2021 LIGHTING DESIGN

CONTACT INFO

P I 303.635.4301

E I amandaefallon@gmail.com

W I amandafallondesign.com

Amanda’s first love wasn’t live production, but, amusingly, an article concerning queer theatre convention by Stacy Wolf. They fell head over heels for the idea that artistry could be academic—challenging the world around it—then again with the idea that they could practice that art, too, and in doing so participate in the world in exuberant, heart-aching ways (it’s a plus that their theatre collaborators have turned out to be some of the funniest folks they’ve ever met).

Now as a theatre artist with a love of new work, their over-the-top laugh can be heard while investigating their favorite research (design ethics), working with USITT’s Safety and Health Commission, and creating authentic narratives with and for diverse communities (with emphasis on being active in EDI/A and educational outreach). They look forward to remaining on the East Coast after completing an MFA in Lighting Design at Boston University.

CONTACT INFO

P I 334.392.2406

E I amberwhatleylighting@gmail.com

W I awhatleylighting.com

Amber Whatley recently completed a M.F.A. in Design and Technology with a focus in lighting design at The University of Texas at Austin. She earned her B.F.A. in Production Design with a concentration in lighting from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2018. Selected design credits include Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet and Fall for Dance. Additionally, she worked as a Programmer at Pacific Conservatory Theater, and as a lighting designer and consultant for several local theaters and churches. This summer she will be designing Rain Falls Special on Me and Memphis at Ground Floor Theater. She plans to stay in Austin for now to continue to build connections in the Music industry.

CONTACT INFO

P I 303.606.1260

E I wrios@me.com

W I billrios.com

Bill Rios recently completed a M.F.A. in Lighting Design at The University of Texas at Austin. He earned his BA in Theatre Studies from Kent State University. At UT, Bill has designed lights for Year of the Tiger, Into the Ether, Spring Awakening, The Creek Monster Habitat (TPA Applied Arts), Collaborative Escape Room Project (TPA Applied Arts),Spillage and Lloronx (Cohen New Works Festival 2019), and Magic Box (DTYC Thesis Project 2018). Prior to pursuing his degree, he held many full-time and contract technical theater positions, namely Lighting Supervisor, Master Electrician, Assistant Lighting Designer and Lighting Designer, at companies like The Utah Shakespeare Festival, Childsplay and Nashville Children’s Theatre. He is excited to be finishing his thesis, Youth Devised Design, which examines how to center youth voice into his design process and get back to the exciting work of collaborative problem solving that is live entertainment.

CONTACT INFO

P I 206.502.9666

E I shaochihhung@gmail.com

W I shaochihhung.com

Chih-Hung was born and raised in Taiwan and began a new chapter of his life by pursuing his MFA in Lighting Design from University of Washington, School of Drama, in 2018.  He developed his love of theatre after he accidentally put Theatre Arts on his college applications. He worked as a stage manager, then extended his passion to lighting while working with talented designers. The love of these two positions is to control the uncontrollable and find the possibility in impossibility.

Chih-Hung finds the most charming element of theatre is people. A close collaboration with directors, designers, actors, and crews is how a creative work can be produced. A production is only complete when the piece can reach audiences’ heart, and a design can be great only when it excites designers themselves. Light is tactile to him, it has shape, quality, texture, and dimension. Chih-Hung believes the most successful lighting design is achieved when we see the production as a whole, whether the light is grand or unnoticeable.

CONTACT INFO

P I 917.941.5402

E I christianvmejia@gmail.com

W I christianvmejia.com

Christian V. Mejia is a California based lighting and digital media designer who spent his pre-graduate school years working in design and Production Management with theatres in and around San Francisco. His artistic practice focuses on creating dynamic, engaging, immersive, and emotionally-driven environments using light as a medium. With over 17 years of experience in theatrical production design, his current goals are to expand his practice into the industries of themed entertainment and architecture. He holds an MFA in Lighting Design from California Institute of the Arts and a BFA in Production Design from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has been the recipient of multiple Theatre Bay Area Awards and Bay Area Critics Circle Awards for his lighting work in San Francisco.

CONTACT INFO

P I 240.482.6164

E I helen.garcia.alton@gmail.com

W I helengarcia-alton.com

Helen Garcia-Alton is a Hispanic-American lighting designer who hails from Caracas, Venezuela by way of Rockville, Maryland. She currently resides in Knoxville, Tenessee where she just defended her thesis to complete her MFA in lighting design. Helen has worked extensively in the Baltimore theatre scene, working with companies such as; Single Carrot Theatre, Cohesion Theatre Company, Pumpkin Theatre and Artscentric. Outside of Baltimore, Helen is the tour lighting designer for NEWorks’s Stirring The Waters National Tour which was halted due to the Pandemic. Helen is passionate about immersive theatre, theatre for social change, and uplifting voices who need to be heard.

