ETC Announces 2005 LDI Student Scholarship Recipients

Each year, ETC selects a group of graduate students to attend LDI. This all-expense-paid trip affords students the opportunity to view the latest entertainment design technologies, while offering them a chance to network with some the industry’s most influential professionals.

The 6th Annual LDI Student Sponsorship for 2005 are: Andrew Cissna, Anthony Galaska, Nick Gonsman, Tae Hyun (Trent) Kim, DJ Selmeyer, and Brian Stevenson.

Cissna has been working in and around the theatre since the age of eight, and with lighting for the past ten years. At the North Carolina School of the Arts, he has designed Waiting for Godot, Gross Indecency, and a spring dance show featuring the Don Quixote Suite. Professionally Andrew has done To Kill a Mockingbird, Christmas Story, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and most recently Gross Indecency for the H Street Playhouse (Theatre Alliance, Washington DC). He was head spot and FOH electrician for the Dora the Explorer Live! national tour.

Galaska is in his final year working toward his MFA at Purdue University. While at Purdue, he has designed lighting for shows such as Hay Fever and Buried Child, for which his design was the alternate for the American College Theatre Festival Barbizon National Design Award. Galask earned his BFA in 2003 from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Last summer he designed the lighting for Out At Sea, an adaptation of The Winter's Tale. He also designed for an adaptation of Henry VI part 3 for The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey's Professional Summer Theatre Training Program Late Night Series and was the assistant designer at their outdoor stage.

Gonsman began working with lighting design while in middle school. In high school, he directed the student lighting program and was technical director for two professional theatre companies, where he oversaw a production at the Comedy Store on Sunset Blvd. He then went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to study lighting under William Kenyon and worked on over a dozen shows for the theatre department, designing six of them including How I Learned to Drive. In 2004, he transferred to the Pennsylvania State University to continue studying under Prof. Kenyon and is now president of the USITT Student Chapter. He has designed the lighting for several shows including Arcadia.

Kim began studying Drama and Cinema at Suwon University in Kyunggi-do, South Korea. He then studied Event Management at the MBC Broadcasting Academy in Seoul and interned at the LG Arts Centre. After studying English for four months in New Zealand, Tae Hyun earned a BA in lighting design through the stage management and theatre production program at Queen Margaret University College in Edinburgh, UK. Recently, Kim began working towards an MFA in advanced stage and screen practice (Lighting Design) at Queen Margaret University College. He has traveled to several countries including Germany and Poland as a stage manager for several international theatre tours.

Currently, Selmeyer is pursuing an MFA in lighting design at the University of Montana. He has designed lights for 42nd Street, Little Shop of Horrors, and Annie Get Your Gun at the Fort Peck Summer Theatre. As an undergrad at Portland State University, he designed the lighting for The Marriage of Bette and Boo and The Hostage and was the assistant lighting designer and moving lights programmer for Jesus Christ Superstar at Mount Hood Community College. He has also completed an internship with the Oregon Ballet Theatre.

Stevenson is in his third year at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, seeking an MFA in lighting design. He received his BFA in technical theatre and design from Texas Wesleyan University. He attended the KC/ACTF national festival as the KC/ACTF Region VI Barbizon Lighting Design Winner for 2005. He is a member of USITT and IATSE 126. His professional credits include Fort Worth Shakespeare in the Park, Stage West, and Plano Rep. Bryan's recent productions include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Romeo and Juliet, and Twelve Cubed. His future endeavors include sound design for Big Love and lighting and sound design for Into the Woods.