WINGSPACE THEATRICAL DESIGN Presents Free Virtual Salon for Emerging Designers During Design Week

As part of its free virtual salon series, Wingspace Theatrical Design in partnership with Design Week will present a conversation on Sunday, May 22 at 7:00pm ET with Natalie Robin, Meghan Finn, David "Dstew" Stewart, and Twi McCallum.

For designers who are entering the field of theater, there are a wide range of resources available beyond an educational institution. From collectives, to space, to unions, listings, and beyond. Join Wingspace and Design Week for an event that brings together folx who are leading efforts to create more access to resources for theatremakers, including The Tank, Production on Deck, Design Action, Local USA 829, and ArtCube. This space is intended to provide tools for emerging designers as well as an opportunity to form connections with peers from across the nation and designers currently working in the field.

Reservations are strongly encouraged and are available here.

A recording of the salon will be available on the Wingspace Facebook page for a limited time following live broadcast and recordings of past salons are archived on the Wingspace Youtube page.

Natalie Robin (she/her) is a Philadelphia-based lighting designer, educator and organizer whose design work focuses on new American plays and musicals, contemporary dance and site-specific performance. She believes that design is dramaturgy and is interested in how the generative text for work can be found in movement as much as in language. Her work expresses emotional narratives through light as an ephemeral and time-based mediumShe loves musicals. Natalie is currently the Program Director of Theater Design & Technology in the Ira Brind School of Theater Arts at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She serves as the Secretary/Treasurer of the Eastern Region of United Scenic Artists /IATSE Local USA 829 where she aims to advocate for transparency, inclusion and deepened organizing within the union and community.

Meghan Finn is the Artistic Director of The Tank. She previously served as the Associate Artistic Director at 3LD Art & Technology Center. Her directorial work has been seen at the Tank, the V&A, Serpentine Galleries, The Wexner Center, SCAD, The Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago, Museo Jumex Mexico City, The Power Plant, Canadian Stage, Carnegie Mellon, Brooklyn College, MIT, NYU, the Great Plains Theater Conference and others. Under her leadership, The Tank has established itself in a two theater complex on 36th Street, doubling its artistic programming and annual revenue since FY17. She has overseen the growth of the staff and artistic output working with the organizational leadership and artists to seamlessly establish CYBERTANK, a virtual platform for artistic work in the wake of the pandemic. In 2020, The Tank was awarded an OBIE AWARD for institutional excellence, under Finn's leadership as Artistic Director.

David "Dstew" Stewart is co-founder for production on Deck. He is a Production Manager with Disney Live Entertainment. Produced works at Disney include: WDW 50th Anniversary, DJ's Ready, Set, Party Time! (Hollywood Studios), Wonderful World of Animation (Hollywood Studios) Joyful! (Epcot), National Association of Black Journalists (Miami). Prior to working for Disney, David worked for the Guthrie Theater as Director of Production, University of Texas at Austin, University of Wisconsin - Madison. He had the honor of being the Stage Manager for His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. AEA stage manager for Madison Repertory Theatre, Studio Arena Theatre, St. Louis MUNY, Kansas City Starlight Outdoor Musicals, The Little Theatre on the Square and Vienna Austria's English Theatre. In addition, Stewart was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Achievement award from Webster University. He currently serves as the Chair for the People of Color Network at USITT, sits on their board of directors, as well as co-founder of the highly successful Gateway Program. He has two nationally published articles on diversity in theater production, is the technical editor for two theater management books, and holds a 4th degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Twi McCallum is Interim Co-Chair of Design Action. They are a sound designer from Baltimore, MD and have called NYC home since 2018. They are a former student of Howard University, and a graduate of Yale School of Drama's one-year sound program. Theater is their first love. In their dream world they would design 5 musicals a year and never touch another play. They are mostly inspired by the labor of scenic designers and intimacy coordinators, and strive to model their understanding of characters, motifs, and audience connection after theirs. They made their Broadway play debut in Fall 2021 with Chicken & Biscuits, as the first woman of color/Black woman sound designer ever on Broadway! Twi's second love is film/tv, and are a proud member of Motion Picture Editors Guild which has allowed them to do sound editorial for NBC and STARZ television shows so far. For fun, they love all-things Judge Judy, zombie video games, their 5 pet snails, and studying American Sign Language. You can also research Twi's blogs for BroadwayWorld and SoundGirls.

ABOUT WINGSPACE THEATRICAL DESIGN

Wingspace is an organization of theater artists that fosters conversations on design, strengthens our community, and furthers activism in the field. Formed in 2005 and with a membership composed of over 60 designers, directors, and dramaturgs, Wingspace looks at the theater landscape from a design point of view. By sponsoring public events and workshops, fostering early career designers in our Mentorship Program, and staging events for the design community as whole, Wingspace creates opportunities for theater makers passionate about design to come together, learn from one another, and grow together as a community.

www.wingspace.com