CONTACT INFO

P I 312.533.0757

E I leslie.cp@gmail.com

W I lesliecp.com

Leslie Crapster-Pregont is an LA-based lighting designer and visual artist who explores human perception and social behavior through light. Drawing on her experiences being raised in northern Wisconsin, attending high school on a 1200 acre plot of wilderness on the border of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, teaching in rural China, and working on Wall Street, Leslie creates work that uses light as the medium to influence humans' perception of their context. Leslie received a B.A. in Neuroscience and Chinese from Middlebury College in 2012, and is currently an MFA Candidate in Lighting Design at California Institute of the Arts, graduating May 2021.

CONTACT INFO

P I 302.312.3289

E I lindsay.alayne.stevens@gmail.com

W I lastevensdesign.com

Lindsay Alayne Stevens is a multidisciplinary artist from Bear, Delaware. She explores the use of lighting, photography, sculpture, and writing within her work. She strives to maintain an empathetic and collaborative practice to create thoughtful and unique designs.

Credits include: Pop Tour: Pick Me Last (La Jolla Playhouse), Midsummer Night’s Dream (UCSD), Heap (UCSD), All In The Timing (Onstage Playhouse), Man in Love (UCSD),You’ve Got Red on You (Bootless Stageworks), Calafia at Liberty (La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival), Ready, Steady, Yeti, Go (Azuka Theatre), and The Johnny Shortcake Show (The Kimmel Center SEI Innovation Studio).

Lindsay graduated with 3 BFAs with High Honors in Writing, Theater, and Photography from Marlboro College in 2017. Recently graduating from the University of California, San Diego where she studied theatrical lighting design.

CONTACT INFO

P I 240.888.5208

E I jajalighting@gmail.com

W I nicolejaja.com

Nicole Jaja is a lighting designer and EOS family light board programmer. Originally based in Kansas City, she relocated to Los Angeles in March of 2021. She has experience with straight plays, musicals, opera, and dance with a particular focus on new/contemporary works and found space performances.

CONTACT INFO

P I 818.926.3662

E I rcburke95@gmail.com

W I rebuke.com

Ry Burke (he/they) is a lighting designer whose work explores space and time through light and color, to foster positive change through storytelling.

They are a co-founder and resident narrator for Theater of the Well-Dressed, a theater company that specializes in enacting queer utopia by re-telling classic fairytales.

They are currently working on Color’s Queer Bent, a communal photography project that investigates the use of colored light as a method for queer self-expression, by mailing out personalized, handmade color filters that speaks to an individual’s specific identity or that reflects their inner queerness.

Recent design work includes an online workshop of Bobby Clearly (Calarts), R&D (Brouhaha Theater Project), Room for Cream Season 4 (Theater of the Two-Headed Calf), and These Violent Delights (Reed College). They have a BA in Theater from Reed College, and an MFA in Lighting Design from Calarts.

CONTACT INFO

E I williambrownlighting@gmail.com

W I williambrownlighting.com

William Brown is a lighting designer with experience in Theatre, Dance, and Opera. Currently he is completing the third year MFA Lighting Design Candidate at Boston University. He grew up in Austin, TX where he became interested in theatre at a young age and would routinely seek it out as an event whenever he could get his mom to agree. He has always been fascinated by the way lighting can be such an immersive part of a story and evoke strong emotions in a show. He looks forward to telling stories that can share a multitude of experiences to the community at large and present new ideas or challenge assumptions. While at BU William has been able to work with Boston Lyric Opera, Huntington Theatre Company, Hangar Theatre, and as an Associate Designer for the iTheatric’s Junior Theatre Festival produced in part by Music Theatre International, Disney Theatrical Group, and Playbill. IG:@william.mbrown

CONTACT INFO

P I 248.595.9227

E I zandespelder@gmail.com

W I zandespelder.com

Zan de Spelder is a lighting designer currently located in Missouri. She recently received her MFA from the University of Missouri - Kansas City in lighting design, and her Bachelor's degree in 2018 from Albion College in Theatre and Philosophy. 

Zan is working towards a professional career in lighting for dance and theatre and looking to relocate to New York COVID pending. Her most recent work includes ALD for Rachael Cady on Frankenstein: A Ghost Story, part of the KCRep's New Works Festival, and LD for The White Rose at the Coterie Theatre. During this time away from the theatre Zan has been working on some small dance productions, and rendering projects.

Zan is a member of USITT and was the 2018 Don Childs Award recipient. Zan has worked in and out of the country, and on touring shows.