Wingspace Theatrical Design to Present Free Virtual Salon On Women+ Of Color In Set Design

As part of their Women+ of Color Designers Salon Series, Wingspace Theatrical Design will present a free virtual conversation on Wednesday, November 17 at 8:00pm with set designers Melanie May, Yuki Izumihara and Yvonne Johnson, moderated by Tanya Orellana.

The Women+ of Color Designers Series is part of Wingspace's Virtual Salon programming. Conceived by Melissa Ng and Elizabeth Mak, this roundtable series celebrates the artistry and vision of WoC designers within various disciplines.

Previous Women+ of Color Designers conversations featured costume designers Qween Jean, Dominique Fawn Hill, and Lux Haac, and sound designers Tosin Olufolabi, Sadah Espii Proctor, and Kacie Willis moderated by Mei Ann Teo and available to watch on Wingspace's Facebook page.

Reservations for this Zoom event are strongly encouraged and are available here. The Salon will also be featured on the Wingspace Facebook page and a recording will be available for a limited time following broadcast.

Yvonne Johnson A war veteran of the United States Marine Corps, Yvonne traded in her combat boots for a career in costume, fashion, and scenic design. Her passion for visual storytelling has led to a diverse career with work as a freelance fashion illustrator featured on the Real Housewives of Dallas, to designing the costume worn by 50ft celebrity animatronic mascot Big Tex at the 2016-2018 Texas State Fair. She has garnered such achievements as the competitive Television Academy's costume design internship, as well as winning 2019's Black Theatre Network's Judy Dearing Costume Design Competition for her work on SMU's opera production of Our Town where she received her M.F.A.in Stage Design. She just recently relocated to the Chicago area and has several exciting productions in the work across the U.S. www.yvonnejohnsondesigns.com

Melanie May Born and raised in Colombia, Melanie May is a Scenic Designer and Art Director working between New York and Bogotá. Her sensibility pursues to create rich and compelling universes through visual storytelling. Recent credits include The brief and wondrous life of Oscar Wao (Repertorio Español), Lordes presented at the New Ohio Theater's Ice Factory, On This Side of The World a new musical about the Filipino immigrant experience, Lost Girls (Netflix, Sundance), and Henry V by Saheem Ali (NYU).

Yuki Izumihara is a scenic, projection, and production designer born in Shimonoseki City, Japan and based in Los Angeles. Ms. Izumihara's work is influenced by years of martial arts training and is animated by a belief in discipline, ethics and craftsmanship. Her work has been featured at LA Opera, the New World Symphony, The Adrienne Arsht Center, San Diego Opera, the Hammer Museum, the Getty Villa Museum, and numerous theaters in Los Angeles. Recent engagements include scenic design for The Capulets and the Montagues with Opera Omaha; Sanctuaries with Third Angle New Music; production design for The Fall of the House of Usher and desert in (co-produced by Long Beach Opera) with Boston Lyric Opera; production design for Close Quarters with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; video art for The West is a Land of Infinite Beginnings with LA Opera Digital Shorts. Ms. Izumihara received her MFA in Entertainment Design from UCLA in 2016.

Tanya Orellana designs performance spaces for theatre and opera. Originally from San Francisco, she has been a core member of the award winning ensemble Campo Santo since 2008, participating in their intimate new work process, conceptualizing and designing sets alongside the writing process. Her design collaborations includes the world premiere of The Heath, by Lauren Gunderson directed by Sean Daniels at Merrimack Repertory Theatre (Lowell, MA), the Mexican premiere of Angels in America directed by Martín Acosta at Teatro Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (Mexico City), The Industry's Sweet Land, a world premiere opera, directed by Yuval Sharon and Cannupa Hanska Luger at L.A. State Historic Park, Native Gardens by Karen Zacarias directed by Rebecca Rivas at TheatreSquared (Arkansas), SAPO by Culture Clash at The Getty Villa (Los Angeles, CA), Casa de Spirits written and directed by Roger Guenveur Smith at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum (San Francisco, CA) and Voices from the Killing Jar by Kate Soper directed by Zoe Aja Moore at Long Beach Opera. Tanya received her MFA in Scenic Design from CalArts (2017) and is the 2016 recipient of the Princess Grace Fabergé Theatre Award.

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