Design/Tech Graduate Lisa Gallagher Receives National Award Recognition

Published May 23, 2025

student at soundboard.

Lisa Gallagher photo by Ken Smith

Lisa Gallagher is a Theatre Design/Technology student originally from Rockland, NY. As a rising senior, her time at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ has allowed her to experiment in many different areas of design, including sound, lighting, scenic, and projection design. 

Lisa's work as sound/projection designer on Theatre and Dance’s (THD) production of Ride the Cyclone last October was recognized at the Region 2 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. At the Region 2 festival in Pittsburgh, she was awarded the National Sound Design Award, which allowed her to attend KCACTF Nationals in Washington, DC this past April. 

students displaying their awards at Kennedy Center.

Gallagher and other students display their awards at the Kennedy Center

"Each April, the Kennedy Center welcomes about 125 outstanding theater students to the KCACTF National Festival. Student awardees in design, performance, directing, playwriting, stage management, dramaturgy, arts leadership, and theatre criticism, are invited from all eight Regions. Through master classes, presentations, conversations, and staged readings, students learn from and connect with established theatre artists, as well as their peers from across the country."

At the Kennedy Center, Lisa was awarded the prestigious Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center Fellowship for Sound Design. The Fellowship allows Lisa to work alongside technicians, designers, and playwrights at various conferences at the O'Neill Theatre in Connecticut this summer.

trifold display with theater images.

Gallagher's trifold display at the Region 2 Festival

"O’Neill programs include the , , , , and .

“From its campus in Waterford, Connecticut, the O’Neill has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and thousands more emerging artists. Writers, directors, puppeteers, singers, students, and audiences alike take their first steps in exploring, revising, and understanding their work and the potential of the theater they help create. All focus remains on the writer and script: Performers work with simply rendered sets and costumes, script in hand, revealing for the first time the magic of a new play or musical, puppetry piece, or cabaret act."

National Festival Description: 

Awards List from the Kennedy Center: