Location:
The 2022 Michael Merritt Awards for Excellence in Design and Collaboration will be held, in person, on:
- Monday, May 23rd, 2022 at Steppenwolf Theatre. 1650 N Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60614
- 5:00pm - 10:00pm
The Michael Merritt awards are glad to be returning to an in-person format, and we are excited to say that the event will take place in the beautiful Steppenwolf Facilities. As the doors to the event open, a tour will be available for Steppenwolf's newly unveiled Liz and Eric Lefkofsky Arts and Education Center! In addition, the costume shop will be open for attendees to tour.
Tickets:
- Student - $ 5.00 + fees
- General Admission - $ 20.00 + fees
Book tickets online through Brown Paper Tickets
General Public is welcome and encouraged to come!
Food, wine and beer are included in the ticket price for those of legal age. Funds go to support the awards endowment fund.
Schedule:
5pm Exhibition opens (entrance at 1700 N Halsted St - north doors of Front Bar)
5pm - 6pm Tours of new Steppenwolf facilities
7pm - 8pm Dialogue with the Designers
8:15 - 9:15 Awards Ceremony
9:15 - 9:30 Photos
10pm Event Ends.
Awards and Recipients:
There will be several awards presented to individuals during the award ceremony. The awards are below:
- The Michael Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration
- Robert Christen Technical Collaborator
- The Arts Advocacy Award
- Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award
- The Emerging Technical Collaborator Award
- 5 Academic Prize Recipients
The Michael Merritt Award Recipient -
Takeshi Kata, Scenic Design
Takeshi is a theatrical set designer based in Los Angeles, CA. He has worked on over 200 productions of plays, musicals, opera, and dance across the country and abroad. Recent Projects include Broadway productions of Clyde’s (Helen Hayes) and Derren Brown’s Secret (Cort), Bug (Steppenwolf), Until the Flood (FIND festival, Shaubühne, Berlin), Prayer for the French Republic (MTC), Cymbeline (American Players Theatre), Angels in America (Berkeley Rep), Man From Nebraska (Second Stage), Cambodian Rock Band (Signature, South Coast Rep, OSF, La Jolla), and Gloria (Vineyard, Goodman). Takeshi has won Obie and Jeff Awards and has been nominated for Drama Desk, Ovation, San Francisco Critics Circle, TBA and Barrymore awards. He is an Associate Professor at University of Southern California, School of Dramatic Arts, where he currently serves as Chair of Design.
The Robert Christen Technical Collaborator Award Recipient -
Martha Wegener, Theater Sound
Martha has led the sound department at Steppenwolf Theatre since 1991 as the theater expanded it's performance spaces, calendar, reach and ambition. Before that she spent considerably shorter stints at regional theaters around the country, most notably the Goodman Theatre where she became friend and collaborator with Bob Christian. Her proudest achievement is 30 years mentorship to apprentices who now span the country in positions as sound supervisors, theatrical designers, college professors, and audio engineers.
Arts Advocacy Award Recipients -
For The Group, Arts Advocacy (All Non-Performance Disciplines)
We are an anti-racist collective of Chicago-based theatre professionals working to break down the barriers to equitable employment for BIMPOC designers, technicians, staging practitioners, and other production professionals. Our goal is to uplift theatre Practitioners from historically marginalized groups in our industry by providing a web-based platform to make their names, experience, and work known to hiring managers; to promote better hiring practices; and provide resources for anti-racist education. Values: Anti-Racism, Equity, Access, Transparency, Communication Vision. A robustly anti-racist and just theatre industry which no longer needs lists like this.
The Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award Recipients -
Raquel Adorno, Costume Design
RAQUEL ADORNO is a costume designer based in Chicago and Puerto Rico. Selected credits: CHICAGO: Wife of a Salesman (Writers Theatre); The Tragedy Of Othello, The Moor of Venice (Court Theatre); I, Banquo (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Intimate Apparel (Northlight Theatre); Plano (First Floor Theater); Top Girls (Remy Bumppo Theatre Company); Mies Julie (Victory Gardens Theater); Unelectable You (The Second City); D.O.A., The Long Christmas Ride Home, Desperate Dolls (Strawdog Theatre Company); Murder Ballad, Princess Mary Demands Your Attention, CARRIE: The Musical (Bailiwick Chicago); Angry Fags (Steppenwolf Garage) The Submission, Songs from an Unmade Bed (Pride Films and Plays); Barefoot in the Park, Crimes of the Heart, Dead Accounts (Step Up Productions); A Number, Scenes from an Execution (Runcible Theatre). REGIONAL: Intimate Apparel (Utah Shakespeare Festival); Taming of the Shrew, Cymbeline, A Doll’s House, A Doll’s House, Part 2 ( American Players Theatre); Small Mouth Sounds (UCCS Theatreworks). FILM: Limerence. NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: The Flick, The Cherry Orchard, Jane Eyre, The Orange Garden, Vinegar Tom EDUCATION: MFA in Stage Design, Northwestern University MM in Opera Performance, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. AWARDS: The Michael Merritt Academic Achievement Prize for Collaborative Design 2019.
