Paige Hathaway to Receive Rising Star Award at USITT 2018

	Paige Hathaway, freelance scenic designer

Freelance scenic designer Paige Hathaway will receive USITT's 2018 Rising Star Award.

The Rising Star Award, established by Live Design/LDI in 2005 is given annually to a young professional in the first four years of their career after completing their highest academic degree.

The award recognizes excellence and artistic achievement in scenic, lighting, sound, projection design, and a convergence of these design disciplines.

Hathaway is a freelance scenic designer based in the Washington, DC area. She has recently designed A Chorus Line at The Muny in St. Louis; Familiar at Woolly Mammoth; The Book of Will and Or, at Round House Theatre; A Midsummer Night's Dream at Philadelphia's Arden Theatre; The Gulf at Signature Theatre; Everything is Illuminated, Another Way Home, and The How and the Why at Theater J; The Pillowman, Dry Land, and What Every Girl Should Know at Forum Theatre; and A Midsummer Night's Dream and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at the Folger Theatre. Upcoming designs include John at Signature Theatre, Becoming Dr. Ruth and the world-premiere of Trayf at Theater J, Every Brilliant Thing at Olney Theatre Center, and Jerome Robbins' Broadway at the Muny in St. Louis. She received her MFA in scenic design from the University of Maryland and her BFA in scenic design from the University of Oklahoma.

"I am so grateful to receive this award that has honored so many incredible artists," Hathaway said. "I feel truly humbled to be in such good company."

Hathaway was recently nominated for two Helen Hayes Awards for scenic design of Me... Jane at the Kennedy Center and Or, at Round House Theatre.

"Paige's designs are inventive, whimsical, and quite stunning," said Theater J artistic director Adam Immerwahr in a recommendation letter. "Her sense of line and form is superb, and her ability to make artful splendor out of quotidian objects is truly a marvel."

Hathaway will be honored at the 58th Annual USITT Conference & Stage Expo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, March 14 - 17, 2018. The annual conference provides technical sessions, workshops, and discussions on topics from architecture, costume design and technology, engineering, rigging safety, lighting design and technology, stage management, scenic design and technology, sound design and technology, and technical production.