Past program offerings of the Studio School
Director, Choreographer & Designer Networking Event for Theatrical Performance
Studio School of Design, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, Local USA 829 and TSDCA will be hosting their annual in-person director/choreographer-designer networking event in NYC!
Daisy Long and Jane Shaw
February 2, 5pm EST, February 14, 12pm EST, AND February 23, 12pm EST. Online.
Three separate events, sign up for one. Open to ALL, not just union members.
SSD In Conjunction with USA829, SDCF, and TSDCA.
May 16 – June 20, 2026 Synchronous Online.
Using 3D tools for better light placement, implementing team collaboration.
Nick Solyom and Guests
A LIVE online interactive course
June 7, 8, 9, 2026 . Stockholm Sweden, In Person.
SSD will be presenting two workshops in Lighting Color and LEDs at Scandlight 2026.
Clifton Taylor
July 10, 2026 at 2 p.m. EDT. In Person, New York City.
Guided walk-through of the Met’s European Art collection, 1300-1800, exploring the origins of light as a symbolic tool in Western Painting.
Clifton Taylor
July 10, 2026 at 5 p.m. EDT. In Person, New York City.
Guided walk-through of the Met’s 19th-Century Painting Collection, exploring the development of light as a subject of consideration.
Clifton Taylor
July 20 – 25, 2026. In Person. New York City.
*NEW* for 2026. ADVANCED Summer Workshop in Lighting Design and Technology for High School Students.
Emmanuel delGado, Venus Gulbranson, Mark Stanley, Clifton Taylor
July 23 – August 17, 2026. Synchronous Online.
Summer Intensive Course! Learn to Draft in Vectorworks before Labor Day.
Stoli Stolnack.
March 19-21, 2026 at the Long Beach Convention Center in California.
Not a course, but an announcement that we’ll be in booth 847 at USITT this year in Long Beach.
Friends and Associates of SSD.
September 12 – November 30, 2026. In Person, New York City.
A high-impact, low-cost course in Lighting Design with noted lighting designers from Broadway, Ballet, Opera and more.
Mark Stanley & Guests
April 10, 2026 at 5pm EST. In Person.
Guided walk-through of the Met’s European Art collection, 1300-1800, exploring the origins of light as a symbolic tool in Western Painting.
Clifton Taylor
January 3 – February 21, 2026. Online.
Sharpen your drafting skills with Vectorworks Fundamentals.
May 4 – June 29, 2026. Synchronous Online.
All the things you never learned in college to assist professionally!
Craig Stelzenmuller, and other special guests from Broadway including: Sadie Alisa, Jeremy Wahlers, Natali Arco, Alex Fogel, and Kat Zhou
Join us for a special community event at the Met Museum in New York City. Light Walk is a guided walk-through of the Met’s European art collection, 1300-1800, exploring the invention of light as a symbolic tool in Western Art. Facilitated by lighting designer Clifton Taylor.
Clifton Taylor
Studio School of Design is once again partnering with the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, Local USA 829, and TSDCA to co-host our annual series of Designer & Director-Choreographer networking events!
Jane Shaw and Daisy Long.
March 30, 2025. In Person.
Come see the next generation of graduating lighting designers at the Hemsley Portfolio Review. No signup required, more information below.
May 5 – June 30, 2025. Online.
Working as an associate or assistant on large-scale projects has become a viable career option. This course will examine the associate and assistant role in a large-scale Commercial (Broadway) production. You will also gain skills that can be applied in other areas of lighting careers.
Craig Stelzenmuller, Kat Zhou, and Guests
May 17 and 18, 2025. Online.
Previz is a fast-growing part of the lighting design process and is becoming a necessity for shows, events, and installations. Through this workshop, learners will gain foundational knowledge of the previz process as it relates to the creation of a show in the live entertainment industry.
May 19-24, 2025. In Person.
Studio School of Design will be presenting a workshop in Lighting Color and LEDs at Showlight this coming May in Dijon, France. Join SSD’s Clifton Taylor and a large gathering of lighting designers and manufacturers from around the world at this important conference.
Clifton Taylor
May 19 and 20, 2025 In Person. 4:30 P.M. – 7:00 P.M. both days.
This hands-on two-session professional development workshop will give High School Educators a solid foundation to work with the lighting systems in their own schools and provide an introduction to the available careers in lighting today.
Mark Stanley
Thursday, May 22, 2025. In Person.
While not an SSD event, we are partnering with the NDPR to produce the College Educator’s Conference this weekend. Visit the NDPR in New York City.
Friday, May 23, 2025. In Person.
