ASTC’s Forum 99 in San Francisco was on of our best attended with over 40 members and guests and a packed weekend of events. Theatre tours were conducted at Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens, War Memorial Opera House, American Conservatory Theatre and Davies Symphony Hall.

The topic of this year’s Forum was opera house design and function in the North American and how various opera companies are unique. Technical Directors from four major US opera companies participated in the discussions. Guest participants included Robert Schaub from the Seattle Opera, John David Peters from the San Diego Opera, Drew Landmesser from the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Patrick Markle from the San Fransico Opera and John Priest formerly with the San Francisco Opera. Topics of discussion included program requirements and design of front and back of house spaces, state of the art technology, safety, staffing and current trends in operations.

The ASTC Intern Program was initiated at Forum 99. The ASTC Intern Program is designed to introduce interested students to the field of theatre consulting. Applications were solicited at collegiate Drama and Architecture departments across the country. Four participants were accepted to join in all of the ASTC functions and to partake in a mentoring session with select ASTC members. Interns receive a certificate of completion at the end of the weekend. Participating interns this year were; Alex Bagnall and Jody Kovalick who are currently in the MFA program in the Yale School of Drama with emphasis in theatre engineering, Kimberly Long who has a Masters from the University of Texas School of Architecture and Jennifer Zeller who has a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of Minnesota. The success of this year’s Intern Program was a wonderful kick-off to future programs.

Theatre Tours Contact Information

American Conservatory Theatre
Leslie Pierce Facilities Manager
30 Grant 6th floor
San Francisco, CA 94108
439-2491

Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens
Joe Villatoro – Director of Operations
701 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
978-2710 978-9635

Davis Symphony Hall
John Kieser
201 Van Ness
San Francisco, CAF 94102
552-8000

San Francisco Opera
Patrick Markle – Technical Director
Rob Hill – Assistant Lighting Designer
Max Christensen – Sound Engineer
301 Van Ness
San Francisco CA, 94102