Cognitive Dissonance

Back from SETC

And.... we're back from the 57th Annual Southeastern Theatre Conference . For those who may not know, SETC is an annual gathering of southeastern regional theatres, summer stock theatres, and educational programs. It is the largest regional theatre conference in the country, and serves primarily as a time for theatre people to gather, share new ideas, and network. Many summer stocks, internships, graduate schools, and regional companies hire actors and technicians through a strenuous audition and interview process. There are parties, workshops, companies demo their new toys, community theatres, high schools, and colleges feature participate in play festivals, and everyone has a wonderful time.

IRCC goes each year to hire our interns for the next year, and to keep our finger on the pulse of the theatrical community. This year's conference was held in Orlando, FL, just a short hop from Fort Pierce. Here are some highlights from this year's conference.

Not many people looking for full time work attended this year. Most of the people passing by our booth were still in college and looking for summer work. However, the quality of our candidates this year was much higher than last year. We have several people in mind that would fit our program well. Now, if we can only get budgetary approval for the positions. That is still up in the air.

It was nice to see more sound-related presence this year. Sound is still very under-represented, but there were a couple (two or three) sound-related workshops during the conference, and a few of the manufacturers at the expo were in the field of sound.
For example: Shure made an appearance and presented a brief workshop on mic techniques. Also, Realtime Music Solutions, makers of the innovative and controversial "musical instrument" Sinfonia, was there for the first time.
(If you can remember the NY musician's union strike a few years ago, it was Sinfonia that prompted the strike. They were afraid that Sinfonia would drive live musicians out of the orchestra pit.)
Also appearing was Stage Research, makers of the SFX playback engine; and Notion Music, showing off their Notion music notation and playback software.

I had a very nice chat with the Shure people and they said that they were surprised at the number of sound people at the conference, and that they would like to do more for next year. In addition, I talked to a guy from StageResearch who might be interested in working with me on getting more sound content into the conference. (This year was my first wearing the pink "company rep" badge a the conference. Perhaps next year I'll be able to add a presenter's ribbon as well.

I also caught up with some old friends from Millsaps, Findlay, and others that I see only at the conference; as well as met a few new ones. So, all-in-all, the 57th Annual SETC was a rousing success!