Yi Zhao is a Beijing-born, Paris-raised and U.S.-educated lighting designer currently based in Berlin and working internationally, whose designs for theater, opera, live music and dance are informed by a rigorous background in fine art photography and a passion for music. His lighting designs have been seen at Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Signature Theatre, Soho Rep., Ars Nova, the Guthrie Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, The Wilma Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Opera Omaha, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Curtis Institute of Music, ArtsEmerson, Philadelphia FringeArts, Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and Ballet de Lorraine in France, among others. He has collaborated with directors & choreographers Lileana Blain-Cruz, Sarah Benson, Blanka Zizka, Les Waters, Liz Diamond, Joel Ferrell, James Bundy, Miguel Guttierrez, Michael Counts, Desdemona Chiang, Ralph Peña, Chris Bayes, Alec Duffy, Charlotte Brathwaite, and Nicole Canuso, among others. He holds degrees from the Yale School of Drama and the University of Chicago, and is a recipient of the 2016 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Theatre.

PQ&A - USITT at the 2019 PQ

Yi Zhao

Hannah Wasileski is a visual artist and projection designer based in Berlin. She found her way into the visual and performing arts through her background as a classical violinist. Beginning as a video and installation artist after graduating with a BA in Music and Visual Art from the University of Brighton, UK, she moved to New York City where she was drawn to the interaction of live performance and projection design for the stage. She graduated with an MFA from the Yale School of Drama where she was in the inaugural class for Projection Design. Hannah creates animations, moving paintings, films, and architectural projections in the context of opera, theatre, installations and concerts, and she collaborates with composers and musicians to make music videos. Her work has been shown in the US and Europe, and has received numerous awards, including a Lucille Lortel and an Obie. Recent designs include: The Magic Flute (Staatsoper Berlin), Water by the Spoonful (Mark Taper Forum), Sleep (BAM), Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theater), La Voix Humaine (National Sawdust), The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Signature Theatre), Angel’s Bone (Prototype Festival), The Wreckers (Bard SummerScape Opera), and The World is Round (BAM). Her video installations have been exhibited in London, Brighton, and Glasgow.

Hannah Wasileski

Brad Ward is a New York City-based Sound Designer. He works as a Senior AV and Theatrical Systems Designer at DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky.With his expertise in theatrical sound design and the academe, Brad is available for commissioned projects, teaching, and workshops on a freelance basis.Previously, Brad worked as Assistant Professor of Audio Engineering Technology at Belmont University in Nashville, Project Manager for Blitz Communications in London, and Lead Audio for Cirque du Soleil’s The Beatles LOVE in Las Vegas.Brad serves on the education committee for the Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association, is a vice commissioner for sound for United States Institute for Theatre Technology, and is a member of the Association of Sound Designers in the UK. He was the curator for Sound Kitchen at World Stage Design 2017 in Taipei. Brad enjoys sharing his knowledge through lectures and adjunct teaching assignments.Brad holds an MFA degree in Sound Design from Yale School of Drama.Sunny Kil is originally from South Korea. First earning an MFA in sound design at the University of Cinncinnati, College Conservatory of Music, she then spent five years on the faculty of the University of Central Oklahoma. In 2014 she was appointed assistant professor, Department of Theatre Arts, at SUNY New Paltz. Her sound design credits range from the musicals Caffeine at the Roppongi Blue Theatre in Tokyo, Japan, to Flipside at 59E59 in New York City.Manhattan Repertory Theatre featured her original compositions in their production Removal. Solitary Musicians, a musical she created and designed for 202 Productions in Seoul, was a finalist at the Uijeongbu International Music Theatre Festival and was invited to perform at the first Maronnier Festival in 2011.She was associate sound designer for the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Brad Ward & Sunny Kil

Christopher & Justin Swader are New York-based identical twin scenic designers for theatre, opera, puppetry, site-specific performance and live events. Recent collaborations include designs with Two River Theater, Miami New Drama, The New Victory Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Big Apple Circus, Sotheby’s, National Geographic, Lincoln Center Education, ArtsEmerson, Emerson String Quartet, IBEX Puppetry, La MaMa, Park Avenue Armory, National Black Theatre, York Theatre Company, Ars Nova, 3LD, HERE Arts Center, Trusty Sidekick, Luna Stage, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Manhattan School of Music, Kitchen Theatre Company, Mason Holdings. Their design for JARRING was exhibited at the 2017 World Stage Design. 2016 American Theatre Wing Henry Hewes Design Award Nomination, 2017 AUDELCO Award, 2018 IRNE Award, Boston. Originally from Indiana, they are graduates of Ball State University. www.cjswaderdesign.com

