USITT Announces YDMT Award Winners

	The YDMT winners will be celebrated at USITT25 in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday, March 6.

USITT announces the winners of its 2025 Young Designers, Managers, and Technicians (YDMT) Awards, which bring recognition and support to young designers, managers, and technicians at the beginning of their careers. "They are made possible by generous gifts to USITT from their sponsors," the company says.

The YDMT winners will be celebrated at USITT25 in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday, March 6, at 9:30am when other USITT Awards will be handed out. The winners are below.

Amoirie Perteet: Robert E. Cohen Sound Achievement Award

Perteet is originally from Chicago and is currently a third-year MFA candidate in sound and media design at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She graduated from UTK in 2022 with a BA in music production and business. She is a composer, graphic designer, and mixer. She has worked with the Clarence Brown Theatre, American Players Theatre, and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. She will be graduating from her MFA program this spring.

Annabelle Gauthier: USITT Stage Management Award sponsored by Clear-Com Communication Systems

Gauthier is a fourth-year design and technology and psychology major at Colorado State University. Her past credits at CSU include stage managing Everybody (2024), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2023), Spring Dance Capstone (2024) and assistant stage managing The Wolves (2022), The Tender Land (2023), and Spring Dance Concert (2024). Outside of CSU, she has completed a technical apprenticeship at the Santa Fe Opera.

Emmalee Berger: USITT Makeup Design Award sponsored by Kryolan Professional Make-Up

Berger is finishing her master's degree in costume design and technology at West Virginia University. During her time there, she has designed costumes and makeup for shows such as Phoebe in Winter and Ride the Cyclone. She has also worked as a draper, wardrobe manager, and crafts lead. After graduation, she plans to move back to Chicago to continue her design career.

Hayley E Wallenfeldt: The Richard Hay Undergraduate Scene Design Award and The USITT Scene Design Award sponsored by Rose Brand

Wallenfeldt is a New York City-based theatre artist born and raised in Chicago with a passion for history, art, and developing immersive spaces. They focus on collaborative storytelling, new work, and creating worlds just on the edge of the fantastical. They are the set designer for Teatro Grattacielo's upcoming world premiere of The Tin Angel by Daniel Asia and Paul Pines. Their recent credits include The Receptionist (Centenary Stage Company); 13 Suits, Haven (Outer Loop Theater); Make Way for Ducklings, Pete the Cat (Hangar Theatre); Waitress, Matilda (Quincy Community Theatre); Love and War (The Glimmerglass Festival); and Be Mean to Me, The Snowy Day, A Peculiar Inheritance (Northwestern University). They were the resident scenic design assistant for the 2023 Glimmerglass Festival season and are a recipient of the 2025 Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize. She received her degree in design and archaeology from Northwestern University.

Katherine Chung: The Barbara Matera Award in Costume Making

Chung is a Pittsburgh-based costume maker from Taipei, Taiwan. She has a bachelor of fine arts in costume design from Taipei National University of the Arts and is in her final year of study for a Master of Fine Arts in costume production from Carnegie Mellon University. As a draper, Chung's work has recently been seen onstage in City Theater Company's The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, Quantum Theatre's The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, and Carnegie Mellon University's A Little Night Music. She was a contributing artist helping create a sculptural garment for display in Flowers Meet Fashion: Inspired by Billy Porter at Phipps Conservatory. Additional credits include work as an intern at Parsons-Meares Ltd., and a first hand at The Santa Fe Opera and Barrington Stage Company.

Nickie Dubick: KM Fabrics, Inc. Technical Production Award

Dubick is a third-year MFA candidate in the technical design and production program at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University where she has worked as technical director, assistant technical director, production electrician, and props manager. Prior to Yale, after spending five years touring internationally with a non-profit organization called The Young Americans, she earned a BA in scenic design from Marymount Manhattan College and completed a six-month-long scenic design internship with David Korins Design in New York City.

Qiuyi Li: Zelma H. Weisfeld Costume Design & Technology Award

Li (Nuzzi) is a New York-based Chinese costume and production designer for film and theatre, holding a BFA from the Communication University of China and an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She is passionate about exploring the inner worlds of marginalized characters and reimagining historical details through innovative fabric textures. Selected costume design credits: Hair Tie, Egg, Homework Books (2021, 78th Venice International Film Festival), Before Leaving (2021, Kyiv International Film Festival), Summer Swing (2020, Shanghai International Film Festival), The Moors (2024, NYU Grad Acting), Phaedra's Love (2024, Columbia Grad Theater Directing).

Seojung Jang: The Barbizon Lighting Company Jonathan Resnick Lighting Design Award

Jang is a lighting designer who blends artistry and technical precision across theatre, opera, and dance. Originally from South Korea, she earned her MFA in lighting design from Northwestern University in 2024, where she worked on productions such as The Tempest, The Aliens, Working: A Musical, The Revolutionists, Foreshadows of the Flesh, Me Jane, and Mulan. Her lighting designs enhance storytelling, using light to evoke emotion and deepen the audience's connection to the work. Her portfolio spans intimate black box theatres to grand performance spaces, with international experience in South Korea and the U.S., as well as in Japan, China, and Portugal. She has also participated in international festivals, including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Additionally, she interned with the Tokyo Theater Company Kaze, assisting in design and touring productions. She holds a 1st Degree lighting certification from The Organization of Theatrical Arts & Technicians in South Korea. This is the country's highest level of lighting certification, combining skills in design, electrics, and programming. This distinction reflects her deep expertise in lighting design, electrical systems, and programming.

Shawn Poellet: Bernhard R. Works, Frederick A. Buerki Scenic Technology Award

Poellet is a third-year M.F.A candidate in the technical design and production program at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University where he is focusing on theatrical automation. Credits at the Yale Repertory Theatre include technical director for Wish You Were Here, automation technical designer for The Salvagers and The Far Country, and assistant technical director for Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles. Between academic years, Shawn worked at Hudson Scenic Studios in the engineering department. Projects at Hudson include the Broadway productions of Sunset Boulevard, Maybe Happy Ending, and Our Town. Prior to the School of Drama, he served as the assistant technical director/head audio video engineer at the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center at the University of Northern Iowa.

Zach Young: Bernhard R. Works Master Crafts Award

Young is a designer in lighting, scenic, and projections. He is a creator in many forms when it comes to lighting. He is always investigating how to design lights in new and different ways, especially how to incorporate lights into the world to help give it life. Designing and creating new and unique pieces that use his specialties in lighting, scenic, and media design is his passion and love. Collaborating with other designers to create something truly wonderful that can speak to the story and characters is his lasting goal. He will forever ask the question, "How can I do it better? What can I learn?"

USITT25 will be held at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, March 5 - 8. For information, go to: s7.goeshow.com/usitt/annual/2025/index.cfm.