Judges Announced for the 2015 Rose Brand/USITT Action Design Competition at the USITT Expo

	Judges for the Rose Brand/USITT Action Design Competition

The fourth Rose Brand/USITT Action Design Competition at the USITT Conference & Stage Expo is only a few days away. Student designers from around the country will work to create the best scenic environment possible given limited supplies, limited time to design, and limited time to get to know their teammates.

This year's expert panel of judges is comprised of Tony Award-winning costume designer Jane Greenwood, Douglas Schmidt, Teresa Eyring, and Terrence Spivey.

The well-known and celebrated Jane Greenwood has been nominated for 18 Tony Awards for Best Costume Design and Best Costume Design of a Play during her 50-plus year career. She won the 2014 Tony Award Special Award for Lifetime Achievement. She is also a professor at the Yale Drama School since 1976.

Douglas Schmidt, also joins the team to assess students' abilities in scenic design. A Cincinnati native, Schmidt is being honored as USITT's 2015 Distinguished Achiever in Scene Design. His work has twice been nominated for Tony Awards as Best Scenic Designer in 2001 for 42nd Street and in 2002 for Into the Woods.

Teresa Eyring will also assist in reviewing this year's scenic environments. She is the first woman executive director of The Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national, non-profit organization for the American Theatre. She has been an executive in theatres around the US for over 25 years. In July 2005, Twin Cities Business Journal named her a 'Woman to Watch."

Filling the fourth judge's space is Terrence Spivey, artistic director of Cleveland's Karamu House. Spivey will also be keynote speaker at this year's USITT Conference & Stage Expo. The actor, director, and educator has led Karamu House, the nation's oldest African-American theatre, for 10 years. In his time with the theater, he has mounted over 60 plays.

Student designers will be working on Friday, March 20 at USITT Expo booths RB1, RB2, RB3, and RB4. Prizes are awarded in two parts -- one part for best team, which is determined by social media voting, and one part for best individual contributors, which is determined by a set of highly skilled judges. Visit the show floor to see the designs. Voting begins at 6:00pm on March 20 via Instagram and Facebook.

To view photos of the competition and booth designs visit http://bit.ly/rosebrand-instagram or http://bit.ly/rosebrand-facebook.