The Burry Fredrik Foundation has announced David Geffen School of Drama Projection Designer Camilla Tassi as the recipient of the 2022 Burry Fredrik Design Fellowship and its $25,000 award. Tassi is currently pursuing an MFA in Projection Design with Wendall Harrington at the David Geffen School of Drama’s Design Department.
The Burry Fredrik Design Fellowship was established in 2017 to help launch the careers of graduates from David Geffen School of Drama’s Design Departments. Each year, the Design Program faculty selects one graduating scenic, costume, lighting, projection, or sound designer as the Burry Fredrik Design Fellow, who will receive a $25,000 award. In addition, if the Fellow is hired as a designer at any professional theater in Connecticut in the two years following the award, the Foundation will make a grant to that theater in an amount equal to the fee paid to the designer.
Previous recipients of the fellowship are Set Designer Claire DeLiso, 2017; Sound Designer Frederick Kennedy, 2018; Set Designer Stephanie Osin Cohen, 2019; and Lighting Designer Evan C. Anderson, 2020.
“The Design Fellowship perfectly epitomizes Burry Fredrik’s lifelong commitment to theater, to design, and to helping young professionals in the field,” said Barbara Pearce on behalf of the Burry Fredrik Foundation. “We know she would be delighted by the selection of Camilla Tassi as this year’s recipient.”
Tassi said, “I hold deep respect for the work of my current peers, past graduates, and faculty of the Design program. It is humbling to receive this award and I look forward to ways of giving back and meeting new collaborators within the Connecticut theater community. As someone who grew up outside of the U.S., I care about developing roots and deeper relationships—I am moved that engagement with the state’s arts community is at the center of the Burry Fredrik Foundation’s mission. With their generous support, I hope to also further an initiative I began during my studies: a collective which aims at providing educational spaces, training, and collaborative opportunities to theatrical designers and chamber musicians from across the country.”
A theater trailblazer, Tony Award-winning producer and Broadway director and stage manager, Burry Fredrik established the Burry Fredrik Foundation to promote the development of new work and the fiscal health of professional theaters in Connecticut. To fulfill its mission, the Foundation provides support for developing new works and audiences for Connecticut professional producing theaters with national import and fosters the development of young theater designers.
About Camilla Tassi
Tassi is a projection/video designer, producer, and musician from Florence, Italy. With backgrounds in computer science and classical voice, her design credits include Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Apollo’s Fire), Pollock’s Stinney: An American Execution (PROTOTYPE, NYC), Tesori’s Fun Home (David Geffen School of Drama), Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror (Baltimore Center Stage & Long Wharf Theatre), Glass’s The Fall of the House of Usher (Mass MoCA), Mozart’s Magic Flute (Berlin Opera Academy), Talbot’s Path of Miracles (Conspirare, TX), Handel’s Alcina & Stravinsky’s Rossignol (Yale Opera), and Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard (Bloomington Chamber Singers). Tassi enjoys bringing theatrical design to traditionally unstaged compositions, recontextualizing the repertoire with today’s audiences. For video, she has designed, filmed, and edited programs for the Cramer Quartet, Washington Chorus, Les Délices Early Music, Princeton Festival, and Chicago Ear Taxi Festival. Through a study with Joan Channick and support from the TSAI Center for Innovative Thinking, she’s founded a collective that aims at creating an educational+performance space for collaboration between theatrical designers and chamber musicians. Tassi translates Italian libretti and sings with the Schola Cantorum at Yale, where she is pursuing an MFA in Projection Design. camillatassi.com
