To end our senior spotlights is ASHLEY THOMAS 🌻🪴🌟🎨
@_ashley_thom@artbyashley.designs
Ashey Thomas is a growing production designer and artist. She has worked as a production designer on a few Pace films, including Snatched not Suffering and Séance Grifter, and staged productions, including pumpernickel and Jesus Christ Superstar! She has experience designing, building, set dressing, and making props in both theater and film. Ashley is excited to continue working within the art department for film!
#productiondesign #film #set #sandsperformingarts #nycfilm
Today’s senior spotlight is MAXIMUS MACHADO🪲🪡⭐️🔨
@maxx.sucks@maxximus.designs
Maximus Machado is a costume and props designer based in NYC. As a visual storyteller, he is passionate about immersing audiences into stories through thoughtful and crafted details. His passion is bringing powerfully dark worlds and characters to life. He describes his style as Whimsical, Edgy, & Raw. His love for theatre started at a young age, when his grandmother took him to see Broadway shows for his birthdays. He drove his family crazy singing Annie for a month straight. Max’s past design work includes Theweekafter, Oklahoma!, Séance Grifter, Alice By Heart, Pippin, and Be My Baby.
#props #costumes #nyc #nyctheater #sandsperformingarts
Today’s senior spot light is MAK KEMPER🖌️🍂🪐✨
@makmkemper@makmkdesign
Mak Kemper is a NYC/BK based scenic designer, artist, and props fabricator originally hailing from Pittsburgh, PA. They have worked on shows and projects all across the city, ranging from Scenic & Props designing indie theater projects at venues such as the Producer’s Club & the Tank, to assisting Props Designers in commercial photo shoots for companies such as Starbucks Reserve NYC. In addition to design work, Mak has also acted as a Scenic Artist & Carpenter for many shows both in and outside of Pace. In their time at Pace, some of their credits include Production Coordination for Firehawks (Schaeberle Theater, 2024), Scenic Design for Picnic (Schaeberle Theater, 2025), and Scenic Design for Judgement at Nuremberg (Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 2025). In addition to mainstage design credits, Mak has also acted as the Prop Storage Manager and Theater Props class TA at Sands College. Outside of the theater, you can find Mak cuddling with their cat, Apollo, or enjoying art around the city.
#theater #theaterdesigner #scenic #scenicart #sandsperformimgarts
Today’s senior spotlight is CAYDEN JUDD 💡✨🌿🪐
@cayyydennnn
Cayden Judd is a New York, based lighting designer originally from the South Side of Chicago, focused on building environments through light and creating spaces where both the work and the people in it can exist fully. Her work is grounded in real world reference and the way light behaves in lived-in spaces, with a particular appreciation for lamps, practicals, and everyday sources of light. She is interested in collaboration and the relationships between people in creative spaces, with attention to inclusion and equity. Rent (2024), Dance Space (2024), Picnic (2025), and Spiral Bound (2026)
#lightingdesigner #nyc #sandsperformingarts #theater #nyctheater
Introducing senior sound designer and engineer LINDSEY HOUGH 🎶🎧🌟🍄
@lindseydoessound
Lindsey is a New York City-based Sound Designer and Engineer. She is a passionate artist and collaborator focusing on theater and live events, with an interest in film and TV. She has honed her technical expertise and developed her creative design voice at Pace. Her passion for sound came from her history as a pianist who found beauty in the way certain tone patterns made fragrant, beautiful sounds. She discovered the ways sound could evoke different emotions, persuade, and push the story along, just through amplification and effect. Work at Pace includes: Pumpernickel (A1), Firehawks (A1), Dance Nation (Sound Designer), Rent (A1), Zeus IV (Sound Designer), Judgment at Nuremberg (Sound Designer & A1)
#sandsperformingarts #theater #theaterdesigner #nyc #nyctheatre
Today’s senior spotligh ELIANA ESTEVEZ 🌞🌺🌊🍓
@eliana.estevez@elianasdesign.png
Eliana Estevez has been creating and making art ever since she could remember. She founded her love for theater in highschool, and has been working on her craft ever since. As a scenic designer and artist, she loves being able to reinvent spaces and new worlds. Her goal is to emerse the audience, making them feel as they are in the story. At Pace she has designed three main stages, Dance Nation, Oklahoma!, and most recently, Hair.
To keep up with Elianas work you can take a look at her website, eestevezdesigns, or her instagram, @elianasdesign.png
#scenicdesigner #nyc #nyctheater #sandsperformingarts #designers
Today’s senior spotlight is GRAYSON DININO🎨💡✨🎭
@gr.ayallen@grayson.d.designs
Grayson DiNino has been in love with making art his whole life, and has been working in and creating theater since 2018. Specializing in lighting design, Grayson’s recent credits include Hair (Sands Performing Arts), The Passion of Miss Norma DeMarco(TRANScend @ the Flea) and LX Op and Production Electrician with Blue Man Group at Astor Place Theater.
Outside of theater, Grayson is a painter and sketch artist, and loves spending time looking at the NYC skyline. When he’s not working, you can usually find Grayson somewhere at an art museum.
#lightingdesigner #nyc #nyctheater #sandsperformingarts #theaterdesigner
Next up on our senior spotlight is scenographer, FRANCESCA CANNAVA🌷🌟💝🖌️
@franieecake@frans_artcollection
Francesca “Fran” is a scenographer from Staten Island, NY, and is currently a student at Sands College of Performing Arts in NYC. They’re a multifaceted IMDb-accredited designer with a background in film and stage. Her style incorporates a lot of thoughtfulness as she believes even the smallest detail can tell a story. She loves trying to reuse different materials from other projects to create multi-media art to keep her creative juices flowing when she’s not actively designing productions. Some of their work includes Rent (2024), Dance Nation (2024), Meet Me at the End(2025), and Sweet Charity (2025). Usually, you can find what they’re working on currently on Instagram @frans_artcollection as she really loves posting process pictures!
#scenographer #theaterdesign #filmproduction #nyc #sandsperformingarts
Introducing Senior Lighting designer Berkeley Crosby!✨🦋💡
@berkeley.crosby@bcrosby.designs
Berkeley Crosby is a lighting designer originally from Columbia, South Carolina. Her passion for lighting design sparked at concerts, she was captivated by how color, rhythm, and atmosphere could completely transform an experience. That fascination quickly turned into a lifelong pursuit to create designs that are colorful, daring, and intricate, bringing stories and performances to life through light and motion. She has had many roles in various productions such as a spotlight operator, programmer, assitant/associate lighting designer, and her favorite role as a lighting designer on Dance sPace and Dance Out Loud. She is very excited for what the future holds and looks forward to seeing everyone at senior showcase!
Stay tuned for more at our showcase May 4th!!
#lightingdesigner #nyc #theater #nyctheater #sandsperformingarts
Introducing our first senior spotlight KAT BELFER💖🌼✨🎭
@kat.does.costumes@wow.kat
Kat Belfer is a costume designer based in the NY/NJ Metro area. As a costume designer, Kat has designed various plays, musicals, and short films through Pace, NYU, and other independent production companies! She debuted as the first costume designer of the 24 Hour Play Nationals in 2023, and has since designed for the New York Theater Festival, many NYU thesis films, and is currently the costume designer of Pace University’s production of Sweeney Todd! Please visit her website (kat-does-costumes.com) to check out her resume, portfolio, and more! Feel free to follow her socials (@kat.does.costumes & @wow.kat ) to keep up with her design work and everyday escapades!
#nyc #nyctheater #theaterdesigners #costumedesigner #sandsperformimgarts
