USITT Announces 2021 Award Winners

USITT has announced their 2021 award winners. Winners will be honored during their 61st Annual Conference & Stage Expo taking place virtually, March 8-12, 2021.

Distinguished Achievement Award Winners

Education & Lighting Design
Kathy Perkins

Kathy A. Perkins, scholar and lighting designer, is the editor/co-editor of six anthologies, in addition to serving as a senior editor for the Routledge Companion to African American Theatre and Performance. A recipient of numerous research and design awards, including Fulbright, NEH, NAACP Image Award, and the USITT Herbert Griggs Publication Award, Kathy has traveled throughout Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and Asia.

Management
Molly Dill

Molly currently serves as the Producing Director at Houston Grand Opera, where her responsibilities include the planning and producing of company productions and special projects, and leadership of the technical and production departments, working closely with directors and designers to realize their productions on the HGO stage.

Scenic Design
Eduardo Sicangco

Eduardo Sicangco lives in New York and continues to enjoy a forty-year career designing sets and costumes for a wide range of projects including plays, musicals, opera, ballet, film, Las Vegas spectaculars, circuses, ice shows, cruise ship entertainment and theme parks.

His work has been seen at various venues including Broadway, Off-Broadway, Regional Theater, Radio City Music Hall, Houston Grand Opera, Houston Ballet, New York City Opera, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus, Disney on Ice and Dollywood.

Engineering
Alan Hendrickson

Alan Hendrickson has been teaching at the Yale School of Drama since 1979. Alan developed and teaches graduate level courses in the physics of stage machinery, mechanical design, fluid power, control systems, electricity, and the history of theatre architecture. At the Yale Repertory Theatre he acts as Automation Supervisor overseeing the design and construction of mechanized scenic effects needed for the Rep's productions.

With contributing author Colin Buckhurst, he wrote Mechanical Design for the Stage published by Focal Press in 2008. He also consults on control systems and machinery design for Hudson Scenic Studio, Inc. of New York on projects such as the Broadway and/or touring productions of: Lion King, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Aladdin.

Sound Design
Carin Ford

Carin Ford, sound engineer, received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and Theater from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. Immediately after graduating, she moved to New York City and attended The Center for the Media Arts to study audio engineering and the Juilliard School to participate in an internship program for technical theater.

After completing the Juilliard program, she was hired to take over the FOH mix on the tour of "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe" staring Lily Tomlin, written and directed my Jane Wagner.

Technical Production
Bill Sapsis

Bill Sapsis, President of Sapsis Rigging, Inc., began his career in 1972. His work on Broadway includes the original productions of A Chorus Line and The Runner Stumbles. Bill opened Sapsis Rigging in 1981 and has grown the company into a multi-faceted installation/production/service company with clients on six continents.

Bill's articles and lectures on rigging and safety can be found in numerous publications worldwide. He has authored two books; Heads and Tales and Entertainment Rigging for the 21st Century. Bill is the chair of the ETCP Arena Subject Matter Experts and a member of the ETCP Council. He serves on ESTA's Technical Standards Committee and is co-Chair of the ANSI accredited Rigging Working Group. Bill sits on the Board of Directors for the Behind the Scenes Charity.

Costume Design
Paul Tazewell

Paul Tazewell has been designing costumes for Broadway and regional theater, film and television, dance, and opera productions for over twenty-five years. Starting his Broadway career with the groundbreaking musical, 'Bring in Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk directed by George C. Wolfe, Paul would go on to design costumes for such shows as the original Broadway productions of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award®-winning Hamilton, In the Heights, The Color Purple, Dr Zhivago, Memphis, Caroline, or Change, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, Russel Simmons' Def Poetry Jam, Lombardi, and Magic/Bird. Revival work includes Side Show, A Streetcar Named Desire, Jesus Christ Superstar, Guys and Dolls, A Raisin in the Sun, and On the Town.

In the United States and across the world, Paul has designed for such renown companies as The Metropolitan Opera, The Bolshoi Ballet, The English National Opera, Theatre Du Chatelet, The Public Theater, The National Theater, The Kennedy Center, The Guthrie Theater, Arena Stage, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, and many more.

Architecture Award Winners

Honor: Recital Hall, Penn State University, University Park, PA

Honor: Xiqu Centre, Hong Kong

Merit: BAM Strong, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY

Merit: Rubenstein Arts Center at Duke University, Durham, NC

Merit: Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, Macalester College, St Paul, MN

Herbert D. Greggs Award Winners

Honor: Deepsikha Chatterjee

Merit: Frank Ludwig

Merit: Byron Harrison

View the full list of 2021 award winners.