Christopher & Justin Swader

Todd Rosenthal (Set Designer) is a Chicago based set designer. Broadway: August Osage County (Tony Award), The Motherfucker with the Hat (Tony and Outer Critics Circle Nomination), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Tony Award Best revival), Of Mice and Men, This is Our Youth, Fish in the Dark, Straight White Men, and the upcoming Linda Vista. Select Off Broadway premieres: Red Light Winter, Barrow Street Theater; Domesticated, Lincoln Center; Qualms, Playwrights Horizons; Close Up Space, Manhattan Theatre Club; Nice Fish, St. Ann’s Warehouse. Set designer for 6 years for the Big Apple Circus. International: August Osage County (National Theatre, London, Sydney Theater, Australia); The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Theatre Royal, Ireland); Nice Fish, (Harold Pinter Theatre, West End, London); Madama Butterfly, Dublin, Ireland; and the upcoming Downstate at the National Theatre in London. Regional: Steppenwolf (33 productions), Goodman (artistic partner), Chicago Shakespeare, Guthrie, Mark Taper Forum, ART, La Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep, Alley Theater, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and many others. Select Museum Exhibitions: Mythbusters: The Explosive Exhibition and The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes. Other select awards: 2019 Distinguished Achievement Award (United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT), Laurence Olivier, Helen Hayes, Ovation, Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, Joseph Jefferson, Suzi Bass, and the Michael Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration. Full Professor, Northwestern University. Graduate, Yale Drama.

Todd Rosenthal

ERHARD ROM (Set & Projection Designer from Seattle Washington), has designed settings for more than 200 productions around the globe and in 2015 he was named as a finalist in the International Opera Awards in London.His designs have frequently been featured in the Prague Quadrennial International Design exhibition.He has collaborated with many of the world’s leading directors and companies including; San Francisco Opera (Susannah, Lucia di Lammermoor, Nixon in China), Royal Swedish Opera (Nixon in China), Seattle Opera (Semele, La bohème, Eugene Onegin), Washington National Opera (Silent Night), Wexford Festival (Silent Night), Houston Grand Opera (Rigoletto), Vancouver Opera (Dead Man Walking, Otello), Glimmerglass Festival (A Blizzard on Marblehead neck, Later the Same Evening, Silent Night), Opera Theatre of St. Louis (Faust, Jane Eyre, Carmen), Minnesota Opera (The Shining, Dead man Walking, Rusalka, Romeo and Juliet). Other companies include;Boston Lyric Opera, Opéra de Montréal, Atlanta Opera, Wolf Trap, Syracuse Stage, Geva Theatre Center, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz and Merrimack Repertory Theatre among many others.In 2014 he designed the European premiere of “Silent Night” for the Wexford Festival and the 2015 Irish Times Theatre Awards Ceremony gave it two accolades, including audience choice and best opera production of 2014.Mr. Rom also teaches design at Montclair State University in New Jersey.

Erhard Rom

Ripe Time, is an Obie-winning theatre company founded in 2000 and led by director and deviser Rachel Dickstein. We develop and present ensemble-based theatre with rich language, visual power, and physical rigor. We tell stories from the inside out, using the language of memory, imagination and associative thought to trace how women negotiate identity in the face of cultural constrictions. Inspired by the most searing writing and cinema of the past, we create original multidisciplinary events for the 21st century celebrating women’s dreams and awakenings.

Ripe Time

Josafath Reynoso is a Mexican scenographer and Scenic Designer currently working in the US as a freelance designer and an Assistant Professor at the University of Richmond. He holds an MFA in Scenic Design from UT Knoxville and a BFA in Scenography from Escuela Nacional de Arte Teatral. Regional venues include: Triad Stage, Virginia Sage Company, Alice Jepson Theatre, Clarence Brown Theatre, Lexington Children’s Theatre, Donald Bedell Performance Hall, among others. International venues include: Teatro del Borde (Argentina), Escena 8 (Venezuela), KCDC (Israel), Teatro Salvador Novo (Mexico), Industrial Palace (Czech Republic), among others.Winner of the 2017 Gold Medal at World Stage Design in Taiwan, 2015 USITT National Scene Design Award, 2014 SETC Scenic Design Award, 2013 BroadwayWorld Award, and the SETC Ready-for-Work Award, among many others.He was selected as curator for the exhibit Mexico Rising: New exponents of performance design at USITT 2018, keynote speaker at Stage|Set|Scenery (Berlin), presenter at the International Biennale of Architecture (Buenos Aires), one of fifteen designers selected to present at 2015 USITT Young Designer’s Forum and the 2015 National Design Portfolio Review in NYC. He has represented the US in Germany, and Wales; and Mexico in Taiwan, the Czech Republic and Venezuela.

