Class of 2024

MARIANNE AUVINET GOULD

Marianne is a half English, half French production designer from south east London. Prior to moving to NYC to pursue her MFA she worked as a designer for films and events in the UK for 5 years. She has also worked in the art department on shows such as Prime’s ‘10 Percent’ & Apple TV’s ‘Bad Sisters’. Films that she has designed have been featured on the BBC, The Guardian, Nowness and Dazed Digital. She has worked with commercial clients such as COS, Corteiz and Salomon. Career highlights so far have included designing Tina Pasotra’s BAFTA Cymru nominated short ‘I Choose’ and Dorothy Allen-Pickard’s documentary short ‘Material Bodies’ which won ‘Best Artist Film’ at the My Hero IFF and ‘Best Short’ at the Reel to Real IFF alongside screening at 27 film festivals worldwide. Awards & Affiliations: 2022 BAFTA Newcomer, BAFTA Connect Member, 2024 ‘Craft Award in Production Design’, First Run Festival.

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BRIAN BERNHARD

Brian Bernhard is a set designer and theatre artist from Long Island, NY. From bold reimaginings of classics, to visualizing conceptions of new works, Brian brings his unique flair for dramaturgy, research, and storytelling into all he does. Using his backgrounds in theatrical performance and mechanical engineering to drive his design work, he focuses heavily on a design’s function—both practically, and dramatically. Analyzing the world through the philosophies of Clowning and Queerness, Brian seeks to tackle big questions by discovering the intimate and honest questions at their cores, and working through their answers on stage with a spirit of curiosity, generosity, humor, and enthusiasm. Selected Credits: The House of Blue Leaves (NYU Grad Acting); Suicide Forest (Assoc. Set Designer, Ma Yi & Bushwick Starr); Eureka Day (Props Design, Colt Coeur) Education: MFA, Design for Stage and Film, NYU Tisch; BA, Theatre Arts, BE, Mechanical engineering, SUNY Stony Brook University

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Camille Charara

Camille Charara is a Costume Designer and Artist based in NYC and Detroit. Her creative work revolves around art, people, and stories. As an artist, she builds worlds, and as a person, she builds communities. As a first-generation American she invested in telling socially relevant stories. She honors people’s histories and individualities while creating characters and meticulously looks at character’s motivations and relationships to uncover truths. Camille’s background in fine art is in service of this, solidifying clear visuals and artistic execution. She is an educator with experience teaching at the undergraduate level and 3rd-12th grade students. Camille has designed plays, musicals, operas, and films, but particularly loves designing pieces connected to music. She holds a BFA in costume design and BA in art & design from the University of Michigan. Upcoming: VisionIntoArt: Impact Lab Fellow, 12th Night, University of Michigan. Baba, Williamston Theater. Asst. CD Der Rosenkavalier, Santa Fe Opera.

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STEPHEN CYR

Stephen M. Cyr is a designer, technologist, and storyteller with a dash of absurdity. While collaborating on theatre, film, installations, museums, themed attractions, weird performance happenings, and other audience experiences of communication and placemaking, Stephen has also helped theatre companies and commercial clients build audience relationships through branding and marketing. Currently interested in finding the ritual in theatrical projects, and the theatrical that mediates daily life. An avid researcher of semiotics and excavator of liminal space, conjuring worlds that exist in the in-between, Stephen runs towards speculative stories bursting from the pedestrian that question the nature of reality, are full of empathy, and conjure a feeling of being alive with surprising, precious moments of transformation and magic. Also musicals.

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VINITA GATNE

Vinita Gatne is an artist, researcher and designer who is interested in creating spaces that traverse anecdotal and ephemeral stories which are otherwise disregarded in conventional recording practices. Vinita studied architecture in Mumbai which steered her to work with communities focusing on impacts of capitalism and climate change on agriculture and fisheries. In 2016, she was awarded collaborative seed funding from the Wellcome Trust which explores the relationship between medicine and community lead charitable organizations in colonial Bombay. Alongside her research practice, Vinita works with installation art in an attempt to break away from linear storytelling practices. Vinita received an honors in her MA degree from Dutch Art Institute where she developed her thesis that brings forth knowledges performed by emancipatory subaltern feminist groups by the way of protest songs and speeches in India. Some of the films she has worked on include ‘Micro Resistances’ by Marwa Arsanios & ‘One Emerging From A Point of View’ by Wu Tsang.

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Zhuosi "JOYCE" HE

Zhuosi (Joyce) He is a Chinese set and production designer currently based in New York. Prior to completing an MFA in set design at NYU, Joyce obtained a BA in Film Studies and Architectural Studies from Mount Holyoke College. She is drawn to the ritualistic experiences of theater and cinema and aspires to be a creator of such experiences. In her works, she constantly seeks to evoke emotional responses, challenge the status quo, and invite the audience to see the possibility of change. As a designer, Joyce is interested in the connection between characters and their environment, and how interaction of human bodies within the space can unveil deep emotional truth buried within the text. She enjoys bringing new interpretations to classic texts with diverse aesthetics, and is devoted to narratives that amplify the voices of marginalized communities.

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SHANE HENNESSY

Shane Hennessy (they/them) is a Lighting Designer for Live Performance from Sag Harbor, NY. Shane draws inspiration from Modern & Pop Art, Speculative Fiction novels, and Animation – some favorites being Dan Flavin’s installation work, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, and Across the Spiderverse (2023). Outside of the theater, they are also an avid Dungeons & Dragons player, Survivor watcher, and cat enjoyer! Their work has been seen recently at The Tank, The New Ohio, Gymnopedie Bushwick, DR2, & Columbia University.