This full-day IN-PERSON gathering will be bringing together College and Graduate level Lighting Educators to share pedagogy, challenges, and successes. This event will take place during the National Design Portfolio Weekend in New York City.
Mark Stanley, Clifton Taylor
June 17 – 19, 2025. In Person.
Jane Cox and Mark Stanley are joining forces to present a special 3-day in-person workshop in Copenhagen, Denmark. This course will be an in-person, hands-on learning intensive.
Jane Cox and Mark Stanley
July 6-12, 2025. In Person.
This year, Studio School of Design is joining forces with Design Action to help with their Springboard to Design Summer Workshop.
Clifton Taylor
July 14 – July 21, 2025. In Person.
Studio School of Design’s Summer Workshop for High School Students. This coming summer in Manhattan. An eight-day intensive to include hands-on workshops with working professional lighting designers, a visit to see a New York show and tour backstage, and culminating in a public showing of the work accomplished during the workshop.
Deandra Bromfield, Emmanuel DelGado, Darius Knight Evans, Venus Gulbranson, Amara McNeil, Mark Stanley, Clifton Taylor. Guest Speakers Kevin Lawson, Josephine Marquez, and more.
Sign ups are open! Studio School of Design is once again partnering with the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, Local USA 829, and TSDCA to co-host our annual series of Designer & Director-Choreographer networking events! Held via Zoom throughout February 2025, meet and reconnect with directors, choreographers, and designers from across the country!
Each event will consist of a series of one-on-one meetings where director/choreographers will be paired with designers, with a potential for small group meetings toward the end if time allows.
Please note that space is limited! Sign up early, and make sure to sign up by February 1, 2025. Everyone may attend one event. This series is open to Designers, Directors, and Choreographers at all stages of their careers. This is open to both union and non-union designers in all categories, and directors and choreographers do not need to be members of SDC to attend.
THIS IS A TWO HOUR EVENT. Since the events are structured as a series of one-on-ones, we ask that you stay the whole time. ASL interpreters are available for this series. To help us book the right number of interpreters, please let us know if you would use this resource at least eight days before the event(s) you would like to attend.
After the first two sold-out walkthrough events, we’re going to do it again on February 14, 2025
This community event is a guided walk-through of the Met’s European collection of Art, 1300-1800, exploring the origins of light as a symbolic tool in Western Painting. Facilitated by lighting designer Clifton Taylor.
This event is limited to 20 participants.
Clifton Taylor
Learn the basics of:
How to choose and use the proper products and tools for different scenic challenges. Learn the terms and techniques before you get to the jobsite.
Tricks of the trade:
What to expect:
Diane Fargo: Scenic Charge Artist/ Faculty Boston University
Tacy L. Flaherty: Scenic Artist/ Former Assoc. Charge Artist Public Theater
Tiziana Mazziotto Ingram: Scenic Artist (829 Member)
Studio School of Design, Local USA 829 and SDCF present:
Director, Choreographer & Designer In-Person Networking Event for Theatrical Performance
Studio School of Design is partnering with Local USA 829 and Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation to co-host a ZOOM director/choreographer-designer networking event.
It will primarily consist of one-on-one meetings where directors/choreographers will be paired with designers.
SPACE IS LIMITED – Please sign up by January 9th, 2024. This series is open to designers, directors, and choreographers at all stages of their careers. This is open to union, and non-union designers in all categories, and directors and choreographers do not need to be members of SDC to attend.
THIS IS A TWO-HOUR ONLINE EVENT. Since it is structured as a series of one-on-ones, we ask that you stay the whole time. ASL interpreters are available. To help us book the correct number of interpreters, please let us know if you would use this resource by January 9.
Daisy Long and Jane Shaw
Using 3D tools for sectioning and better light placement; setting up projects to share documents, resources, layers across a diverse network; creating a workflow among diverse teams. The participants will work together as a group and in smaller cohorts to create and manage large scale project to arrive at usable solutions in this hands on, problem-based course.
Four (4) two-hour Sessions, Saturdays:
Jan 4,11,18, and 25, 2025
Nick Solyom and Guests
A LIVE online interactive course
What is an image, and how do we create imagery and design to tell stories? Led by award-winning projection designer and educator Wendall Harrington, this two-session, hands-on, workshop will help you better understand how we communicate with non-verbal symbols to express ideas and emotions in support of realistic and abstract narratives.
WE HAVE RECEIVED FUNDING TO MAKE THIS COURSE FREE. REQUIRED THAT YOU ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS. Donations are gratefully accepted.
