OISTAT is The International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians.
On Friday, April 12, there was conference of the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) in London. Meetings were held between theatre industry professionals and educators of theatre technology at various levels of the educational systems. For a day, we concentrated on questions concerning what the industry needs from the educators and what the educators need from the industry professionals. The attendance was predominantly UK, though there were attendees from the USA and many EU countries as well. The challenges to both the industry and the education systems in the UK and EU have significant overlap to the challenges being dealt with in the USA.
On Saturday, April 13 there was a day-long joint meeting of the OISTAT Education and Technology commissions. This was at the Academy of Live Technology in Wakefield, England. This included approximately twenty-two representatives from the EU, USA, Nigeria, and UK, as well as graduate students from the Academy. The emphasis was on how we teach technology in an era when the technology and media are changing so rapidly.
On April 15 and 16, the 2024 OISTAT Education & Technology Commissions International Symposium convened. This was attended by international representatives of the theatre industry for both technology and education. I delivered a presentation titled Virtual and Real: Resources for Theatre Education. This tied together group work from the ABTT meeting and Saturday’s joint OISTAT meeting with my own ongoing work with virtual spaces and resources.
