kenyon raised the question – do we have time for our meetings when so many activities are going on in the same time?
          • TBA – Need proposals for future hosting – the following suggestions have been made:
            • Japan after Olympics.
            • Georgia.
            • Australia.
            • Mexico.
          1. Report of Commission Sessions held at USITT.
             1. W. Kenyon gave a short overview of all presentations during the USITT conference that you shouldn’t miss.
          2. Working Group Session to develop OISTAT Small Meetings Framework.
             1. We could develop a plan/framework to be distributed to all Commission Members for how to run a small meeting event. The Core idea is that everyone can arrange a ”one-night-event” followed up with a round table conversation.
             2. In Canada they have tried ”last night of the month”. Sabrina Hamilton told that this has developed as a way to encourage the audience to participate in discussion after a performance where there is a lack of regular theatre reviews or critics.
             3. Other important to focus on for these types of event will be:
                • Scope of event.
                • Cost of event.
                • Challenge to host at least one each year.
                • Social Media practices.
                • What can these events lead to 

** Due to lack of time for the meeting all of these was postponed for the meeting next day. **

Meeting #2

Thursday, March 15th – 9:30am – 10:45am in Hilton Dolphin

1. Chair’s report on October 2017 Executive Council/Governing Board Meetings in Budapest – postponed presentation from yesterday.
   1. Due to lack of time this presentation was taken out of the agenda. Chair W. Kenyon asked everyone to review the report and the meeting minutes on the OISTAT web page.
2. Working Group Session to develop OISTAT Small Meetings Framework.
   1. Postponed from the first meeting day:
      • Scope of event.
      • Cost of event.
      • Challenge to host at least one each year.
      • Social Media practices.
      • What can these events lead to?
   2. The following comments and ideas from the delegates were given:
      • April – last night of the month is example of an event of that kind.
      • Sabrina – do encourage to talk about the performance if you do not have any critic to refer to.
      • Aby – what type of informal pub-meetings should we support?
      • Ian – one outcome of MeToo has been the declaration from UK supreme court that it should be no informal meetings with teachers and students for example in pubs.
      • Aby – Let one country a time be host for an “web-based” informal meeting focused on theatre related questions.
      • Bert – we could apply for grants from STINT for translation of these type of “broadcasted” discussions.
      • Hubert – everyone could make small ”films” on their smartphone to share worldwide.
      • Anders – maybe it is too much to ask for to have these presentations once a month? Perhaps we could start with a pilot to find out problems like language barriers, time zone problems, etc?
      • Cynthia – OISTAT has a YouTube channel, a platform in LinkedIn and also in Facebook.
      • Hubert – I don´t think it is any problem to go ”on-line” once a month.
      • Christian – We could combine – smaller one once a month and something bigger every year.
      • Richard – It is interesting to hear your pros and cons, but for me the two essential question in this is; who is the driving force behind and what content should be sent out?
      • April – Yes, what should be in it. It doesn’t necessarily need be related to questions about education and training.
      • William – And maybe not about OISTAT either.
      • Aby – This should be about worldwide related questions.
      • William – I have an idea comparable to chain-letters – everything get started out of one important question, and then it goes on.
      • Cynthia – This could be launched under the banner of OISTAT 50 years.
      • Hubert – OISTAT is a mirror – I look into it and I see the world. Let everyone do short films related to themselves and send them out worldwide.
      • Ian Evans – asked the same question as Richard – is anyone interested to run this project – do we have any volunteer?
      • Richard – Well, yes I am interested to offer my help!
      • William – we will sit down to find out some kind of ”best practice” how to do this.
      • Aby – We need some kind of document that explains what this is about.
      • Nick – Spread the word.
      • Sabrina – and share back.
      • Hubert – Let us take today’s meeting as the ”kick-off” to launch this video-project with a short film announcing we start the project today!
3. Due to the lack of time for the meeting both these following questions were taken out from the today’s agenda:
   1. Membership & Promotion.
      • Building Membership in Commission & OISTAT.
      • How can we spread name & work of OISTAT Education?
      • Developing more international student travel opportunities.
        • Costs.
        • Partnerships.
        • Length of trips?
        • Faculty Exchanges?
4. Implementation of ETTE Training Project:
   1. H. Eckhardt and C. Buschhoff talked about the presentation they have given during the USITT conference and how the response was. It was also unions that were interested to learn more from the outcome of the project.
   2. Also, in the USA there is a similar project – eSet – and contact has been made to share results.
   3. W. Kenyon suggested that one test in the USA of the project could take place at Penn State University.
   4. One important question was raised – how do we train the trainers? H. Eckhardt explained how that was done in Cologne in Germany during the spring of 2017.
5. Other Commission Goals and Projects?
   1. I. Evans gave a very short presentation of the ”Favela-project” in east part of the Sao Paulo region.
   2. A. Larsson and I. Evans also did a short presentation with some conclusions from the Tempus-project in Serbia they had been involved in from 2012 to 2016.
   3. Conclusion.
      1. As the meeting time was over, it was no time for a traditional conclusion of the meeting.
      2. Instead the last minutes ended up with all delegates in the room lined up for a three-minute video-recording with greetings in ten different language.
      3. Finally, Chair William Kenyon thanked all delegates for their participation in the Education Commission meeting and closed the meeting.
   
    

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA Marsh 15th 2018

Anders Larsson
Vice Chair, OISTAT Education Commission

William Kenyon
Chair, OISTAT Education Commission