T. Erin Gruber

Area of Study / Keywords

Scenography lighting design set design costume design projected media design

About

An award-winning scenographer working in set, lighting, costume and projected media design, Erin is a proven specialist at integrating live performers and digital material. A graduate with distinction of the University of Alberta and a member of the board of directors of the Associated Designers of Canada, her theatre projects have toured locally and internationally. In June 2019 her design work was featured at the Prague Quadrennial International Design Exhibition. Her special emphasis on visual dramaturgy and her passion for developing effective methods of communicating across disciplines makes Erin an innovative and collaborative voice in any creation process. New work, collaborative creation, opera, musical theatre, and dance are a few of her areas of concentration. Collaborating with diverse teams to raise the voices of her fellow artists infuses her values into the work she creates. She is committed to combining the powers of visual communication with the passion and emotion of live performance. The projects which excite her the most connect her core values of human compassion, empathetic awakening, and joyful experience with the audience - the community of people she strives to serve.

Research

Select award-winning projections: Café Daughter (Production Design, WWPT, Gold Medal and Audience Choice award at the 43rd annual Int’l Festival of Monodrama and Mime in Belgrade), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (Set, Lighting and Costume Design, Citadel Theatre and Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Sterling Award for Lighting Design), Category E (Production Design, Maggie Tree Collective, Sterling Awards for Lighting and Projected Media Design).

In 2023 Erin was a producer of the Canadian exhibition at the Prague Quadrennial. Click here to view the exhibition catalogue.

Recent projects: Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North (Set and Projected Media Design for Manitoba Opera, Winnipeg, MB), A Wonderhead's Christmas Carol (Projected Media Design for the Belfry Theatre, Victoria, BC), Woman in Black (Lighting Design, Teatro Theatre, Edmonton, AB).

Upcoming projects: Cycle (Lighting and Projected Media Design for Thou Art Here Theatre, Edmonton, AB), Radio Silence (Projected Media Design for Open Pit Theatre, World Expo Canadian Pavilion, Osaka, Japan).

Teaching

As an educator and community leader Erin has taught courses, lead workshops, produced exhibitions, and in 2021 realized an online symposium entitled Level Up-The Dramaturgy of Digital Performance and Design. With 40 free online events and more than 50 artist presenters this symposium attracted thousands of participants from around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.  Before becoming an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta she served as a sessional instructor here at the University of Alberta and at the University of Victoria, and served as a design advisor/coach at the National Theatre School and here at the University of Alberta.

For more information visit her online: www.eringruber.com