Theatre and Drama

Megan Reilly

Assistant Professor

mmreilly2@wisc.edu


6006 Vilas Communication Hall

821 University Ave

Madison, WI 53706

Reilly, Megan

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Megan Reilly is an award-winning designer, writer, and educator whose work in lighting and media design has been seen across the US, the UK, and Ireland. Recent work includes: MATILDA, ANN, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, and 10,000 BALCONIES for TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, AR; immersive design for CABAL, Walking Shadow Theatre Company, in Minneapolis; and GHOST QUARTET for Penfold Theatre in Austin.

Her work focuses on creating environments which tell stories while guiding the audience through the show’s journey. She has spent the last seven years researching, creating, and documenting immersive, augmented, and virtual performance. Focusing on new ways of storytelling in immersive worlds, she explores the connections between gaming and theatre, performance methods in virtual environments, and the ethics required of creators, performers, and audiences in these new spaces. She has been published in the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, and USITT’s Theatre Design & Technology journal.

Megan has designed for numerous companies in: Austin and San Antonio, TX (Magik Theatre, Playhouse San Antonio, Rude Mechanicals, Salvage Vanguard Theater, Glass Half Full Theatre, Trouble Puppet Theater Company, among others); Minneapolis (Mixed Blood Theatre, Walking Shadow Theatre, Live Action Set, and Open Eye Figure Theatre, among others); and working with Toronto-based Toasterlab and the Edinburgh Fringe, she designed lights tor the mixed reality performance piece TRANSMISSION.

She currently serves as Vice Commissioner for Programming for the USITT Digital Media Commission, and researches augmented and virtual technologies in performance design while teaching lighting design at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Education

  • MFA Theatre, The University of Texas at Austin, 2007
  • BA Theatre, The University of New Hampshire, 2000
  • BS Biology, The University of New Hampshire, 2000

Select Creative Works

  • Reilly, Megan (Lighting Designer), & McKean, Kim (Director), "Ann," TheatreSquared, Fayetteville, AR. (2020).
  • Reilly, Megan (Media Designer), & Sawaf, Kholoud (Director), "10,000 Balconies," TheatreSquared, Fayetteville, AR. (2019).
  • Reilly, Megan (Lighting Designer), & Herzberg, Amy (Director), "A Christmas Carol," TheatreSquared, Fayetteville, AR. (2019).
  • Reilly, Megan (Immersive Designer), Pisa, David (Director), & Heimbuch, John (Director), "Cabal," Walking Shadow Theatre, Minneapolis, MN. (2019).
  • Reilly, Megan (Lighting Designer), & Fisher, Liz (Director), "Ghost Quartet," Penfold Theatre Company, Austin, TX. (2019).
  • Reilly, Megan (Immersive Designer), Adams, Kellian (Director), & Stark, Lizzie (Director), "The Night Café," Green Door Labs / Stark Productions, Sommerville, MA. (2019).
  • Reilly, Megan (Media Designer), & Jones II, Thomas W. (Director), "Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies," Mixed Blood Theatre, Minneapolis, MN. (2018).
  • Reilly, Megan (Lighting Designer), & Moore, David Francis. (Director), "Lady Na Master and the Synaptic Room," Collaborative Artists Company, Dublin, Ireland. (2018).
  • Reilly, Megan (Media Designer), & Bend, Torry (Director), "If My Feet Have Lost the Ground (remount)," Puppeteers of America Conference, Saint Paul, MN. (2017).
  • Reilly, Megan (Lighting Designer), & Kaye, David (Director), "Mary Poppins," Prescott Park Arts Festival, Portsmouth, NH. (2017).

Select Publications

  • Reilly, M. (2018). No wrong choices: performing alternate reality in The Tension Experience. International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, 14(1), 70-83. Online Publication/Abstract, Online Publication/Abstract.
  • Boeshart Burelle, M., Kocurek, C. A., Perez, A., Reilly, M., Salter, A., Smith, G., & Vadakumchery, T. (2018). The Spider’s Web. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology Online Publication/Abstract.
  • Reilly, M. (2017). Great Wall of Pi: Creating a High-Tech, Multimedia Solution for $2000, not $10,000. USITT TD&T Online Publication/Abstract.

Select Presentations

  • Reilly, M. (2021, March). USITT Session: Virtual Performance Series: Finding Pandora X Case Study. Oral Presentation presented at the 2021 USITT Virtually Anywhere conference.
  • Reilly, M., Huse, C., Mosher, S., & Sundstrom, J. (2019). Project: Sensory Accessibility Headset. Selected Participant presented at the San Diego Opera Hack, San Diego, CA.

Select Awards and Honors

  • Outstanding Lighting Design, Ghost Quartet (Nominee), B. Iden Payne Awards Council, 2020
  • Outstanding Lighting Design, Still Now (Nominee), B. Iden Payne Awards Council, 2015
  • Outstanding Lighting Design, Bethany (Nominee), B. Iden Payne Awards Council, 2014
  • Outstanding Lighting Design, Riddley Walker (Nominee), B. Iden Payne Awards Council, 2012
  • Best Lighting Design, Machinal (Nominee), Austin Critics Table, 2011
  • Best Lighting Design, A Brief Narrative of an Extraordinary Birth of Rabbits (Nominee), Austin Theatre Examiner, 2010
  • Outstanding Lighting Design, Murder Ballad Murder Mystery (Winner), B. Iden Payne Awards Council, 2010
  • Outstanding Lighting Design, Ophelia (Winner), B. Iden Payne Awards Council, 2009