By: Richard Bryant, USITT Publications Committee, OISTAT Publications and Communications Commission Representative

This past summer, I had the opportunity to participate at the recent OISTAT PCC meeting held during the Stage | Set | Scenery Exposition at the Messe Berlin. The Messe Berlin are exhibition grounds located in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf precinct of Berlin, German. This was my first year attending the event and it was an excellent opportunity to meet many of our European counterparts.  

The meeting was held on June 19, 2019 in the Palais am Funktum, one of the flexible event spaces that is part of the host venue. Mr. Hubert Eckart, Chair of the Publication and Communication Commission, presided over the well-attended meeting and notes were taken by Mr. Anders Larsson, Assistant Lecturer from the Stockholm University of the Arts. The meeting was called to order and the previous meeting notes were given. Many of the attendees in the room had also come from the Prague Quadrennial (PQ) the week prior.

To open, the first presentation was given by a Mr. Maximillian Röger. His presentation was on the Martin Roth Initiative. The mission of the Martin Roth Initiavie is:

“The Martin Roth Initiative protects art and cultural workers who are committed to the freedom of the arts, democracy, and human rights in their home country by allowing temporary protection stays in Germany or in third countries. The cultural scenes and the local civil society in the host countries, which work together with the scholarship holders in the period of their support, accompany them and provide them with further professional development are of particular importance. The aim of the Martin Roth Initiative is to ensure a safe return home at the end of the program, or to lay the foundations for successful integration into host society.”

If you would like to learn more about this Initiative, click here.

Following this presentation was an update on current projects. The first being the new OISTAT Blog. Mr. Hubert Eckart presented the latest iteration of the blog which is currently up and available. It is presented in both English and German but can also be translated into various other languages by using the Google Translate option on the site. If you would like to share content/events and have it uploaded as part of the ongoing blog, send your information to centrale@dthg.de.  
 
An update on the long-running OISTAT project, Digital Theatre Words was given. A mobile version, unfortunately, has been delayed due to a lack of funding. There was some discussion that a software had come along that allows the developers to create an all in one application. The hope is that this could make it more affordable to produce across multiple platforms.  To learn more about this project, visit the OISTAT homepage and click on the Resource tab. There you will find the link to an explanation and download the Digital Theatre Words program for your computer.  

The final presentation was on the IM/MATERIAL THEATRE SPACES - VR and AR for cultural heritage - connecting past and future Visions of Theatre Architecture.  Developed by Pablo Dornhege, Franziska Ritter with Prof. Bri Newesely (Beuth HS) and Hubert Eckart (DTHG), “this 12-day workshop aims at the conception of mediation strategies for historical and future theater architectures as well as their digital implementation in physical, augmented and virtual spaces.”  

Pablo Dornhege, Franziska Ritter and Prof. Bri Newesely gave a formal presentation on the project both at the PQ Talks and at Stage | Set | Scenery respectively. They also had a display on the show floor in which to demonstrate this fascinating work.  If you would like to learn more, please click here or here.
 
To close the meeting, information was given on the upcoming World Stage Design 2021 event to take place in Calgary, Alberta Canada as well as on various smaller projects that are happening between various members. The meeting was approximately 2 hours.