WINGSPACE MENTORSHIP PROGRAM

The Wingspace Mentorship Program is a free, one-year program designed to broaden access and disrupt barriers early-career designers encounter while advancing their careers in the performing arts. We seek to create a learner-centered community that empowers curious and passionate mentees to connect to career opportunities, build connections in the design community, and hone their skills. Mentorships are offered in direction, scenic design, costume design, lighting design, sound design, and projection design.  

Get to know the 2023-2024 Mentorship Cohort below!

MENTEES RECEIVE:

• Two dedicated mentors in your field will meet with you monthly to provide ongoing individualized guidance to support your goals. The mentors are working designers who are eager to share their experiences, offer feedback, make introductions, and be a sounding board for your questions about your artistic practice.

• The full community of mentors and mentees across all disciplines gather once per month for round-table discussions, to pool our knowledge and demystify a wide range of topics selected collaboratively by the mentors and the mentees. Past topics have included: taxes and financial planning, work/life balance, accessibility in the theater, artistic collaboration, unions and agents. 

• Feedback on portfolios, websites, and resumes

• As COVID safety protocol evolves and allows, there will be opportunities (such as mixers, and tickets to shows) for the full community of mentors and mentees to hang out!

INTERESTED?

• Are you curious, passionate, and committed to growing your artistic voice? Are you interested in advancing your performing arts career in collaboration with a nurturing community of working designers and directors? Do you struggle with how to navigate or access some areas of the industry, or with breaking through to more enriching projects? We can help!

• We are interested in applicants based anywhere in the US. After a global pandemic, we have learned to integrate video conferencing into our meetings. Please note: a majority of the Mentors are based in NYC, and all are working primarily within the United States. 

• If you've experienced barriers to mentorship and access to a career in the performing arts this program may be right for you. There are many possible reasons you may have been excluded from easy access to a mentor — identity-biases, bigotry, citizenship status, ableism, and elitism all play roles in how the performing arts privileges a narrow subset of artists.

• If you have additional questions about the program, please feel free to reach to us at wsmentorship@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you! 

WHO ARE THE MENTORS?

• Mentors are volunteers, who self-identify as mid-career or established performing arts professionals. Most are members of Wingspace. 

• A spectrum of personal, professional, and educational/training backgrounds and experience are represented in the full cohort of mentors. Co-mentors are paired in an effort to offer each mentee a variety of perspectives. 

• Wingspace recognizes that it was a predominantly white group when founded. Ever evolving, the mentorship program is actively working to foster a care-driven, anti-racist artist community. We prioritize and value equity and inclusiveness in both the makeup of our mentor group, co-mentor pairs, and the cohort of mentees. 

• Investing in training is key to our community’s ongoing effort to heal, evolve, and examine internal operations and methods that have caused harm in the past. Mentors are offered anti-racism and facilitation training through Wingspace, and some have experience as educators and community organizers. 

Wingspace 2023/2024 Mentors:

Sarah Marshall (She/Her) Having recently completed her studies at Ithaca College, Sarah Marshall embodies a blend of creativity and professionalism in the realms of costume design and wardrobe supervision. The year 2022 marked the pinnacle of her academic journey, as she showcased her imaginative flair through a series of theatre and dance productions that merged her vision with the artistic essence of each endeavor. Her B.F.A degree, achieved with Cum Laude honors, speaks to her dedication and excellence. Beyond her design abilities, Sarah's talent is highlighted as a trained dancer and choreographer, reflecting her holistic commitment to the performing arts.

AI (they/them) is a queer NYC-based costumer, fiber artist, wig designer, dog parent, and Virgo. They graduated from Fordham University in 2021, and have since had the pleasure to work with a number of wonderful theaters, some favorites being The Public Theater, The Signature Theatre, and Second Stage Theater. Al is passionate about constantly learning, growing, and collaborating with other artists. Please ask them about their dogs.

www.alrosenbergdesigns.com

Claire Talbott (She/Her) is a Brooklyn-based video and projection designer. Recent work includes the 2022 League of Legends World Championship Opening Ceremony (Comp Artist, Possible Productions), Justin Bieber's JUSTICE International Arena Tour (Comp Artist, Possible Productions), Kidz Bop LIVE! (Animator, FragmentNine), Dear Mom, Sorry For Being A Bitch (Projection Designer, Soho Playhouse) Quills Fest (3D artist, Oregon Shakespeare Festival), and Geraldine Realigned (Projection Design, The Brick). In addition to projection design/animation, Claire is a director, graphic designer, and photographer.

claireatalbott.com

Elisia Star (she/her) My name is Elisia Star I am from Phoenix, Arizona with a back ground in Costume and Fashion design. I am inspired by movement and fluidity within my work. I have explored using marbling dying techniques on silk and experimenting with elongated silhouettes. I have a strong interest in exploring dance wear as I feel I can explore movement and exaggerated details at a deeper level.

Daniel Etti-Williams (they/he) is an up-and-coming Sound Designer and Engineer local to Chicago. After Studying Acting at Oklahoma City University, they moved to Chicago to participate in Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s Apprenticeship Program. Since then, they have had the opportunity to work all over Chicago making theatre and telling stories and expressing their passion through design. They hope to connect with their peers across the country and work towards a sustainable, accessible and diverse future for artists everywhere.

