Speakers

Adam Mendelson is an Associate Teaching Professor and Associate Chair at University of Maryland-Baltimore County Department of Theatre where he teaches Lighting, Sound and Digital Media Design and  has designed over 45 productions after helping prepare the new theatre spaces for the opening of the state-of-the-art Performing Arts and Humanities Building in August of 2012.

He previously taught design at the University of Wyoming, the University of Texas-Arlington, Stephens College (Columbia, MO), and Lawrence Academy (Groton, Massachusetts).  Adam currently serves as the Vice-Chair of OISTAT’s Lighting Sub-Commission and is the Lighting Commission co-International Representative and Delegate from the USITT centre.

Design credits include: Everyman Theatre, Baltimore, MD: The Book Club Play, The Sound Inside (Lighting Design). 1st Stage, Tysons, VA: The Piano Lesson, Shutter Sisters, The Logan Festival of Solo Performance 2025 ; Theatre J: Tiny Lights; Pepper Theatre, Munich Germany: The Amish Project; Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Sound Design); Rep Stage: Falsettos (Sound Design), Songs For A New World (Sound Design), Souvenir, The Heidi Chronicles; Classic Theatre of Maryland: A Christmas Carol, White Christmas, Cabaret, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Pride and Prejudice, Hamlet, Blithe Spirit, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and over 35 others; Lexington Children’s Theatre: Ella Enchanted, Charlotte’s Web; Persiphere Theatre: Blue Room, Time Is On Our Side; Interrobang Productions @ The Voxel: I Will Eat You Alive;  [DANCE]: Multiple shows each: Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Scotland), LA Dance (Massachusetts), Snowy Range Dance (Wyoming), Towson University Department of Dance (Maryland)

Amy Chan is a light and theatre artist, “an exciting practitioner from Hong Kong and an emerging critical voice on light as a performance material” (Theatre and Performance Design, UK). She graduated from Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with a Master of Fine Arts (with distinction), major in lighting design. She explores the musicality, relationality and materiality of light, with research published in international peer-reviewed journals and conferences. She was the invited speaker on performance lighting in Akademie der Künste of Berlin and Prague Quadrennial 2023.

With a background in theatre, Bastiaan Schoof works in different fields of lighting. For his Happy Tunnel collective, he designs light art for public spaces, especially for tunnels. Next to that, as a senior teacher, he teaches lighting design for the bachelor program at the University of Arts in Amsterdam. And in 2012, when Amsterdam Light Festival started, for 10 years he was involved as a the technical and artistic advisor/curator. In 2021 he founded his own light expo “I Light You“ in Utrecht, which will have its second edition in January 2023. Also, he is involed in Institute of Lighting Design in the Netherlands (iLo). He also still designs, now for Une Loue pour l’Homme, a French circus.

Bastian A. Miranda is a lighting designer, scenographer, playwright and director based in Montreal. A graduate of UQAM’s École supérieure de théâtre in scenography, his practice operates at the intersection of performance, literature and somatic studies. He explores light, suspension and atmospheric variation as dramaturgical agents within a sensitive ecology where humans and environments remain inseparable.

In 2025, he founded Le Collaboratif, an interdisciplinary collective dedicated to horizontal collaboration. Through this structure, he leads Je te veux de la tendresse (2025–2027), a project positioning light and sound as generative forces. He is currently completing a Master’s degree in theatre at UQAM, focusing on collaborative research-creation and situated ethics in performance-making.

Chris Van Goethem started in 1983 as a technician in a rental company, as most of us in this time. By self-education he became stage manager and travelled around Europe with a lot of Belgian companies. Later on he started to work as consultant and educator in technical theatre.

Clifton Taylor has designed on Broadway and for opera, theater, and ballet companies worldwide. He speaks regularly in the US, Asia, Europe, and South America on lighting design and adult learning. He is one of the founders of Studio School of Design, an online and in-person design school based in New York which is seeking to widen access to high-quality design learning.

Before joining ETC in 2019 as Training and Outreach Specialist, Declan was a freelance set, lighting and projection designer and his work has been seen on stages around the world including on Broadway, the West End, Beijing and Sydney. He has also worked extensively in architecture, television and film. His love for light, and colour in particular, has fuelled his desire to master the science of LED and blend it with the art of lighting design. Declan now manages the extensive training program for ETC across Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Emma Weil is Head of Light, Sound and Video at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, Sweden. She began her career in 1994 and has an extensive background as a lighting designer and lighting director,  across opera, ballet, theatre, live music, world tours, museums, and large-scale events.

