USITT Seeks Performance Art Entries for International Exhibit

Theatrical designers are invited to submit work in a "weather" vein for a display of the best of American performance design between 2013 and 2016.

Submissions are due by July 14, and selected designs will be featured in the USITT-USA National Exhibit to the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, June 15-25, 2015, in Prague, Czech Republic.

The Prague Quadrennial has been described as the Olympics or World's Fair for performance designers. USITT is in charge of U.S. exhibits to the PQ, which has been held every four years since 1967.

USITT's team of curators includes Academy Award-winning set and costume designer Tony Walton, Broadway costume design star Carrie Robbins, and Tony-nominated scenic and lighting designer Kevin Rigdon. Markéta Fantová, USITT vice president for international activities, is artistic director.

The team invites artists in the areas of performing art, scenography, architecture, urbanism, and performance art to submit work evoking the power and beauty of weather.

Fantova says PQ 2015 organizers chose an overall theme of Shared Space: Music, Weather, Politics 2013-2016, and asked national exhibition curators to focus on one of the three. The U.S. team chose weather, describing their vision for the exhibit as "a vortex designed to hold the hurricane of human emotions."