Regional Theatre credits include The Brothers Size (Oklahoma City Repertory Theater); The Island (Court Theatre)

Chicago design credits include Run The Beast Down (Strawdog Theatre Company); Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins (Strawdog Theatre Company); Beatrix Potter’s Holiday Tea Party (Chicago Children’s Theatre); Haus of Atreus (Mudlark Theater); Peerless (Northwestern University Graduate Directing Program); On The Greenbelt (Strawdog Theatre Company); At The Vanishing Point (The Gift Theatre); Paris (Steep Theatre); Light Falls (Steep Theatre); Private Lives (Raven Theatre); Boulevard of Bold Dreams (Timeline Theatre Company); Is God Is (A Red Orchid Theatre); The Threepenny Opera (Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre); Xanadu (Metropolis Performing Arts Centre)

danielettiwilliams.com

Matthew B. Cullen (he/they, él/elle) is a theatre director, producer, and administrator born in Bogotá, Colombia and raised in Buffalo, NY. He currently resides in New York. Their work is focused on disrupting oppressive and harmful practices by centering health, equity, and community building. The goal is collective liberation by investing in process and people. Matthew gravitates towards new works, where a bulk of his directing credits lay. They have studied under U.K. directors Robert Icke and Lyndsey Turner. He is currently the social media intern for Azul and this past summer worked as the Company Manager at Chautauqua Theater Company. Practice disruption.

matthewbcullen.com

Saskia Corke (she/hers) is an Afro-Caribbean creative based in Gabrieliño Tongva and Chumash land (Los Angeles) aiming to broaden her skills, knowledge, and identity as a visual artist in theatre and film. Although primarily working in scenic and production design, Saskia realizes her passion for storytelling across many multi-disciplinary fields. She is grateful for this opportunity and collaborative journey with Wingspace and this year's cohort.

Cinthia Chen (she/her) Cinthia Chen is an interdisciplinary artist and budding creative technologist based in Brooklyn and Taiwan. She is interested in art-making and performance as ritual, engaging both the self and community to explore memory, hybrid identities, and future spiritualism. She has created and developed original work through Theater Mitu, Mabou Mines, Fault Line Theater, Corkscrew Theater Festival, Asian American Arts Alliance, and Creators Collective. She is currently an adjunct artist at Theater Mitu.

Cinthia works as a video and projections designer and director. She was recognized at La MaMa’s Design Fest 2020 and USITT Prague Quadrennial 2023 for her project "Waters of Oblivion." Recent design projects include: “Where Are You? (New York)” (Mabou Mines), “Take Shape” (ART/New York), “Specially Processed American Me” (Dixon Place), “O – Life’s a Drag” (Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre), and “american (tele)visions” (New York Theater Workshop, assistant designer). She also has the great joy of running Theater Mitu’s Hybrid Arts Lab fellowship as Program Coordinator. www.cinthiachen.com

www.cinthiachen.com

Izzy McClelland (she/they) is a Queens based costume designer and fiber artist, originally from Freeport, Maine. They earned their BFA in Fashion Design with a specialization in Knitwear from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Their work in costumes centers around creating with sustainable and accessible means. Izzy’s work in textile art shapes a lot of her approach to costume design through promoting an organic, personal lens to her storytelling. They are excited to be a part of Wingspace’s cohort and continue to grow and learn as an artist and a professional within this community.

izzymcclelland.com

Jacqueline Scaletta (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based lighting designer, writer and performer who creates spaces of shared wonder, spirit, and vulnerability.

Select Lighting Design credits include: ONE NIGHT (Target Margin Theater), Galatea 2.0 (Brooklyn Art Haus), Weasel Festival 2023 (The Brick), Third Law (What Will the Neighbors Say?), Ashkenazi Seance (Union Temple, The Brick), His Is A Cage (Columbia University), Alcina REVAMPED (Philadelphia Fringe), MEDEA/BRITNEY (HERE Arts), there's a shewolf (Dixon Place). Assistant credits: Die Zauberflöte (New School), P*ssyc*ck Know Nothing (Target Margin Theater), An Iliad (Long Wharf Theater), Witness (West End Theater). You can see photos of her work at jacscalettalighting.com.

She also developed and performed The Universe Will Not Save Me, an exploration of grief, cosmology, and the meaning of eternity, as part of the 2019 FringeCLUB @ Nuyorican, produced by What Will the Neighbors Say?

jacscalettalighting.com

Shanel LaShay Smith (she/her) is a scenic designer, director, and artistic producer concentrated in New England and Southwest North Carolina. Her work lives at the intersection of creativity and innovation incorporating nontraditional experiences and mediums to breathe new life into storytelling. Shanel is a multi-disciplinary artist completing education in both Mechanical Engineering and Professional Theatre. As an artist and an engineer, Shanel is a champion for STEAM (Science Engineering Arts and Mathematics) and strives to be a leading member among scholars and practitioners shifting the conversation of education in a greater interdisciplinary direction.