At day break, we were off to begin a day full of events that now looking back has seemed like a few days have gone buy rather than only few hours. Starting off the day was a session based on magic sheets which demonstrated the process of creating, laying out, maintaining, and the efficiency of computer generated magic sheets. Much of the discussion was based around the layout and the way that your eye moves around the page most efficiently. The second session and maybe the most inspirational session was the all conference keynote speaker address at the National Meeting held before the official opening of the conference. D Lynn Myers, the artistic director for Ensemble theater here in Cincinnati gave a address that was one of the most profound things that I have sat through. She addressed the state of theater and how it will move forward by an in-depth exploration of her past experience here at the Ensemble Theater. It was the respect that she showed while she spoke about the role her designers played in advancing her work that immediately won much popularity among the audience. Her messages were simple and for the most part quite clear in my own words believe & achieve. She spoke at length about how believing in what you are doing and the people you are surrounded by creates an environment of enthusiasm that may prevail against the worst events and odds occurring outside of the theater. She continued on in depth explaining how in the past the motivation and creative inspirations of her design team has helped the community at large survive the loss of numerous community members along with other tragedies that ultimately lead to the events that kept that same theater alive and its head above the water. My afternoon I spent my time touring the local Cincinnati Playhouse Theater in the park. This valuable session proved to be more valuable than ever conceived when an open, informal, and interactive dialog between professionals, me as visitors/guest and the full time staff that runs the facility, allowed them to begin to disclose the problems or difficulties that they had to overcome/work around. The most interactive session by far of the day was a session called “Knots, Knots, Knots.” A hands-on workshop that had a large expert to student ratio taught the knots every professional needs to have under their belt for a union call. UB riggers beware we have a few new knots up our sleeves.
