NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers

2009-2011 Recipients

 

Jeffrey Becker is a New Orleans-based set designer/sculptor who specializes in original site specific performances featuring innovative transforming sets, interactive environments, film and machines. Jeff has worked with theater companies such as The Cuttingball Theater, Mondo Bizzaro, Pan Pan Theatre from Ireland and Dah Teatar from Serbia. He is the recipient of several awards and grants including a NEA RAP Grant, Theater Bay Area Grant, SURDNA Professional Development Grant and a Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship.  He is a core ensemble member of ArtSpot Productions and is on the faculty of New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.

Oana Botez-Ban (Costume Designer), a native of Romania, has designed for major theater anddance companiesincluding The National Theater of Bucharest and was involved in different international theater festivals such as the Quadrennial Scenography Show in Prague. Oana is part of the first Romanian theaterdesign catalogue, Scenografica. Since 1999, her New York costume collaborations in theater and dance include Robert Woodruff,Richard Foreman, Maya Beiser,Richard Schechner, Blanka Zizka, Brian Kulick, Zelda Fichlander, Karin Coonrod, Jay Scheib,Eduardo Machado, Gus Solomon Jr.&Paradigm, Carmen de Lavallade, Dusan Tynek, Gisela Cardenas, Pavol Liska, Matthew Neenan, Molissa Fenley, Zishan Ugurlu, Erin Mee, Judith Ren-Lay,Michael Sexton, Pig Iron Company, Play Company, Charles Moulton, Loy Arcenas, Ripe Time. MFA in Design from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. Princess Grace Recipient.

Brendan Connelly makes all the sound and music for The Theater of a Two-headed Calf, which he co-founded, along with director Brooke O'Harra, in New Orleans in 1999. The Two-headed Calf has been a resident company at La MaMa, E.T.C. in New York where they created Tumor Brainiowicz, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great, The Mother, Major Barbara and two seasons of Room for Cream. They have also created work at the HERE Arts Center, PS 122, The Perishable Theater and Soho Rep. The Company received an Obie Grant in 2008. Brendan's other theater work includes numerous collaborations with director Ian Belton. His non-theater compositions have been performed by the SEM Ensemble, Timetable Percussion, Hunter-Gatherer, Yarn/Wire and Wet Ink.

William Cusick is a video and projections designer based in NYC, whose work has recently been seen in productions at the BAM Harvey, Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theater Workshop, PS122, Culture Project, Ontological-Hysteric Theater, The Chocolate Factory, as well as various theaters in Europe and Canada. Cusick is the recipient of the 2007 Henry Hewes Design Award for Projections for his work on Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopiaat Lincoln Center Theater.Cusick has designed four original productions for the experimental theater company, Temporary Distortion, including the upcoming Americana Kamikaze at PS122.

Dave Malloy is a composer/sound designer/musical director/pianist/performer working in NYC and the Bay Area. He has been a member of Brooklyn's Banana Bag & Bodice since 2002; recent BB&B works include the Glickman Award winning Beowulf - A Thousand Years of Baggage, an original SongPlay featuring dueling trombones and 40's vocal jazz harmonies, The Sewers, an apocalyptic Victorian farce with an extensively integrated electronic score, and Space//Space, a claustraphobic sci-fi study in 7.1 surround. Other highlights include Clown Bible and (The 99-cent) Miss Saigon with Oakland's Ten Red Hen. He is a recipient of the 2009 Jonathan Larson Grant and a Bay Area Critic's Circle Award for Sound Design. www.davemalloy.com

Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew is a NY based lighting designer and puppetry artist.  Recent designs include Kaspar Hauser and Dawn at The Flea Theater, Oph3lia and Frankenstein (Mortal Toys) at HERE Arts Center, Ocean/Flight at Highways Performance Space (LA), Invisible Glass at REDCAT (LA), Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant at Ohio Theatre, and No Where Can be Here Now at The Chocolate Factory.  As a puppetry artist, her toy theater production, The Butcher Men, was invited to the 2006 Prague Quadrennial and MILK was part of the Labapalooza 2007 at St. Ann’s Warehouse.  She received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts.

 

Designer recipients were chosen by a national independent selection panel that included Carol Bailey, designer; Clay Benning, resident sound designer, Alliance Theatre; Marsha Ginsberg, designer; Tyler Micoleau, designer; Joel Sass, artistic director, Jungle Theater; Angel Ysaguirre, director of global community investing, the Boeing Company.

Preliminary panelists included Carol Bailey, designer; Clay Benning, resident sound designer, Alliance Theatre; Marsha Ginsberg, designer; and Tyler Micoleau, designer.