Yeaji Kim, Scenic and Projections Designer
Yeaji is a scenic and video projections designer based in Chicago. Her recent Chicago credits include White (Steppenwolf Theatre LookOut Series; Scenic & Projections design), In Every Generation (Victory Garden Theater; Projections design), Passage, The Year Of Magical Thinking (Remy Bumppo Theatre; Scenic design), Solaris (Griffin Theatre; Projections design), The Secret Council (First Folio Theatre; Projections design). Her regional credits are The Chinese Lady (Geva Theatre, Kitchen Theatre, NY; Scenic design). Her projections design for Strawdog’s The Effect has been nominated for 2020 Jeff Awards Non-Equity Projections Design, and her scenic design for The Great Expectations (Co-production Remy Bumppo & Silk Road Rising) was nominated for Best Scenic Design for Broadway World Chicago. Future projects include Fences (American Blues Theatre), Dear Jack Dear Louise (Northlight Theatre, IL), Fun Home (Paramount, IL). For more information, please visit yeajikimdesign.com.
The Emerging Technical Designer Award Recipient -
Rowan Doe, Props Design, Technical Direction
Rowan (They/Them) is a transplant Oregonian who graduated with a BFA in Technical Direction and a minor in Film Production from DePaul University in 2021. Recent credits include Props Design for Passage (Remy Bumppo), Once Upon A Mattress (Theo Ubique), SPAY (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble), My Way (Metropolis Performing Arts Centre), Props Assistant for When Harry Met Rehab (Greenhouse Theatre), and Little Shop of Horrors (Metropolis Performing Arts Centre). Technical direction credits include Tragedy of King Christophe (House Theatre) and The Bluest Eye (Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival). They also work as a freelance props maker, artist, production designer, carpenter, and electrician. Current projects include The Chinese Lady (TimeLine), and they are on the advisory board for Turn The Pages.
Academic Prize Recipients -
The John Murbach Columbia College Chicago Prize:
Shayna Patel, Scenic Design
Shayna Patel (she/her) is a graduating Theatre Design and Technology student with a focus in Scenic Design, from England. Shayna has worked on numerous shows at Columbia College Chicago including mainstage shows Head Over Heels, Contact: A case study and American Menu and D4 such as 4.48 Psychosis and D3's Dog and How I Learned to Drive.
The Theatre School at DePaul University Prize:
Forrest Gregor, Sound Design
Forrest Gregor is a sound designer and composer from Portland, Oregon and is currently pursuing a BFA in Sound Design from The Theatre School at DePaul University where he is finishing up his third year. His recent design credits include The Chinese Lady (co-sound design) at Timeline Theatre; Top Girls (co-sound design), Peerless, Bajo Las Estrellas, V.I.P., Barbecue, God of Carnage, Love and Information, and Marisol at DePaul University. This past summer Forrest was the associate sound designer and A2 for Sanctuaries: A Jazz Chamber Opera produced by Third Angle New Music in Portland where he is also an assistant audio engineer at Open Field Recording. Forrest is honored to be receiving this award and would like to thank his mentors and family for their ongoing support.
The Loyola University Chicago Prize:
Maegan Elizabeth Pate, Costumes
Maegan Pate is a designer and costume technician from Boston, MA. Recent credits include Into the Woods, Everybody, Radium Girls, and Fun Home. She is a recent graduate of Loyola University Chicago with a BA in Theatre and Performance and a minor in Film and Digital Media. She has worked in many different avenues of costuming including stitching, pattern making, and design. She is especially interested in devising and adaptive theatre about female-identifying experiences with an emphasis on social change.
The Northwestern University Prize:
Nora Marlow Smith, Set and Costume Design
NORA MARLOW SMITH is s Set and Costume Designer based out of Chicago and New York. She is about to graduate with her MFA from Northwestern University. She will also complete the Searle Center Teaching Certificate Program at that time. She is a member of the Communications Honor Society Lambda Pi Eta.
She graduated Mount Holyoke College in 2012 with BAs in Set Design and English Literature and completed a Graduate Design Fellowship at Amherst College in 2013, as well as a year of study in Literature at the University of Edinburgh.
Nora has a strong commitment to social justice and advocacy. Her goal as a designer is to support the telling of stories by historically oppressed voices and uplift works by the global majority.
Her design philosophy is rooted in a formalist tradition of physical expression, powerful imagery, and large, gestural spaces. Her background comes from sculpture and painting, as well as literary analysis and critical reading. The combination of these things, when applied with strong dramaturgical research and design theory, as well as a deep collaboration practice, brings out bold and intensely empathic spaces.
Past Northwestern design credits include peerless, In His Hands, Last Stop on Market St, and Fun Home. Other professional credits include Grand Rounds at LaMama Experimental Theater Club, Wake...Sing at IRT NYC, and Antigone at Amherst College. Keep an eye out for more exciting work from Nora this spring and summer on Water by the Spoonful, Marisol, and Dance Nation.
The University of Illinois at Chicago Prize:
Nathan LaBranche, Sound Design
A graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago with a BA in Theatre Design, Production, and Technology, Nathan LaBranche, known as, WNDRZ is always pushing HIMSELF to achieve more in his sound design and video editing career. Nathan receives his best inspiration from his favorite genres of music, as well as channeling and using his personal life experiences to implement into his artwork.