Texas Tech University

Ebony Madry: A Grateful Alumnus Returns to Push Color & Give Back

Jamison Driskill

October 26, 2021

Ebony Madry

To those who were involved with the School of Theatre & Dance between 2009 – 2013, Ebony Madry (BFA 2013) probably needs no introduction. Now a seasoned professional lighting designer and project manager, Madry was a fixture in the theatre during her undergraduate studies, helping design, build, and light several productions. This semester, current students will have the opportunity to get to know Madry as she returns to Texas Tech to serve as lighting designer for the fall production of Spring Awakening: The Musical.
 
What's in store for us in terms of lighting design for Spring Awakening?

I'm really looking forward to creating these lush concert heightened song moments to contrast with the static neutral book scenes. I want to push color. I want to paint the set with light. I'm also really excited about the scenic elements. We're in a black box and in the round, so how do you take the set in? Or how do you take the environment in hand? I'm excited about transporting the audience with lighting.

Did you originally come into Tech as an undergraduate theatre major? Or did you start off on a different track?

Everyone in my family is in the medical industry. So, at Tech I started off with a plan to do pre-med, then major in biology, and then go onto med school. But I've always been really into art. My grandmother made the importance of art very known to me when I was growing up. We would spend a lot of time going to museums, going to plays, or talking about architecture. So, I thought it'd be cool if I could get a work-study job in the theatre, right? I thought it might be a nice break from all the science crap. I started working in the scene shop and I quickly realized that I liked it A LOT more than science classes. So, I switched my major. And yeah, I just I fell in love with design. I thought I would be a scenic designer at first, but then I began assisting a grad student named Jacob Schenk (MFA 2012) with some lighting projects. It was sort of a combination of seeing Jacob's aesthetic and seeing people like Jason Lynch's (BFA 2009) work that caused me to become more interested in lighting.

After graduation, you did about a year at Arkansas Repertory Theatre, but then you headed out to California. How did that happen?

Arkansas Rep was a great experience. After the first year they were going to extend my contract, but the theatre was on a tight budget and wouldn't be able to increase my salary. I started talking to Emmett Buhmann, former master electrician at Tech and someone who I really consider to be a mentor, about whether to negotiate. Anyway, I blame him for getting me to California. And I say blame because he talked to me into going to grad school at the University of California, Irvine, for the MFA in Design program. And you know, grad school is intense. So, there were a lot of times when I was calling him saying, “Why did you talk me into this? This is so painful!”

Oh man, I feel you. But you got to do some pretty cool stuff at UC Irvine, right?

Definitely. I was designing at least one or two shows a year and doing a couple of side projects in Los Angeles. And I would say designing shows was helpful, but really, I learned the most when I assisted my mentors. I love taking things from everybody else and kind of making my own style.

During graduate school didn't you also spend a summer in Wisconsin working with some pretty amazing artists?

I did. I spent the summer of 2015 working at an outdoor music festival in Bayfield in the north woods of Wisconsin at the Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua. It's this awesome outdoor venue. At night you look out and you see the stars and the woods, and you hear Brandi Carlile or other great performers like Melissa Etheridge, Michael Franti, and Mavis Staples. Something about the energy there is beautiful, not to mention seeing the northern lights. That was pretty spectacular.

Incredible. And now you're in California with Brite Ideas, producing large corporate events?

That's where I landed after grad school. It's a little south of Orange County but I'm a crazy person and I live in Los Angeles. It's like a 90-minute drive on a good day. But I love where I work. It's a pretty good deal. It's project management, right? That's my overall title. Pre-COVID what that meant is overseeing lighting, audio and video installation, managing client expectations, managing budgets, scheduling crew, getting permits, doing drawings, renderings, the whole shebang. That wasn't necessarily something that I knew how to do prior to this job, so I had a lot to learn. There are people here who I consider not just coworkers, but mentors and friends. I really leaned on them for their knowledge. It's great here. And then, you know, post-COVID I kind of transitioned into virtual management of all our large corporate conferences.

I understand that increasing BIPOC representation, especially in the theater, is something you're very passionate about. And you engage in various activities along those lines.

For me, it's always been important to – as often as possible – to do work that tells those stories. At UC Irvine, I connected with Leelee Jackson, a playwright who does a show called Comb Your Hair (Or You'll Look Like a Slave). We've done the show six or seven times together. And those experiences are really at the foundation for my need to tell these stories. Telling those stories and connecting with other BIPOC artists is important to me because it really wasn't until recently that I have started to see us more represented. Pre-COVID, I didn't know more than five black designers – in all disciplines. There's a ton of people out there that don't have the representations so that that's what motivates me.

Wonderful. Thanks Ebony. We're all so excited that you are coming back for Spring Awakening.

It's such an honor and I'm so excited to come back. And I love to mentor students. I think it's important to give back in that way because I've been very blessed with amazing mentors.
 
To learn more about Ebony Madry's work, visit www.ebmadry.com. For tickets to (both live & virtual) performances of Spring Awakening visit www.theatre.ttu.edu.