Summary of Scholarship
For some educators, Scholarship means published books, articles, and scholarly research. For Theatre Artists, Scholarship encompasses the professional productions and creative works we take part in. As a Lighting and Projection designer, my Scholarship includes my work on plays, musicals, dance productions, and the sharing of professional knowledge with students and younger professionals. From the time we start a production, the process can take anywhere from a few months to a year and a half, depending on the scale of the show. Below you will find a description of my work and the professionals I work with, and how it benefits my students at Point Park University.
For a full list of my Scholarship during my tenure at Point Park University, please click here:
Summary of Scholarship
Explanation of Work
Each production involves a considerable amount of research, analysis, and visual exploration before any technical work can be accomplished on a design. When designers first receive a script, we research everything about the time, location, social events, political insights, major art movements, and any topics broached in the text. This gives us a base from which to build the world our characters live in, and affects design choices we make. Then we analyze the script with the team’s concept in mind. Are we modernizing Shakespeare? Are we setting a Brechtian piece during World War II? This concept involves a deep dive into history and the socio-political landscape our show will live in.
With this background in mind, lighting designers then analyze the script for story telling clues that are essential to the piece. We look for time of day, weather, location clues, strong emotional moments, etc. These elements influence how we light the scenery and the actors on stage. These are the ideas and images we bring to the whole production team as we discuss the aesthetic of the show, how it will flow over the course of the piece, what gestures and messages we want to tell the audience, and what our ultimate message is.
Once the design and artistic ideas are well under way, the lighting designer begins the math and science portion of our job. We use photometrics and geometry to determine how many fixtures we need, which lights are best for the purpose at hand, where they need to be hung, how bright they will be, and the angle at which they will hit stage. We use our knowledge of biology and physics to determine what color gels to put into our lights so they will enhance the scenery and costumes, convey our emotional messages, and interact well with the skin tones on stage.
Some of the shows I have worked on involve spaces with very little power and old gear; thus the show relies on my creativity, flexibility, and very specific, careful design choices to tell the story. This is true for many of the storefront shows I have done in Chicago, such as The Wolf at the End of the Block and Always… Patsy Cline, which were performed at 16th Street Theatre and The Den Theatre, respectively. However, other shows are produced in very large venues, such as My Father’s War at TheatreSquared and The Color Purple at Drury Lane Theatre. These theatres have much larger budgets and the audiences expect to see top-of-the-line equipment and fancy design tricks. These shows involve a lot more technical knowledge, since they have the most up to date gear and consoles.
A lot of my scholarship work is focused on remaining current in the industry, not only to continue my own design career, but also to teach my students the technology and flexibility they will need to be successful in this business. My ongoing scholarship enables me to shape and revise classes every year to best reflect industry practices.
Lisa Peterson
Lisa Peterson is a two-time OBIE Award-winning writer and director. She wrote and directed An Iliad (Seattle Rep, McCarter Theatre, NYTW) with Denis O’Hare and The Good Book, commissioned and produced by Court Theatre. Her directing work includes Good Night Oscar (Broadway), F*ck7thGrade (Off-Broadway), the world premiere productions of new plays by Tony Kushner, Beth Henley, Donald Margulies, Naomi Wallace, Marlane Meyer, Jose Rivera, Luis Alfaro, Chay Yew and many more. She has also directed classic plays at theaters across the country, including the Guthrie, Arena Stage, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, OSF, Baltimore Center Stage, South
For a full list of my lifetime Scholarship, please click here:
After the planning and design phase, a lighting designer’s job gets much more technical. We hang and focus our lights, and program all the looks into a computerized lighting console. This is where a lot of my scholarship work becomes essential. Lighting equipment and consoles are constantly changing. New moving lights come out every year, different programs are implemented, and new families of consoles are introduced to the industry. Without continuous work on shows, it would be very easy to lose track of the new technology and fall behind on the knowledge that is essential for lighting designers to be able to design quickly and efficiently with any gear.
Summary of Scholarship
Examples of Contacts Made During Scholarship Work
An equally important part of my scholarship is developing and maintaining relationships with directors and designers. Networking is a large portion of how designers are offered jobs. These connections are important for my own career, and are a huge benefit for my students. The more people I work with and can call my trusted collaborators, the wider variety of companies and individuals I can connect my students to as they search for jobs. I am also able to draw upon my network to invite inspiring guests to talk to the production students or come in and work on our shows.
