WHAT’S ON…

RECENTLY CLOSED:

2023:

2022:

2019 AWARDS AND FEATURES:

• The 2019 Henry Hewes Awards announced a handsome batch of nominations. The lighting design for PLANO and “DADDY” A Melodrama were considered.

• The lighting design for SUCH THINGS AS VAMPIRES at People’s Light was nominated for a 2019 Barrymore Award by Theatre Philadelphia. See the full list of nominees.

• Emily Stamets’s podcast Find Your Light episode 22 features a discussion about the San Diego production of The Tale of Despereaux, process, and much more.

• in 1: the lives of theatrical designers, hosted by Cory Pattak, features an extended conversation with Isabella about all sorts of career and industry stuff.

• On May 20th the 2019 OBIE AWARDS honored the Lighting Design for Light Shining in Buckinghamshire.

PRE~PANDEMIC :

• JANE EYRE at Hartford Stage. The novel by Charlotte Brontë has been adapted and directed by Elizabeth Williamson.

• WENDY & PETER PAN at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC, directed by Alan Paul.

• LOVE IN HATE NATION, a new musical written by Joe Iconis (Broadway’s Be More Chill) had its world premiere presentation at Two River Theatre in November. Directed by John Simpkins.

• JORDAN, written by Brenda Withers and directed by Jess Chayes at Northern Stage.

  • The Times Argus: “If it weren’t just so good, Northern Stage’s physical production would be called slick. Sara C. Walsh’s simple set morphed effortlessly from scene to scene, with the help of truly creative (but indescribable) lighting by Isabella Byrd.”

• MLIMA’S TALE by Lynn Nottage and directed by Mark Lamos. Second premiere production at Westport Country Playhouse.

• NOISES OFF at the Cape Playhouse to finish out the summer. Directed by Jeffry Denman, and starred Jen Cody and SNL’s Heidi Gardner.

• PigPen Theatre Company presented the world premiere of THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX at The Old Globe, directed by PigPen and Marc Bruni. (Created with Lydia Fine and Nick Lehane, and choreography by Jennifer Jancuska.)

• TELL ME I’M NOT CRAZY took the Nikos Stage at Williamstown Theatre Festival. Written by Sharyn Rothstein and directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel.

• Manhattan Theatre Club presented Bess Wohl's CONTINUITY, a play in six takes. It was directed by Tony winner Rachel Chavkin, on MTC’s Stage II.

  • “What’s so brave and so harrowing about Wohl’s project is that it is unsparing with itself: It questions not only art’s utility in the face of something as massive and dire as the warming of the planet, but also the very ethics of its existence.“ Sara Holdren, Vulture

• ClubbedThumb remounted PLANO, by Will Arbery and directed by Taylor Reynolds. At the Connelly Theater… ”Tonight, and later, and earlier, three sisters (no, not those ones) are stricken with a series of strange plagues. Let’s talk about family nightmares. I mean, uh, memories."

  • “Director Taylor Reynolds presides over a production that does Arbery proud: Daniel Zimmerman’s set looks normal, but the more you look at the simple wooden house in Isabella Byrd's slanting light, the more you mistrust its geometries.'“ Helen Shaw, TimeOut New York

  • “With its mysterious plagues and its slug infestations, its multiplying men and its cornered, fighting women, its sense that the drab, weird, grossly unfair universe is always on the edge of an apocalypse that never comes, Plano is a fiercely smart contemporary dream play — to paraphrase Ursula Le Guin, a ‘realism of a larger reality.’ “ Sara Holdren, Vulture NYMag

• OLAY! A Road to Glow, the Musical, a live musical event for OLAY Skin Care, after the hit YouTube episodes.

• DADDY, by Jeremy O. Harris, directed by Danya Taymor. DADDY starred Ronald Peet and Alan Cumming. A co-production with The Vineyard Theatre and The New Group, staged on the Linney Theatre at Signature Theatre Center, poolside.

  • “… whenever the ensemble members are in the pool, which has been lighted like a movie star by Isabella Byrd… Were there an award for best-supporting body of water in a play, this highly expressive pool would be a shoo-in.” - NYTimes

    “Matt Saunders’ pulsating blue pool dominates the set … Adding to this visual affect is Isabella Byrd’s exquisite lighting that reflects not only the mood but the inner feelings of the play.” TmSqChronicle

    “Some breathtaking design work has gone into the sleek production of Jeremy O. Harris’ ‘Daddy,’ … Lighting designer Isabella Byrd has washed the entire scene in luscious shades of sun-washed blue.” Variety

• A.C.T. (American Conservatory Theater) in San Francisco, produced SEASCAPE by Edward Albee, directed by Pam MacKinnon, with Set and Costume by David Zinn.

• “The brilliant set design by David Zinn …. is enhanced by Isabella Byrds’s skill in capturing that rare light of the Atlantic seacoast.” - 48Hills.com

2018 highlights

• The lighting design for The Light Shining in Buckinghamshire was honored with a nomination by the 2018 Henry Hewes Awards.
  Find a full list of the 2018 nominees in Lighting&Sound America. The awards are hosted by the American Theatre Wing.

• Prospect Theater debuted a new musical, THE HELLO GIRLS, at 59E59, directed by Cara Reichel.

• Marymount Manhattan College presented the Fall Dance Rep, New works by Earl Mosley, Gabrielle Lamb, Pedro Ruiz, Nancy Lushington, Katie Langan, and Catherine Cabeen.

• THE THANKSGIVING PLAY | Playwrights Horizons
  By Larissa FastHorse, and directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel

• ORLANDO | Fordham University
  By Sarah Ruhl, directed by Ashley Brooke Monroe.

• SUCH THINGS AS VAMPIRES | People's Light presented the devised punk-folk rock Dracula inoculation , directed by Stuart Carden.

• THE SLOW ROOM | Annie Dorsen
  An experimental performance at Performance Space New York.

• MEMBER OF THE WEDDING | Williamstown Theatre Festival
  Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, starring Roslyn Ruff and Tavi Gevinson.

• ARTNEY JACKSON | Williamstown Theatre Festival
  by James Anthony Tyler, on the Nikos Stage, directed by Laura Savia.

• MADONNA col BAMBINO } Ars Nova ANTFest, and remounted at the IceFactory'18 at The New Ohio.
  Written by Sarah Einspanier and directed by Caitlin Sullivan.

• The original production of PLANO at ClubbedThumb by Will Arbery, directed by Taylor Reynolds at The Wild Project.

• LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILL | Portland Center Stage, directed by Bill Fennelly, with rave reviews. (link.)

• THE LIGHTING SHINING IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE | New York Theatre Workshop, by Caryl Churchill, directed by Rachel Chavkin

• 42ND HUMANA FESTIVAL OF NEW AMERICAN PLAYS, Bingham Stage | Actors Theatre of Louisville, 3 plays in rep and in the round: GOD SAID THIS, DO YOU FEEL ANGER, and YOU ACROSS FROM ME.

• March 2018 concluded a collaboration with director, Noah Baumbach, production designer Jade Healy, and DP Robbie Ryan on Noah's film Marriage Story.