Throughout her career, she has toured internationally with artists such as Damien Rice, Björk, ANOHNI and the Johnsons (formerly Antony and the Johnsons), and Rufus Wainwright. Notable projects include Swanlights, a unique multimedia performance by Antony and the Johnsons, commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and first presented at Radio City Music Hall in New York before taking it to London, Madrid and Melbourne. Emma has also worked on six Eurovision Song Contests in a wide range of technical and creative roles, as well as numerous theatre, ballet, and opera productions across the world.

Over the past decade, her work has increasingly focused on organizational development, leadership, and the advancement of stage art methodologies—bridging artistic practice with long-term structural and strategic perspectives.

Isabel Potter is a PhD Researcher at Bath Spa, currently researching the intersection between technology, scenography, and accessibility as part of the MyWorld research group. Prior to 

and alongside current academic research, they are a Production Manager, particularly focusing on developing work that strives to leave a positive impact. Notable work includes Sensory Cinders, 2024, The West End’s first show created for audiences with PMLD, Production Manager of Oldham Coliseum, and SICK! Festival. Isabel uses a combination of their passion for performance and their Master’s in Aerospace Engineering to bring a unique approach to their work and research.

Jodi Rabinowitz is an experimental lighting, video and scenographic designer working across theatre, live performance, immersive work, film and television. Trained in visual design at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney, Australia, Jodi specialised in scenography and has worked towards creating an integrated approach to design since studying. 

Some of Jodi’s recent works include I Daniel Blake – Associate Lighting Designer (Northern Stage), Leoni Da Tastiera (The Place), Generator (Thick Skin Theatre), A Very Expensive Poison (Mountview), Sweeney Todd (Mountview), Doomers (Rose Lipman Building), Stars — Associate Lighting Designer (Tamasha), Derry Boys (Theatre503), and Apologies (London Youth Theatre), among others. Upcoming works: The Land We Shared (Theatre Des La Ville), The Rapping Princess (Polka Theatre), The Spectacular (Camden Peoples Theatre), Split Ends (National Tour) & Nadi (The Place).

Dr Kelli Zezulka is a lecturer in technical theatre at the University of Salford and a teaching fellow in stage production at the University of Leeds. She has been an aerialist for five years and a lighting designer for much longer than that, merging the two practices as convenor of the Aerial Arts, Scenography and Pedagogy research network. She co-edited (with Professor Scott Palmer and Dr Katherine Graham) Contemporary Performance Lighting, published in 2023, and a special issue of the Theatre and Performance Design journal titled “On Light” in 2025. She is a life member of the Association for Lighting Production and Design in the UK. 

Kimmo Karjunen is a lighting, set and video designer in Finland. 

Kimmo Karjunen has been teaching in the Program of Lighting Design in the Theatre Academy Helsinki of the University of the Arts Helsinki for some 30 years. 

In 2009 Kimmo Karjunen received the State of Finland Award for the Arts as the first lighting designer in Finland. In the rationale Karjunen was described as an “unconditional artist with a sense of style and as a pioneer in seeking the new” and “as a thorough and inspiring teacher who is always on the edge of the progress”

Kimmo has been and is active in several organisations like LDWG of Oistat,  Oistat of Finland, Teme (Trade Union for Theatre and Media Finland), Association of Lighting, Sound and Video Designers in Finland.

Kimmo Karjunen Master of Arts (MA) Degree Programme in Lighting Design, Theatre Academy Helsinki of the University of the Arts Helsinki

Mattias Fransson brings over 30 years of extensive experience to the world of lighting design. Throughout his career, he has navigated a diverse range of stage and event productions, moving seamlessly from technical coordination to creative lighting design for both permanent installations and international tours. Currently, Mattias focuses his expertise on museum lighting and freelance design projects. Driven by a deep curiosity, he explores light in all its forms—from its fundamental physics as a particle to its profound psychological impact on the human experience.

Michael Breiner is a Danish lighting designer and educator. He works in contemporary performance, theater, dance, and opera. Michael has taught lighting design since 2004 and was head of the light department at the Danish National School of performing arts (2017-2021). Michaels artistic research is focused on darkness and its relation to mind, time and space.

