Jaymi
has designed lights for over 150 productions throughout
the country. Some production highlights include: Frankie
and Johnny in the Claire de Lune at Hartford Stage, Mary
Stuart directed by Joanne Akalitis at The Court Theatre, Among
the Thugs and Anna in the Tropics at The
Goodman, No Place Like Home, Uncle Vanya, The
Dazzle, Absolution and The Ordinary Yearnings
of Miriam Buddwing at Steppenwolf, The Haunting
of Winchester at San Jose Repertory, Our Town, Carousel and Copenhagen at
Madison Repertory, Tug of War at The Getty Villa
and the national tour of John Astin’s Once Upon
a Midnight.
Her work has been seen in thirty-four
cities nationwide as well as in Ireland, Scotland and
Spain. She spent
most of her career working out of Chicago and is a recent
transplant to Los Angeles. During her time in Chicago
she was a founding member of Naked Eye Theatre Company,
which produced nine different productions, one in The Goodman
Studio and two co-produced by Steppenwolf. The company
led workshops for several new plays including Jamie Pachino’s Waving
Goodbye, which, through the support of Naked Eye,
received a grant from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American
Plays in 2000. She is also an Artistic Associate
of The Next Theatre Company and Rivendell Theatre Ensemble.
Some theatre companies she has designed for include Northlight
Theatre, About Face, Victory Gardens, Irish Repertory,
Blair Thomas and Company, Drury Lane, The Next Theatre,
Steppenwolf, The Court Theatre, Marin Theatre Company,
Redmoon, Rivendell, Naked Eye, Lookingglass, Milwaukee
Repertory, Milwaukee Shakespeare, Madison Repertory, San
Jose Repertory, European Repertory, Plasticene, Roadworks
and Hartford Stage.
Other design work has included the scenic
and projection design on dozens on productions. She also acted as
Architectural Lighting Consultant on over three hundred
and fifty private residences and designed four different
restaurants within Chicago. In addition, she has
designed over fifty various special events for non-for-profits,
red carpet events and private parties.
As a production manager, she has held
many positions. She
acted as Senior Production Manager for KBA Marketing who
produced more than 10,000 events a year for companies such
as Coca-Cola, RJ Reynolds and Nike. She also managed
and initiated the groundbreaking citywide theatre festival
in Chicago known as Theatre Fever with more than 80 theatre
companies leading free workshops and performances for a
two-week period. She spent seven years as the Producer
for The League of Chicago Theatres facilitating all galas,
media events and community conferences. Other production
management credits include Outfest Gay and Lesbian Film
Festival and Mrs. T’s Triathlon.
She received her training from the conservatory
program of The Theatre School, DePaul University. In 2003
she was the recipient of the Michael Merrit/ Michael Maggio
Emerging Designer Award. She received an honorable
mention from the Backstage West Garland Awards for Lobster
Alice at The Blank Theatre and was nominated for Joseph
Jefferson Awards for The Incident with The Next
Theatre, Terrible Girls with About Face, Yellowman with
The Next Theatre and OffSpring of the Cold War with
Walkabout Theatre. Previous teaching credits include adjunct
faculty at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago,
Associated Colleges of the Midwest and The Theatre School,
DePaul University.
For more information go to JaymiSmith.com. |