Below is a small example of the contacts I have been able to connect to our students:
Lili-Anne Brown
Lili-Anne is a Chicago South Side native, works as a director, actor and educator, and has performed in, directed and produced many award-winning shows in Chicago and nationally. Recent directing credits include: Waitress (The Muny), The Nacirema Society…, School Girls, or The African Mean Girls Play and the world premieres of Ike Holter’s I Hate It Here and Lottery Day (Goodman Theatre); Dreamgirls (McCarter Theater and Goodspeed Musicals), FELA! (Olney Theatre), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Huntington Theatre), Ain’t No Mo’ (Woolly Mammoth and Baltimore CenterStage), Rent, The Color Purple (The Muny),
Once on this Island (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Acoustic Rooster...(Kennedy Center and National Tour), Put Your House in Order (La Jolla Playhouse), Cullud Wattah (Victory Gardens).She is the former artistic director of Bailiwick Chicago, where she focused programming on Chicago premiere musicals and new plays by resident playwrights, directing and producing several award-winning productions. Select directing credits include Cullud Wattah (Victory Gardens), Once on This Island (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Boogie…(The Kennedy Center), School Girls; or The African Mean Girls Play (Goodman Theatre), The Color Purple (The MUNY and Drury Lane Theatre), P.Y.G. or the Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle (Jackalope Theatre), The Total Bent (Haven Theatre w/About Face), Caroline, or Change (Firebrand Theatre w/TimeLine), Tilikum by Kristiana Colon (world premiere, Sideshow Theatre), Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (American Blues Theatre), Hairspray (Skylight Music Theatre), The Wolf at the End of the Block (16th Street Theatre), Marie Christine (Boho Theatre), Peter and the Starcatcher (Metropolis Performing Arts), The Wiz (Kokandy Productions; BroadwayWorld Award), Xanadu (American Theatre Company), Jabari Dreams of Freedom by Nambi E. Kelley (world premiere, Chicago Children’s Theatre), American Idiot (Northwestern University); Dessa Rose (Jeff Award), Passing Strange (BTA Award), See What I Wanna See (Steppenwolf Theatre Garage Rep), and the world premiere of Princess Mary Demands Your Attention by Aaron Holland, all at Bailiwick Chicago; the national tour of Jesus Snatched My Edges; and Little Shop of Horrors, Unnecessary Farce, Cabaret, Sweet Charity, and The 25th…Spelling Bee, among others, at Timber Lake Playhouse where she was an Artistic Associate. She has received 3 Jeff Awards for Best Director of a Musical and one for Best Director of a Play. Member of SDC, AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and a graduate of Northwestern University.
Coast Rep and Actors Theatre of Louisville. Lisa has directed regularly at Berkeley Rep, where she was Associate Director for three seasons, at the Mark Taper Forum, where she was Resident Director for 10 years, and at La Jolla Playhouse, where she was Associate Director for 3 years. Her upcoming projects include The Waves, adapted from the novel by Virginia Woolf The Song of Rome, written with Denis O’Hare; and The Idea of Order, inspired by the poetry of Wallace Stevens and written with Todd Almond.
through which she is the Artistic Associate at Second Stage Theatre. Jade was presented the Paul Green Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Professional from the National Theatre Conference and The Estate of August Wilson.
New Play workshops and readings include work with Steep Theatre, The New Colony, Paramount Theatre, and the Goodman Theatre New Stages Festival. She is a Steep Theatre ensemble member and a proud former member of the Alliance of Latinx Theatre Artists. She was nominated for ‘Best Casting Director’ and ‘Best Director: Brava’ at the ALTA Awards.
Rachel Hauck
Rachel Hauck is a set designer based in New York. She designs new plays and musicals on Broadway, Off Broadway and for regional theater, frequently working on world premiere productions. Rachel recently designed the Broadway production of Latin History for Morons written by and staring John Leguizamo, Hadestown for the National Theater in London, and Othello and Twelfth Night for the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park. She also regularly designs for such Off Broadway theaters as the Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons and the Signature Theatre as well as for ground breaking downtown companies such as Ars Nova and Soho Rep. Ms Hauck has also
designed extensively for regional theater including an extended relationship with the Oregon Shakespeare festival and the Mark Taper Forum, and work at the Guthrie Theater, Arena Stage and the McCarter Theater among many, many others. Rachel was the Resident Set Designer at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference for ten years. As such, she worked with more than 70 playwrights, focusing on their work dramaturgically from a design perspective. For many years, she was also a regular designer at the Mark Taper Forum’s New Work Festival in Los Angeles. She has taught at Brown University, Vassar College, NYU, Cal Arts and currently teaches at Princeton University. She remains dedicated new play development and the education of young artists, and continues to work with students at the National Theater Institute at the O’Neill whenever possible.