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Kat Ibasco

Kat Ibasco (she/her) is a Chinese-Filipino stage and film designer based in New York. She is interested in the complexity of dress as an art form in itself throughout history, and as a language to express identity. Having travelled all her life, Kat enjoys bringing her lived cultural experiences into the spaces she works in. She aims to create inventive yet organic work that reveal truths and shape conversations about what it means to be human. In production, Kat prioritizes text and the intent within its storytelling, as well as the collaborative experience.

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Ari Kim

Ari Kim (She/Her) is a lighting designer who originates from Seoul, South Korea, and is based in NYC. She has been working on Theatre art, Dance and performance art in museums. She is interested in stories that talk about boundaries and marginalized communities, including stories about queer people, women, and immigrants. She believes lighting design comes from the meanings of emotions and feelings which are non-verbal languages stimulated through human senses. These are the most essential, important and powerful languages in theatrical art. Recent work: Ma, go (Playwright Horizon Downtown), Yerma (Walker theatre, NYU), I’ve never planned to be on this earth long. (Lenfest Center for Arts), The middle land when time unfolds into a land.(Seoul, Arco art museum)

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Jasmine Lewis

Jasmine Lewis is a costume designer and multidisciplinary artist based in New York. Through a combination of research and material exploration, she seeks to cultivate new ways of visual storytelling. Jasmine has a background in fashion design and construction, where she gained experience creating statement garments for musicians and performers. In her design work she is interested in experimenting with avant garde shapes and alternative materials to create pieces that explore otherness. She is committed to fostering community and being a part of projects that diversify representation and uplift marginalized people and their stories. Jasmine’s designs have been featured on RuPaul’s Drag Race and her Denver Fashion Week collection was highlighted in Forbes Magazine.

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Qiuyi "Nuzzi" Li

Qiuyi Li (Nuzzi) is a Chinese costume and production designer based in New York for film and theater. Passionate about exploring the depths of marginalized characters in complex social environments, she crafts multidimensional personas with innovative fabric textures and reimagined historical details. For her, designing each character is a completely different and unique life experience. Sharing the joys and sorrows of her characters is what keeps her enthusiastic.

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Yiyuan Li

Li is a Chinese lighting designer currently based in New York City. She is especially interested in collaborating on work that breaks the boundaries of certain culture landscapes. And she is always passionate about finding meaning in abstraction through the manipulation of lights in her process. Outside of design, she enjoys walking on the street with her camera to observe and capture stories. Selected Credits: The Moors (NYU, Theatre C); Dancing at Lughnasa (Lenfest Center for the Arts); Em Domstol (NYU, Walker Theatre); Second Avenue Dance Company resident lighting designer (2022-2023); Story of A Bird (Shanghai Changjiang Black Box Theatre) Education: MFA, Design for Stage and Film, NYU Tisch; BM, Arts Management, Shanghai Theatre Academy

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Adrienne Miikelle

Adrienne Miikelle is a Lighting Designer, Visual Artist, and Storyteller based in Brooklyn. Recognizing that the bulk of any project takes place during its process, she practiced in many media before discovering a rhythm in telling stories through light. Describing herself as a visual artist and storyteller allows for the acknowledgement of the building blocks of her creativity, which landed her here – seeking to collaborate with others to push ideas to the point of that collective “click” which confirms that something special has been created. Outside of theatre, she enjoys plants and elevation.

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Jheanelle Miller

Hailing from the vibrant intersection of Jamaican, Cuban, and American cultures, Jheanelle proudly identifies as a multidisciplinary visual storyteller. Regardless of the medium—be it designing, writing, or capturing moments through a camera lens—her work is imbued with the unbridled spirit of imagination, each piece a testament to her innate storytelling prowess. With a solid foundation in architecture, having earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami, she now embarks on an ambitious journey towards establishing herself as a production designer and writer. Her aim is to craft narratives that transcend borders and cultures, leaving an indelible mark on the cinematic landscape. In her creative pursuit, she is driven not only by personal passion but also by a profound desire to represent her culture authentically and to be a beacon of inspiration for other young Black women aspiring to make their mark in the creative realm.

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ANDRé Segar

André Segar is a world-traveling Lighting Designer. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama with a BFA in Lighting Design. Now residing in New York City, Andre has graduated from NYU in Tisch’s Design for Stage and Film program with his MFA in Lighting Design. André spent over a decade traveling the world with touring companies such as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line International; Feld Entertainment; and NetWorks Entertainment where he worked on shows such as Disney on Ice; Marvel Universe Live; and Dirty Dancing the Musical, respectively. Andre’s creative goals is to bring real life magic to the stage, through illusion and perspective. Using light as a medium, he strives to transport audiences to creative, bold and unique worlds to help put them inside of the stories being told. His work has been seen and supported by Off Broadway’s Pipeline at A.R.T/NY, Williamstown Theater Festival, The Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, The Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Manhattan Theater Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater, Playwrights Horizons

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Junran "Charlotte" Shi

Junran (Charlotte) Shi (she/her) is a set and production designer based in New York. With the background of Architecture, she is using space, structure and materials as powerful tools for storytelling on stage. Her rich imagination with solid research and model building skills help her creates from conceptual theater art pieces to detailed scenic presenting. Themes commonly seen in her works are nature, humanity and culture.

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ROGER TENG

Roger Teng (He/Him) is a New York City based costume designer hailing from Taipei, Taiwan. Since starting his journey in the United States in 2013, he has passionately crafted stories through costume design for theater, musicals, and films. With a keen eye for reimagining classics and bringing diversity to the forefront, Roger thrives on projects that engage with art and culture, shaping narratives that resonate with audiences. Beyond his work, he enjoys collecting matchbooks from restaurants and bars, and indulging in outdoor runs.

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