John Spiegel Theatrical Artist Award

Haley Brown ~ 2022 Spiegel Theatrical Artist

Haley Brown is a lighting designer living in Athens, GA where she is completing her final year of study for her MFA from the University of Georgia. She has worked as a lighting designer, assistant lighting designer and lighting programmer primarily along the East Coast, for theaters such as Out Front Theater Company, Stagedoor Manor, GLOW Lyric Theater, Warehouse Theater, Thin Air Theater Company and the Alliance Theater. SETC has played a pivotal role in her career and over the years has become the nexus for her theater family. She is honored to be recognized by the institution where she has found an artistic community. When not working, you can find her attempting to train her dog Mace, competing in roller derby matches, and playing D&D with her husband and close friends. You can check out her work at www.haleybrowndesign.com or follow her on Instagram @haleybrowndesign.

Sydney Dye ~ 2021 Spiegel Theatrical Artist

Sydney Dye is a projection designer (www.sydneydye.com) finishing up her senior year at Elon University. At Elon, she is a Communications Fellow and Lumen Scholar double majoring in Theatrical Design & Technology and Communication Design. As a Lumen Scholar, Sydney has spent the last three years examining the integration of social media in theatrical design and storytelling through creating a design-focused virtual production of an original documentary play. She has worked with The Muny, PlayMakers Repertory Company, and The American Dance Festival. In 2020, Sydney was one of six young theatrical designers to be recognized with LDI’s & USITT’s Diversity in Design Award. Her design for her university’s production of We Will Rock You won first place in SETC’s 2020 projection design competition. Sydney is incredibly honored to receive SETC’s 2021 John Spiegel Award.

Liz Haynes ~ 2020 Spiegel Theatrical Artist

Liz Haynes is a Technical Director from Nashville, TN (www.madebylizhaynes.com). She began her college studies at Clemson University graduating with a BA in Production Studies in Performing Arts and a BA in Modern Languages with an emphasis in Spanish. She currently resides in Las Vegas where she is a third-year graduate student in the MFA Technical Direction Program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. With a passion for sustainability in the performing arts, Liz is formulating her thesis on sustainability in entertainment production, focusing on systematic ways for any size performing arts company to make renewable and reusable choices regardless of staffing and monetary resources. Her professional work has taken her throughout the country to South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts and Nevada. With a background in carpentry and a love for fabricating custom furniture, Liz honed her skills in the theatre through a range of positions with Porthouse Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Chautauqua Theater Company. Liz returns each summer to Chautauqua Theater Company as the Technical Director, where she oversees the build and rigging for seven shows in nine weeks as well as facilitates the education of carpentry and scenic painting apprentices. A believer in maintaining positivity in all facets of her life, Liz switches her steel toes for hot pink fringe cowboy boots and goes line dancing most Wednesday evenings.

Alice Trent ~ 2019 Spiegel Theatrical Artist

Alice Trent is a 3^rd year lighting design graduate candidate at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Originally from Cincinnati, OH, she attended Xavier University where she received her BA in Theatre. She’s designed for theatre companies in Cincinnati; Asheville, NC; Cleveland, TN; Chattanooga, TN; Bay View, MI; and Knoxville, TN. She’s worked as an assistant lighting designer at the Cleveland Play House, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and Town Hall Arts Center of Denver. She was recently awarded the 2019 USITT Lighting Design Award sponsored by the Barbizon Lighting Company and was admitted into the 2019 USITT Young Designers Forum. Receiving the 2019 Spiegel Theatrical Artist Award is such a wonderful honor, and she’s so grateful to SETC for recognizing her.

Jo Sanburg ~ 2018 Spiegel Theatrical Artist

Receiving the Spiegel Award was not only a huge honor, but also opened doors and created connections withing the greater theatrical community, facilitating relationships and engaging conversation. The award funds are set aside for professional software and hardware that will make me a more effective designer. I cannot thank John Spiegel and SETC enough for this recognition. And a special thank you to those mentors and colleagues who helped me reach this goal.

Maranda DeBusk ~ 2017 Spiegel Theatrical Artist

It was an absolute honor to receive the first John Spiegel Theatrical Artist Award in 2017. The application process gave me the nudge to take a closer look at how I wanted to present myself and my work as I approached my graduation. It was a joy to be able to attend the conference and meet so many talented and interesting people, some of whom have become my collaborators. The scholarship funds are offsetting the cost of software so that I can take the leap from “Educational Version” to “Professional License” as I launch my career. My sincerest gratitude goes out to those who made this scholarship possible.