Josafath Reynoso

Regional: The Three Musketeers, Romeo and Juliet (Denver Center Theatre Company); Othello, Julius Caesar, The Man in the Iron Mask, Henry IV, Parts One and Two(Shakespeare Santa Cruz); Circle Mirror Transformation, No Man’s Lands, Seven Guitars, Invisible Hand, The Duchess of Malfi (Artists Repertory Theatre); A Lesson Before Dying; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Master Harold . . . and the Boys (Profiles Theatre Company); Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Pinocchio, El Zorrito, Peter Pan(Northwest Children’s Theater); Lorca in a Green Dress; Adriente Paciencia; Elliot, a Soldier’s Fugue (Miracle Theatre); Charlotte’s Web, Tuck Everlasting, BFG, Holes, Cyrano (Oregon Children’s Theatre).Other credits: Associate artist in composition, Shakespeare Santa Cruz. Awards: 2000–2001 Drammy, Sound Design and Composition, for a season of outstanding work at multiple theatres; 2001–2002 Drammy in Composition (Tuck Everlasting); 2004 Drammy in Composition (Lorca in a Green Dress). Education: MA, Music, Manhattan School of Music; BA, Music, University of Arizona.

Rody Ortega

Originally from Maine, Tony Award winning lighting designer Tyler Micoleau has lived in Brooklyn for the last 24 years. He has designed extensively throughout New York as well as regionally and internationally, for world premiere plays, musicals and operas as well as outdoor spaces and touring pieces.His work can currently be seen on Broadway in The Band’s Visit at the Barrymore Theater and Be More Chill at the Lyceum Theater.Other New York designs for Lincoln Center Theater, the Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Manhattan Theater Club, Atlantic Theater, Signature, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Vineyard Theatre, New Georges, Epic Theatre Ensemble, Page 73, Rattlestick, Barrow Street Theater, Foundry Theatre, The Play Company, Soho Rep and many others.Regional designs for the Huntington Theater, Alley Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, the Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, Trinity Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theater, Kansas City Rep, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Wilma Theater, Pig Iron Theatre, the Folger, Long Wharf Theater and many others.Opera designs for palm beach Opera, Dallas Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, PORTopera, Curtis Opera, Manhattan School of Music, and Connecticut Grand Opera.Dance design for Eliot Feld’s Mandance Project at The Joyce Theater, Neil Greenberg and The Chase Brock Experience.Fine art installation projects include 2×4 Tree (PIFA Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts), Åhus Sommaren 1974 (Bellwether Galleries, Chelsea NYC), Beneath the Floorboards (Ohio Theater Gallery, Soho NYC).Tyler has served on the faculty at Sarah Lawrence College and has been a visiting artist at Dartmouth College, Yale University, Bates College and his alma matter, Bowdoin College.

Tyler Micoleau

Carlo is a scenic and production designer, native of the Philippines and is based in Los Angeles, working internationally in multiple fields from theatre, film, live events, and installation art. Previous credits include the French national tour of ‘Fore!’ by Aleshea Harris, and directed by Arnaud Meunier (St. Etienne, Paris, Nice, FR. Brussels, BE). West Coast premiere of Erin Courtney’s ‘A Map of Virtue’ (Atwater Village Theatre), Rosanna Gamson’s ‘Still/Restless’ (REDCAT), and ‘The Enormous Wound’ with Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre (Boston Court Theatre). He has served as Associate Designer for productions such as ‘Joan of Arc: Into the Fire’ by David Byrne (Public Theatre, NY), ‘He Brought her Heart Back in a Box’ by Adrienne Kennedy (Theatre for a New Audience, NY), and ‘Sweat’ by Lynn Nottage (Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, CA).Production design credits include ‘WINGS’ by The Black Eyes Peas, and Kristianne Bautista’s (formerly of Kan Wakan) upcoming EP ‘Woman.’ He is also often in collaboration with event design companies, such as GES Events, Entertainment Design Corporation, and Vizier Productions. With a strong belief in the art of world-building, Carlo’s work is often motivated by his search for spaces and environment that have both potential and empathy.

