A team of 麻豆影院 theatre students is one of 10 finalists in the contest to design the United States National Exhibit for the 2015 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design. Designs for an architectural and sculptural space with the theme 鈥淎rt in Performance Design: Dreams of Here and Now鈥 were accepted through Feb. 8.
Team 麻豆影院鈥檚 design was exhibited among the other nine finalists at the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) Annual Conference in Milwaukee in March. Following the exhibition at the USITT Annual Conference, the overall winning design will be notified April 20.
The winning design will be exhibited at the Prague Quadrennial, the largest performance design event in the world. The Prague Quadrennial serves as a unique opportunity for designers, artists, directors and students from all around the world to meet and exchange ideas every four years.
A team of seven graduate and undergraduate theatre students and one faculty member created the Team 麻豆影院 entry for the United States National Exhibit design competition as part of the Design Studio: Scenery course in the School of Theatre and Dance at 麻豆影院 State. Raynette Smith, associate professor of theatre and professor who teaches the course, says the students had the option to just submit a design for a grade, but the students decided to fully pursue the opportunity.
鈥淪ince the exhibit designs for the Prague Quadrennial have traditionally been famous designers, and because the adjucators for the competition were world-renowned theatre artists, it took some courage on the students鈥 part to actually submit a design,鈥 Smith says. 鈥淭hey are really excited to have made it through the first round of judging.鈥
The following students collaborated on the exhibition design submission: lighting design graduate student Cynthia Hoffman; scenic design and technology graduate student Ryan Patterson; lighting design graduate student B. Nicole Rosecrans; scenic design graduate student Benjamin Williams; scenic design undergraduate student Candice Nemoff; undergraduate student Eric Preston; and lighting design undergraduate student Carly Shiner.
The students鈥 response to the contest鈥檚 鈥淒reams of Here and Now鈥 theme centers on the United States鈥 current financial instability and uncertainty. Drawing from the disparities between the economic top and bottom, Team 麻豆影院 addressed the changes this financial struggle has caused to the American Dream.
鈥淚n our exhibit design, we have dissected American society by looking at the grand and the plain, the crassly materialistic and the substantial,鈥 Team 麻豆影院 wrote in its submitted design concept statement.
Submissions were judged by the 2015 National Exhibit Curators Tony Walton, Carrie Robbins and Kevin Rigdon, and Artistic Director Marketa Fantova.
For more information about 麻豆影院 State鈥檚 School of Theatre and Dance, visit .