Sarah Champ selected for national theater study

Sarah Champ Sarah Champ, a senior theatre major from Alpharetta, Georgia, was chosen to participate in a two-week long master class this summer at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., “Scenic Design: The Collaborative Process,” with world-renowned set designer Ming Cho Lee. Lee, the Donald Oenslager chair in Design and co-chair of the design department at the Yale University School of Drama, is one of the foremost set designers in America today. The class was part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

Champ was the only undergraduate in the group, all of whom went through a rigorous selection process; the other participants were all either theater professionals, graduate students, or teachers of theater.

“Being able to learn and work with Ming Cho Lee was an amazing experience,” said Champ. “The focus of the workshop was the relationship between the designer and the director, and much of our focus was on designing a space that is particular to the play you are working with, instead of designing just a space.”

Champ was also the recipient of a Kaspar T. Locher summer creative scholarship of $1,750 for 2002. Champ spent the summer designing and creating costumes influenced by the Beijing Opera and the Chinese art tradition of capturing the essence of an object, person, or emotion. She built four pieces, each of which will include a mask, headdress, and armor and embodying lust, tranquility, bliss, and fury. “I hope to further my costume knowledge by working in this elaborate and beautiful costuming tradition,” says Champ. “More importantly, I hope that my work will help my audience to recognize theatrical design as an art form and become aware of Chinese theatrical traditions.”

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