Expected Learning Outcomes: Upon successful completion of this course, the student will:
Wendall Harrington
“Why We Make Cues” is a series of workshops with leading lighting designers Jennifer Tipton, Natasha Katz, and Mark Stanley, designed to increase your understanding of cue placement, cue rhythm & timing, and compositional sequences to support story, movement, emotion, and musical expressions. Each session will focus on the unique aspects of either text, music, or movement that impact cue placement and composition.
Sessions include discussion of source material, how to develop cue lists, and hands-on cue creation with feedback from the professional designers and participants.
An in-person, hands-on workshop. October 28, November 4, and November 11, 2023 Three Saturdays: 10:30 am-6 pm
Target audience:Emerging artists to experienced professionals. The workshop is designed to be learner-centered, and the projects will focus on real-world lighting problems and solutions.
Expected Learning outcomes: By the end of this workshop, the learner will be able to:
Jennifer Tipton, Natasha Katz, Mark Stanley
Clifton Taylor and Anne Militello are joining forces to present a special 4-day in-person workshop. This course will be an in-person, problem-based, hands-on learning intensive for beginning to advanced lighting designers covering topics like Color and Light, Working in Non-Theatrical spaces, Connecting meaning to your design choices, LED considerations and much more.
Clifton Taylor and Anne Militello
In this program, Lighting Designer Nick Solyom offers a preview of his upcoming Course: Advanced Vectorworks: 3D, Augment3d, Rendering and more.
Nick Solyom
United Scenic Artists, USA IATSE 829, TSDCA and Studio School of Design are co-hosting an in-person designer/associate/assistant event at Ars Nova’s Loft space in NYC (511 W 54th St) on Monday, December 12th. Come meet designers, assistants and associates and have fun!
Daisy Long and Jane Shaw
Of course, your live event is being captured by the camera! We’re covering creating and adapting for the camera. Interfacing with a video director, video engineer, and director of photography. Plus metering lights, managing color for video, and working in both HD and 4K+ environments.
Eight (8) 2-hour Sessions meet Saturdays March 4 – April 22, 2023
See the free one hour introductory video here.
Robert Barnhart and Guests
A LIVE online interactive course
This two-session IN-PERSON, professional development workshop will provide Secondary School Educators with tools for teaching students about the art and technology of lighting design. We will cover career paths for lighting designers and experiential lesson planning to increase your learner’s capacities in lighting and prepare them both for work on your school’s productions and a path into college and career. All of the activities have been prepared with NJ and NY state educational standards and coding, and participants will be given lesson plans that they can use in their own classrooms.
Feedback from prior HS Professional Development Workshops from Studio School of Design:
Wow. That was an amazing experience at the lighting workshop. Made great connections, got awesome ideas, and was super inspired. -Helio, HS teacher, Queens
I loved the subject and the execution of it. [SSD] gave great lessons that were really transportable to the classroom. I can see myself really enhancing my unit on Lighting with this material and though this experience. –Peter, HS teacher, BronxI enjoyed this group and am actively recruiting students to be part of their summer program. I think we discussed this at one time – but I am a big believer in this this is a great opportunity for many students (as an entry point) as well as those who love ‘design’ – and of course a great and fun way to look at storytelling. Thank you! -Sean, HS Teacher, Manhattan
No prior technical or lighting experience is necessary to participate in this fun & impactful professional development workshop. This program is targeted to all teachers who may be interacting with their students in theatrical productions or theater courses.
Mark Stanley, Aja
This course will take an intensive look at lighting for dance and movement. How do we think about movement and light connect? How do we talk about it with a choreographer? What useful ways to create a cue list? How do you create a light plot from contemporary equipment? What are the challenges of managing a repertory plot and database for large scale dance companies?
Three (3) online sessions: April 8, 15 and 22, 2023, 12pm – 2pm EDT, UTC-4.
Mark Stanley
ONLY ONE SLOT LEFT!
Working as an associate or assistant on large-scale projects has become a viable career option. This course will examine the associate and assistant role in a large-scale Commercial (Broadway) production. You will also gain skills that can be applied in other areas of lighting careers.
As with ALL Studio School of Design ONLINE Courses, each session will be videotaped and shared with participants for a limited time in case you can not attend a specific session.
Studio School Courses are open to participants from around the world.
Eight (8) 2-hour sessions meeting online on Mondays (except May 28), 6 pm – 8 pm (EDT) (2200-0000 UTC).
This course is designed for early and mid-career professionals
Craig Stelzenmuller and Guests
Photo: “Billy Elliot” Scenic Design by Campbell Baird and Robert Andrew Kovach; Costume Design by Dustin Cross; Lighting Design by Craig Stelzenmuller. Pictured: Sam Faulkner Photo by Curtis Brown. Production at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium, North Carolina Theater.