Mike Tutaj
Based in Chicago, Mike Tutaj's designs have been seen and heard on the stages of The Goodman, Steppenwolf, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Second City, Victory Gardens, Lookingglass, Writers' Theatre, The Court Theatre, TimeLine, American Theater Company, Paramount Theatre, The Hypocrites, and many more. Off-Broadway credits include MCC Theater, p73, EnGarde Arts, and The York Theatre. Regional credits include
Mara Blumenfeld
Mara is a Chicago-based freelance costume designer, whose work is focused primarily on theatre, opera, and dance. She is an ensemble member of Lookingglass Theatre Company, where she has designed over forty productions. Elsewhere in Chicago, she has designed numerous productions for The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Writers Theatre, and Court Theatre. Regional credits include multiple productions with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Berkeley Rep; Seattle Rep; McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ; Asolo Rep in Sarasota, Florida; The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC; and the Arden Theatre in her hometown of Philadelphia. New York credits include Mary Zimmerman’s off-Broadway and
Indiana Repertory Theatre, The Alliance Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, South Coast Rep, Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Virginia Stage, Children's Theatre Company (Minneapolis), City Theatre Company (Pittsburgh), and Theatre Squared. Mike is the Interim Head of the BFA Projection Design program Design at The Theatre School at DePaul University. He is an artistic associate with TimeLine Theatre, and a member of United Scenic Artists local 829.
Broadway productions of Metamorphoses as well as her productions of Lucia di Lammermoor, La Sonnambula, and Rusalka for the Metropolitan Opera. A frequent collaborator with Ms. Zimmerman, she has designed over fifteen of her productions, including The Jungle Book, The Arabian Nights, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, The Odyssey, and Eleven Rooms of Proust. Her international credits include productions for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada; Tokyo DisneySea and K-Ballet in Tokyo, Japan; the Barbican Center and Donmar Warehouse in London, Melbourne Theatre Company in Australia; and Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. She has been honored with the 2012 Michael Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration, a TCG Design Fellowship and is the recipient of four of Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Awards for Costume Design.
Samantha Jones
Samantha C. Jones is a Costume Designer and educator. A proud member of U.S.A., 829, research fanatic and lover of gorgeous things. She holds an B.F.A. from Howard University and an M.F.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, both in Costume Design. She has worked with companies such as Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf Theater Company, The Goodman Theatre, First Stage Theatre, Drury Lane Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Alley Theatre, and many others.
Jade King Carroll
Jade is the Producing Artistic Director of Chataqua Theater Company. Directing credits include: A Raisin In The Sun (Juilliard); Samuel J And K; The Summer House; White Baby (Passage Theatre); Black Girl You've Been Gentrified (Joe's Pub); The Persians; Splittin' the Raft (People's Light & Theatre); After Adam (Playpenn); Contents of a Book; Life as a Balloon ( McCarter Youth Ink Festival); Sex on Sunday (BE Company); The Etymology of Bird (NYCitiParks Summer Stages); Cherry Smoke (Clockwork Theatre); Like Father (Producer's Club); White Trash (Players Theatre). Jade is currently a TCG New Generations Future Leader Award recipient,
Laura Alcalá Baker
Laura is a Chicago-based director and new work developer specializing in unearthing the missing cannon and reimagining the existing one. She lives in the intersection of a mixed child, one and both – Mexican American. Chicago Directing credits include A Home What Howls by Matthew Paul Olmos (Steppenwolf), The Leopard Play, or Sad Songs for Lost Boys (Steep Theatre); The Way She Spoke (DCASE, Greenhouse Theater Center); Nancy García Loza’s BRAVA (Make-Believe Association); The Secretaries (First Floor Theatre); Bull: a Love Story (Paramount Theatre); and The Pillowman (the Gift Theatre). Regional directing credits include Somewhere Over the Border by Brian Quijada (City Theatre); Equivocation, The Giver, 11:11, and Collapse (B Street Theatre).
To view my professional website, please click here:
To view my professional website, please click here: