USITT Goes to London with Scene Designer Patrick Rizzotti, Oct 5-8

USITT Executive Director David Grindle and several USITT officers and staff also will be at the show promoting USITT programs and the Annual Conference & Stage Expo.

Special guest Rizzotti, who won the 2014 USITT Scene Design Award sponsored by Rose Brand, will join USITT and give an Oct. 6 presentation on his set designs, which have garnered recent praise from New York theatre critics.

Theatre Mania called Rizzotti's set for last spring's Prospect Theatre Company musical Jasper in Deadland "simply designed yet surprisingly ornate." The New York Times wrote of his work on the New York premier of Sex and Education, "Patrick Rizzotti's set design is striking, with the linoleum-ugly green-and-white classroom floor curling up and taking off majestically at the upstate end to turn into giant book pages."

Rizzotti was among 11 Young Designers & Technicians honored at USITT 2014 in Fort Worth, Texas, last March. In 2013, his set design for Elmer Gantry was a finalist in the OPERA America Director-Designer Showcase. He received his MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 2012.

Rizzotti's featured session will be at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 6 at the Theatres Trust Stage, Stand R40 at the ExCeL Center.

USITT has been bringing YD&T award winners to international conferences in the past year to further its mission of supporting young designers and technicians and offering more educational opportunities to the entertainment tech community.

USITT, the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, is the US national non-profit serving performing arts and live entertainment designers and technicians. For information, visit www.usitt.org.