By Susan Tsu
The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space is a singular 10-day juried event in Prague taking place every four years celebrating Performance Design. Unlike any other theatre festival in the world, as many as 20,000 visitors from 100 nations participate in the offerings which focus specifically on design. Events include themed National, Student, and Architectural Exhibitions, Installations, Performances, Devised Work, Workshops, Happenings, Parades, PQ Talks, and Awards.
The 16th edition of the PQ is themed around “Absences and Silences as spaces of potential for new scenographic futures” as individually interpreted by each submitting nation’s curators. For the United States, award winning costume designer and former CMU Professor, Paul Tazewell, is a leading Curator.
All submissions were blind submissions with no identifying names or logos permitted.
We are pleased and proud to announce that Carnegie Mellon has a record number of students, faculty, and alumni who have been curated into the 2027 Prague Quadrennial in National, Emerging and Performance Space categories!*
Emerging Exhibition
Current students:
MATTHEW EGGERS – The Bridges of Madison County (Costume)
TIANYU LEI – Salome (Costume)
RUIDI YANG – La Clemenza de Tito ,CMU (Scenic)
Alumni:
JOSEPH AMODEI- Space Unravels Performance (Installation of the dance floor, the hospital room, and the kitchen table, which was produced by Future Ghost) in the Performance Space Exhibit at PQ with Lyam Gabel at Amodei Gabel theatre company- The Voxel, in Baltimore, Maryland (Video & Media)
CHLOE COHEN- The House of Bernarda Alba, CMU (Sound)
PAN-PAN GOU- Shakespeare’s R&J, Pittsburgh, PA (Sound)
YAFEI HU- I Think I’m Beginning to Want to be a Mother, CMU (Scenic)
ISAAC JO- Happy Birthday, Robot Supervisor, CMU ColLABo (Sound)
SASHA JIN SCHWARTZ – Polaroid Stories, Ramapo College (Scenic)
ZIXIN (LEAF) YE – La Clemenza di Tito, CMU; 10 O’Clock Tonight; and Variable Women (Costume)
SEBASTIAN ZAVALZA – Lear, CMU; Shakespeare’s R&J, Pittsburgh, PA (Scenic)
National Exhibition:
Faculty & Alumni:
DAHLIA AL-HABIELI – The Half-God of Rainfall, Wilma Theatre (Scenic)
KENT BARRETT – To Feel a Thing, The Holland Festival (Scenic)
ERIK LAWSON- The Passport Project, Nordic Black Theatre in Oslo, Norway. (Sound Des. & Composer)
CHELSEA WARREN – Another Kind of Silence, City Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA (Scenic)
JOE PINO, STEFFI MEYER, SUSAN TSU- The Tempest, Quantum Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
*We apologize for any omissions. Please email smusgrav@andrew.cmu.edu if you are a CMU student, faculty, or alum that has been selected for PQ 2027 and not listed here.