Mary Ellen Stebbins

Mary Ellen Stebbins is an Assistant Professor of Lighting Design and an active professional lighting designer based in New York City. She maintains significant collaborations across theater, opera, dance, and music disciplines with organizations including Shakespeare Theater Company, Opera Philadelphia, MCC Theater, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Sophiensaele, working alongside notable artists such as Theresa Rebeck, Clare Barron, A$AP Rocky, and eighth blackbird.

Her educational foundation includes an AB from Harvard University and an MFA from Boston University. Stebbins is a member of USA 829, the union for theatrical designers and artisans.

Her professional focus centers on lighting design as an integral narrative element in performance arts, exploring how illumination shapes emotional impact and spatial dynamics across diverse productions. This work spans experimental theater, classical opera, contemporary dance, and cross-disciplinary music projects, emphasizing collaborative creation processes.

Her distinguished recognition includes:

• 2020 Bessie Award Honoree for Monica Bill Barnes’ Days Go By
• 2019 Opera America Tobin Director-Designer Prize
• 2016 Henry Hewes Award nominee for Clare Barron’s I’ll Never Love Again
• 2014 Live Design Young Designer to Watch
• 2011 USITT Barbizon Lighting Design Award
• 2009 Hangar Theater Lab Company Design Fellowship

Additional professional engagement includes service as a 2019-2020 Art Commissioner for the Queens Council on the Arts, demonstrating commitment to public arts administration alongside her creative practice.