Center Theatre Group Announces Three 2017 Sherwood Award Finalists

Three finalists have been selected for Center Theatre Group's 2017 Richard E. Sherwood Award: Jenny Foldenauer, Pablo Santiago and Keith Skretch. Center Theatre Group recognizes and celebrates this year's finalists for their exceptional contributions to the Los Angeles theatre landscape and their work as innovative and adventurous artists.

Created in memory of Richard E. Sherwood, the $10,000 award aims to cultivate emerging theatre artists working in Los Angeles who push formal and aesthetic boundaries and demonstrate dedication to improving their respective artistic fields. The winner of the $10,000 award will be announced at the 2016 Ovation Awards on Tuesday, January 17, 2017, at the Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center. The two additional finalists will receive a $2,000 honorarium.

Jenny Foldenauer is an L.A.-based costume designer and recipient of the 2014 Ovation, LADCC and Stage Raw awards for Best Costume Design for Theatre @ Boston Court and Rattlestick Playwrights' "Everything You Touch." Foldenauer applies a variety of influences to her design work, especially considering how found objects and alternative materials can elevate design. She is currently experimenting by incorporating fiber optics and LED lighting into costumes. She holds an MFA in Theatre Design & Production from California Institute of the Arts and a B.S. in Design from University of California, Davis.

Pablo Santiago is a lighting designer originally from Chiapas, México who designs for theatre, opera, dance and gallery work. Santiago found a home in Los Angeles while he worked in the film industry for 15 years before obtaining an MFA in Lighting Design from UCLA and transitioning into live stage design. Santiago integrates color theory into his designs and surprises collaborators with innovative plots. Santiago is particularly interested in projects that highlight social justice issues and experiment with time onstage. His design in "Premeditation" was nominated for an Ovation Award in 2014 and he won a Stage Raw Award for "Brother's Size" in 2015. Upcoming projects include the opera "Breaking the Waves" at the Perelman Theater for OperaPhila and Skirball Center in NYC, "Destiny of Desire" at South Coast Rep and Goodman Theatre in Chicago and "Zoot Suit" at the Mark Taper Forum.

Keith Skretch is a video designer that combines practices in video art, installation, interaction design, animation and live performance to craft compelling relationships between image, body and space. As a theatrical video designer he's worked with artists including Mallory Catlett, Big Dance Theater, Palissimo, Phantom Limb Company, LA Contemporary Dance Company, Grand Lady Dance House, Son of Semele Ensemble, John Gould Rubin, Jay Scheib, Daniel Fish, Travis Preston and Zoe Aja Moore. His multichannel installations have been presented in New York and Los Angeles, and his experimental short "Waves of Grain" screened internationally and went viral online. Skretch has been a repeat collaborator of WNYC's Radiolab and worked as a visual designer for The Hettema Group. He's received a Bessie and a Henry Hewes Design Award for his stage work, and he holds degrees from the University of Chicago and CalArts.

Originally created in 1996, the Sherwood Award has met a vital need in the theatre landscape to support emerging artists.

Richard E. Sherwood was a patron of the arts with a special appreciation for emerging artists who are in the vanguard of theatre. He was president and then chairman of the Center Theatre Group Board of Directors from 1980 until his passing in 1993. The award is established as an endowed fund at Center Theatre Group by his family, friends, colleagues and fellow board members, to honor Sherwood's passionate commitment to theatre.

Past recipients of the Richard E. Sherwood Award include Los Angeles artists Miwa Matreyek of Cloud Eye Control, Sean Cawelti of Rogue Artists Ensemble, Miranda Wright of Los Angeles Performance Practice, Lars Jan of Early Morning Opera, lighting designer Christopher Kuhl and costume designer Ann Closs-Farley, among others.

Center Theatre Group, one of the nation's preeminent arts and cultural organizations, is Los Angeles' leading nonprofit theatre company, programming seasons at the 736-seat Mark Taper Forum and 1600 to 2000-seat Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center in Downtown Los Angeles, and the 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. In addition to presenting and producing the broadest range of theatrical entertainment in the country, Center Theatre Group is one of the nation's leading producers of ambitious new works through commissions and world premiere productions and a leader in interactive community engagement and education programs that reach across generations, demographics and circumstance to serve Los Angeles.

Pictured: Pablo Santiago, Jenny Foldenauer and Keith Skretch are the finalists for Center Theatre Group's 2017 Richard E. Sherwood Award, a $10,000 award that provides support for emerging artists living and working in Los Angeles. Photo by Ryan Miller.

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