Meritt Award Winners Announced

The 18th Annual Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration program, honoring and celebrating the work of scenic designer Walt Spangler (Desire Under the Elms, King Lear), will take place on Monday, May 2, at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

Robert Falls, Goodman Theatre's artistic director, a founding member of the Michael Merritt Endowment Fund steering committee, will present the award to Spangler. Sound designer, composer, musician and DJ Mikhail Fiksel (Old Town, Last of the Dragons) will receive The Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award. There will also be a presentation of three student scholarship recipients representing The Theatre School at DePaul University (sound designer Jeff Gary), Northwestern University (scenic designer Scott Davis), and from Columbia College Chicago for The John Murbach Scholarship for Collaborative Design (lighting designer Claire Chrzan). The doors open at 5pm with a viewing of the fifth annual Theater Design Expo in the Goodman lobby, showcasing the works of over 50 Chicago-area emerging theatrical designers and a portfolio review of graduating design students from some of the finest programs in the country. Hedy Weiss, theatre and dance critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, will lead a panel discussion at 7 p.m. in the Owen Theatre with awardees Walt Spangler and Mikhail Fiksel. The awards presentation will begin at 8pm.

Tickets/Exhibit fees are $20 per person and $5 for students. To purchase your ticket or exhibit space by credit card, phone (312) 369-6105. To RSVP and for more information about exhibiting or attending, visit the Michael Merritt Endowment Fund website.