Fourth-year Lighting Design student Isabel Furchner, who will graduate this June, has been recognized with a major honor at the American College Theater Festival (ACTF), earning the Lighting Design National Design Excellence Award and being named one of two recipients of the Eugene O’Neill Fellowship.
The award recognizes excellence in collegiate theatre design and celebrates outstanding achievement in lighting design, collaboration, and artistic storytelling. The fellowship, awarded as part of Furchner’s ACTF recognition package, includes opportunities to continue developing professionally in the field of theatrical design.
Founded in 1969, the American College Theater Festival, formerly the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, is one of the nation’s premier programs for college theatre artists, providing students with opportunities to showcase their work, receive feedback from professionals, and compete nationally in areas including acting, directing, dramaturgy, stage management, and design. The festival connects emerging artists with industry professionals and encourages innovation and collaboration across theatrical disciplines.
For Furchner, lighting design represents more than technical execution, it is a way to bring stories and emotions to life. “Lighting design is an intersection of my early interests, visual art, and narrative writing,” Furchner said. “Lighting design is a path to use my art to amplify a narrative or an emotion and create a shared experience for an audience.”
Furchner goes on about how theatrical productions’ collaborative nature is the most rewarding part of the craft. “I love the way theater connects me to other departments and art forms backstage,” she said. “Working together in a collaborative environment is something intensely satisfying to me. To see a million little pieces come together into one cohesive, finished product and to work with others to make an end product that impacts audiences in a significant way is an experience that is very gratifying to me.”
(Pictured: Spring 2025, Blood Wedding. Directed by Paul Barnes. Lighting, Isabel Furchner. Set & Projection Design, Justin Ifland. Costumes, Pluto Yost-Moore. Actors, Samantha Sinclaire, Josh Gefken, Shane Howard, and Duncan Larson. Photo:Marvin Walder.)
The award-winning work was supported by a wide network of collaborators, mentors, and faculty members. Furchner credited SOU lights and sound shop supervisor Evan Carbone, production electrician Hailey Dickenson, as well as the support from SOU theater faculty members Caisa Sandburg and Ulises Alcala, was invaluable in helping shape the production and ACTF presentation process.
“To me, this award is a recognition of the work my entire support team and I put into the show,” Furchner said. “My collaborators and mentors were there for me to lean on and bounce off of. The support I received throughout the process from faculty members and fellow students was invaluable.”
Faculty members involved in preparing students for ACTF said the process challenges students to think deeply about both artistic vision and technical execution. One faculty member, Ulises Alcala, who previously participated in ACTF as an undergraduate, described the experience and the importance of presenting and defending your artistic process in a professional setting as an important educational opportunity.
“The preparation process around telling the adjudicators how you came up with your design and production process can build strong concepts, move to research, and then finish with the nuts and bolts of making your designs a reality,” Ulises Alcala said. “Of course, not everything goes as planned, so talking about the different challenges is also very important as well.”
(Pictured: Spring 2025, Blood Wedding. Directed by Paul Barnes. Lighting, Isabel Furchner. Set & Projection Design, Justin Ifland. Photo: Marvin Walder).
Furchner also noted that the Eugene O’Neill Fellowship opportunity came as a surprise and represents an important next step in her professional development.
“I was not initially told that the package would include the fellowship as a happy surprise,” she said. “I’m looking forward to working at such a well-known institution, being involved with new plays and musicals being produced, and gaining more design experience outside the Rogue Valley.” Following graduation this June, Furchner plans to pursue a professional career in lighting design.
SOU Theatre’s success at the ACTF was recognized well beyond Furchner’s achievement. Design, technical work, and performance were also highlighted, including Myles Crow, who advanced as a national finalist in Sound Design, Ash Merriam was recipient of the prestigious Randy Lutz Award for Allied Design and Technology, Madeline Flint emerged as finalist for the Musical Theatre Initiative (MTI) scholarship competition and Professor Jackie Apodaca was recognized for Excellence in Directing by the National Playwrighting Program. Together, these accomplishments showcase the depth of talent and collaborative excellence within SOU Theatre. Read ACTF March Article for more
