Shirley Prendergast and Bob McCarthy Accept Distinguished Achievement Awards at USITT 2014 Conference

Author and audio engineer Bob McCarthy received the 2014 Distinguished Achievement Award in Sound Design at USITT's 54th Annual Conference & Stage Expo on Wednesday, while trail-blazing lighting designer Shirley Prendergast accepted the 2014 Distinguished Achievement Award in Lighting Design at on Thursday.

USITT sound commissioner Curtis Craig presented the award to McCarthy in honor of his many contributions to sound design for live entertainment. McCarthy is an authority on loudspeaker system optimization and helped pioneer the concept of sound measurement in the 1980s while developing the SIM audio analyzer for Meyer Sound.

"I'm still learning," McCarthy said during a session devoted to his career. "Each time a new loudspeaker comes out, I'm like, 'Well, guess I'm obsolete now' ... But you still need to do the work. You've still got to get that mic up at the top row."

About 200 fans of sound design and McCarthy attended his award presentation at USITT's biggest annual event, the four-day Annual Conference & Stage Expo in Fort Worth.

On Friday, McCarthy will participate in a panel with the five other 2014 USITT Distinguished Achieverment Award winners: Oscar-winning costume designer Ann Roth, SNL and Wicked scenic designer Eugene Lee, Prendergast, Texas stage manager and mentor Susan Threadgill, and technical theatre educator Dana Taylor.

During his award session Wednesday, Craig showed photos of McCarthy from his early days as a roadie for the Grateful Dead and other rock bands, which introduced him to John Meyer of Meyer Sound and the SIM project.

"The Grateful Dead were the first band to really let us go (experimenting with the sound system) in 1984," McCarthy said. "The other rock bands didn't really want us to change anything. The Dead were totally the other way. They were, 'If you're not going to change things, like, what's the point?'"

McCarthy is the author of four books on sound design, including the field's leading reference, Sound Systems: Design and Optimization. He is known as a generous educator who still shares his expertise in seminars around the globe. He recently returned to Meyer Sound as director of system optimization after several years as a freelance consultant.

McCarthy stayed late Wednesday to present another sound design award, the Robert E. Cohen Sound Achievement Award, to Mercer Aplin of Purdue University as part of USITT's Young Designers & Technicians in the Performing Arts Awards.

On Thursday, USITT Lighting Design & Technology co-Commissioner Vickie Scott presented the award to Prendergast in recognition of her ground-breaking career in lighting design.

Prendergast entertained a crowd of admirers with stories of studying lighting design in the 1960s at Lester Polokov's Studio of Stage Design in New York, becoming the first African-American woman to pass the lighting design exam for United Scenic Artists Local 829 in 1969 and the first black female lighting designer on Broadway in 1973.

Her mentee, Kathy Perkins, who became the second African-American female lighting designer to join Local 829 in 1987, asked Prendergast if she was aware of her "firsts" at the time.

"I didn't know that," Prendergast said. "I just knew what I wanted to do, and if you wanted to come along with me, fine. But I was going to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. And that's about it."

Prendergast, who studied lighting design at night while working for the City of New York as a bacteriologist, went on to design for Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional theatre. Her previous awards include the 2011 "Viv" (Vivian Robinson/Audelco Awards for Excellence in Black Theatre) Lighting Design Award for Knock Me a Kiss.