Carlo Maghirang

Sheryl Liu is a New York City based set designer who works in theater, opera, dance and musicals.Her recent design credits include Shadows,a dance musical at the Connelly Theater, The Sound of Music and Man of La Mancha, which both began touring internationally since June of 2017.Upcoming productions in 2019: The Chorus(musical) and Next to Normal touring in internationally

Sheryl Liu

Learning Curve is an immersive performance that places you within the walls of a Chicago public high school and in the shoes of its students. With each step, you’ll experience the real-life triumphs and struggles of students, teachers and parents during the years that hopefully lead to a high school diploma.Albany Park Theater Projects is a multiethnic, youth theater ensemble that inspires people to envision a more just and beautiful world. We are dedicated to art, to youth, and a vision of social justice.We make our home in one of the three most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the entire country, where we create original theater based on the life experiences of people whose stories might otherwise go untold: urban teens, immigrants, and working-class Americans. The art we make enriches the cultural vitality and quality of life in our neighborhood and throughout Chicago.We cultivate a community where teens engage critically and creatively with the world as artists, thereby embarking on purposeful lives as adventurous dreamers and accomplished achievers. Teens emerge from APTP as young leaders with the vision and capacity for a lifetime of personal success and community engagement.At APTP, people directly impacted by sociopolitical issues create original plays that humanize those issues with intellectual rigor, fervent humanity, and vibrant imagination. When we believe passionately in an issue, we also take to the streets to fight for change. The justice-minded youth leaders who emerge from APTP have a ripple effect that extends into schools, colleges, communities, and institutions well beyond our corner of Chicago.To see an APTP play is to go on a journey deep into a world that you may have never visited before, a world you might not otherwise experience, guided on your journey by someone who lives in and knows that world intimately. We are storytellers, and we’ve filled our online home with the stories of our efforts on and off stage. We invite you to spend some time with these stories, and we hope you’ll revisit often.

Learning Curve Team Interview

Learning Curve Designers

Ana Kuzmanic is Yugoslav born, Chicago based costume designer. Her theatrical work has been seen on Broadway (August: Osage County, Desire Under the Elms, Superior Donuts), off-Broadway (The Jacksonian), in the U.K. (The Royal National Theatre) and Australia (Sydney Theatre Company). Based in Evanston, she is closely associated with many Chicago companies including the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Looking Glass Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater and The House. Among the regional companies with whom she has worked are Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Berkley Repertory Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, Washington Shakespeare Theatre Company, Trinity Repertory Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Geffen Playhouse. The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Don Giovanni, directed by her long-time collaborator Tony Award-winning director Robert Falls was Ana’s opera debut.Ana earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Costume and Fashion Design from Faculty of Applied Arts and Design in Belgrade, Serbia and her Master of Fine Arts in Stage Design from Northwestern University, USA. She has designed for her fashion label from 1993 to 2002.Ana is an Associate Professor of costume design at Northwestern University in Evanston, USA.

Ana Kuzmanic

PQ&A is USITT’s companion podcast to the US Exhibition at the 2019 Prague Quadrennial. It is hosted by Ian Garrett, lead curator for the exhibition. On PQ&A Ian talks with the featured designers in the US Exhibition about their background, inspirations, and what gives them their unique world view. In the exhibition for 2019 we wanted to recognize that the United States is a nation of immigrants, and celebrate our diversity... most people in the US can identify immigrant roots. Those immigrant roots, together with the people that can trace their ancestry back to more than 500 Native American tribes, we refer to as this the cultural DNA of the artists who create the work in our communities. This rich cultural diversity and wisdom contributes to the creativity, ingenuity, and knowledge that we find inspirational. So, iIn addition to the selected work, the exhibition incorporates the oral history of the designers, positioning them in relationship to the field and their own work. For this podcast, I talk to the designers about their background, their connection to performance design, their mentors and influencers, who they have mentored and influenced, and how these factors have affected their approach to design and scenography.

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PQ&A - USITT at the 2019 PQ

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