Saturday brought USITT to a triumphant close. The heatwave hanging over Long Beach gave way to gentle sunshine and a light breeze as attendees made their way to the expo floor for the final time. Students rushed to the last of their workshops while vendors on the floor pulled out all stops for demos. The excitement and energy of the floor evened out into comfortable chatter.
In the midst of the show floor, I had the opportunity to sit down with Laura Lee Everett, the Executive Director of USITT. She is very proud of her work on this show and has every right to be. As of our conversation, the conference had welcomed 6,820 registered attendees. USITT has officially surpassed its pre-COVID attendance numbers.
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Everett plans on capitalizing on this momentum in the coming years. USITT is looking to build partnerships across the industry, including the crowd control and weather safety space. The goal is to scale up mentorship programs and help connect attendees to a broader range of technical training. This also covers life-long learning opportunities for those in early/mid-career.
Part of expanding the reach of USITT involves making an effort to include all disciplines under the theatre technology umbrella. The conference welcomed just under 700 working costumers, and the fabric fair space was a popular spot for professionals and costumers-in-training to get their hands on a number of textiles. "You can't shop fabric online," Everett said, "You have to be able to handle it in person."
What's her piece of advice for up and coming designers? To take the time to talk to people! "This is the place to come and meet your heroes," she said, indicating the USITT fellows gathered at the tables around us. "Take the time to have the conversations."
When it comes to meeting your heroes, there's no place like the show floor. Just a few steps away from the Career Campus booth sat the one and only Mark Stanley at the Studio School of Design booth. A nonprofit started in 2021 by Stanley and Clifton Taylor, the organization seeks to provide accessible and affordable lighting design education to students from underprivileged groups. Their primary program is a high school intensive in NYC, but they have resources available for anyone with a passion for lighting design.
These resources cover almost anything you can imagine. They provide basic technical curriculum to New York high schools, where teachers can demonstrate principals of lighting design with a handful of clip lights. They offer museum tours, where attendees learn to examine Renaissance paintings through the lens of lighting design. For working professionals, they provide online training sessions, like late-night Zoom lessons with Nick Solyom.
Through all of the work, the team keeps its focus on opening doors to those in marginalized communities. "Our commitment to diversity is behind every decision we make," Stanley said. This is backed up by their graduates; Darius Evans, a Studio School student, now attends Boston University under Mark Stanley's tutelage. He was also awarded the 2023 Pat McKay Diversity in Design scholarship.
As the conference came to a close, students took one last lap around the conference floor. Anything particularly shiny got extra attention, like the Kappel Rigging Trainer and the Mad Maxx at the GLP booth. When the PA sounded the close of the show floor, the reluctance to leave was obvious. Attendees wound their way back to the entrance of the convention center and made their way out into the sunshine. Another wonderful weekend with USITT has come to a close. Until next time: Baltimore, 2027!
Elena Hewett
(No part of this work was created with generative AI.)
Elena Hewett is a 2025 Pat MacKay Diversity In Design recipient currently completing a BA in Comparative Genocide Studies alongside a BFA in Lighting Design at at Western Michigan University. They have been offered employment at Upstaging this summer.