Michael is a Professor of Lighting Design in the Drama Department of Stanford University and he also serves as an Honorary Professor at the Central Academy of Drama, Beijing.   He has taught regularly at the Bavarian Theater Academy Munich and as a Guest Professor at the University of Arts Belgrade in the Interdisciplinary MA Program in Theater Design as well as at Trinity College, Dublin.  Professor Ramsaur was awarded a Fulbright Grant to lecture at the National University of the Arts in Taipei, Taiwan. He has given lectures or workshop in 19 countries.

Michael has had a 40-year career in theater including owning and operating San Francisco Theatrical Supply, a stage lighting sales and rental company. He has served as Lighting Designer, designing over 200 productions for many theater companies in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, including Berkeley Repertory Theater, San Jose Civic Light Opera, West Bay Opera, Scholar Opera, Lamplighters, TheatreWorks, and the Broadway by the Bay where he is the resident lighting designer having designed over 70 productions.

He has been awarded Outstanding Lighting Design awards from the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Association (most recently for the 2010 production of Les Cage Aux Folles), Dean Goodman Award, and Drama Logue Award.  His articles on lighting techniques have been published in three countries and he has created a computerized software program to aid lighting designers.

Natalie Cheung is a dramaturg of transmedia productions including Sound Astronauts, Inter-Face, Things that Talk, Morbid Anatomy, working closely with light. She experiences facilitating and creating critical dialogues with the creative team. She curates programs and writes critics’ guides to explore aesthetic and social contexts with audiences. Her publication and presentation can be found in peer-reviewed journal and conferences such as Critical Stages, Performance Studies international, Hong Kong Drama Yearbook, Hong Kong Dance Overview and Critics’ Guide of Hong Kong Arts Festival and New Vision Festival. Natalie is also a drama educator proficient in opening conversation with communities through diverse means.

After a career as a professional lighting designer and technician, Nick started teaching at Rose Bruford College, later becoming Programme Director for BA Lighting Design, and then Head of the School of Design, Management and Technical Arts. He is now a Senior Research Fellow at the college. His research interests include: light and performance; photography and scenography; digital scenography and digital performance; the role and status of theatre practitioners; and the history of theatre technologies.

Nick Moran brings over 30 years of professional experience from opera, musicals, theatre, large‑scale events, and international concert tours.

From 2003 to 2026 he led the Lighting Design & Production Lighting programmes at the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama. He is the author of Performance Lighting Design, Electric Shadows and The Right Light

Raisa Kilpeläinen is a Finnish lighting designer, scenographer and educator. She works in the field of performing arts and is a Lecturer in Performance Design at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. Her research activities are focused on sustainability, changes, potentials and futures in performance design. Her many interests include, among other things, dramaturgy, site-specificity, and light art. She is also a book editor and writer.

Scott Palmer is Professor of Light and Performance in the School of Performance & Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds, UK.

His monograph Light: Readings in Theatre Practice (2013) explores how light has influenced staging throughout history and offers new perspectives on the use of light as a creative performance practice.  Research publications include chapters on light, darkness and atmosphere in Theatre in the Dark and The Routledge Companion to Scenography and a reappraisal of Adolphe Appia’s influence on modern staging. Scott is co-editor of Bloomsbury Methuen’s Performance+Design series which includes Scenography Expanded (2017) and Contemporary Performance Lighting: Experience, Creativity & Meaning (2023) with Katherine Graham and Kelli Zezulka. Scott’s practice has contributed to interactive light installations in city streets and to major international productions by Phoenix Dance, KMA, NVA and DV8.

Tommy is currently a Lighting Mentor / Designer at the School of Dance & Theatre , LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore. He has conducted international lighting workshops at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, Beijing Dance Festival, Guangdong Modern dance company and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He is the founding-chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Theatre Technicians & Scenographers. Tommy holds an MFA in Lighting Design from the Purchase College, University of New York and awarded the Asian Cultural Scholarship to study lighting design in Yale School of Drama. He lit numerous dance theatre productions across Asia.

Veli-Ville Sivén (b. 1993) is a Helsinki-based scenographer working with light, space and video, as well as a media artist and musician. He holds a Master of Theatre Arts in Lighting Design from the University of the Arts Helsinki and works across theatre, exhibition and performative contexts.

His artistic practice explores how light can connect physical scenography and moving image into unified spatial environments. Working with minimalist structures and precise visual compositions, he often uses video to extend stage space and create immersive perceptual experiences.

Sivén’s work has been presented in theatres and exhibitions in Finland and internationally. In 2024 he received the Valosäde Award for his lighting design for Tove Teuvalla Opera.