Boston's Kai Ravelson Wins 2014 USITT Makeup Design Award

Wig and makeup designer Kai Ravelson, a Boston area native, is the winner of the USITT Makeup Design Award, sponsored by Kryolan Professional Makeup of Germany.

Ravelson, of Milton, Mass., will receive the award at USITT's Annual Conference & Stage Expo March 26-29 in Fort Worth, Texas.

The award is one of 11 Young Designers & Technicians awards presented by USITT, the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, to recognize excellence by young theatrical designers and technicians. Winners are nominated by USITT members and are chosen by a panel of experts in each field based on portfolios of their work.

Ravelson will receive her MFA in Wig and Makeup Design from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in May. She received her bachelor's degree in theatre from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 2005.

Michael Meyer, director of UNCSA's Wig and Makeup program, nominated Ravelson based on her "outstanding record of professional work in the wig and makeup industry," he wrote.

Her experience includes hair design for the Billy Elliott National Tour of Brazil, wig construction for the Glimmerglass Opera Festival in Cooperstown, NY, and a wig technician internship with Saturday Night Live.

The USITT Makeup Design Award has been sponsored by Kryolan since 1998. Ravelson will receive $500 in cash and a Kryolan Makeup kit, plus free registration for the four- day USITT Conference, where she'll meet her award sponsors, network with other industry professionals, and participate in some of the 200 workshops and activities.

"I am so honored to receive this award," Ravelson said. "I am proud to be the third consecutive Wig and Makeup design graduate student from UNCSA to have won, and to be following in the extremely talented footsteps of Lauren Wilde (2013) and Holland Berson (2012)."

USITT, the non-profit association for backstage professionals, provides year-round training, networking, awards, information-sharing, and resourcing of theatrical products and services. For more information, please visit www.usitt.org.