Jean Yvonne (Jay) Tyson is a multidisciplinary storyteller currently based in Los Angeles, where they are attending UCLA to get an MFA in production design for theatre, film, and television.

 

While earning a BA in theatre and film & media studies at Whitman College, they worked on over 16 season and student productions, gaining experience as a scenic designer, projection designer, and props master while also doing some work with costume design, acting, and sound design. Their passion for theatre revolves largely around the process of collaborating in order to unlock the world of a script, and they have a particular interest in exploring the relationship between psychology and design. They also produced short narrative films as well as a documentary shown in the college's annual film festivals as well as other festivals in the USA and Ireland.

 

Jay has won several awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival including the National Award for Excellence in Scenic Design for their scenic/projection work on Whitman College's production of Ripe Frenzy, as well as awards for their contributions within Whitman's theatre department. In 2020 they were selected to be the Francis Starr Todd Design Fellow with the Seven Devil's Playwrights Conference, after which they were also invited to attend the Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas' 8-week virtual program in the summer of 2021. After graduating in 2022, they joined square product theatre's production team as the scenic designer and props artisan for Dance Nation, which performed at the ATLAS Institute in Boulder, CO.

(For more specification, see the resume on this page, or examples of theatrical work displayed here.)

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Outside of theatre, Jay has directed, filmed, edited, and produced several short films, spent countless hours on personal filmmaking projects, and explored various styles of photo documentation, traveling locally and internationally to conduct photoshoots and chronicle adventures such as transatlantic sails, or developing concert photography skills with musicians including (but not limited to) Joan Jett, Dr. John, Joss Stone, Michael Franti & The Spearheads, Mud Morganfield, and JD McPherson. Other interests include: dabbling with music, hunting for the world's best cannoli, trying to absorb as much random knowledge as possible, and wondering how many times stop motion animators have had to restart a project because someone's sneeze accidentally uprooted a tiny garden.

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