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Alena Samoray, from left, and Courtney Flores have been invited to the 2011 Prague Quadrennial.

• December 8, 2010

Costume staff member Courtney Flores '04 and design student Alena Samoray have been invited to participate in the 2011 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space June 16 through 26 in the Czech Republic.

"Both Alena and Courtney will have a once-in-a-life opportunity to work with ... student designers from around the world, gain exposure to a wide array of international theatre artists and see some of the best achievements in stage design,” said Richard Olmsted, production manager and lecturer of designer.

“This is an extremely high honor for these two young designers, and we are very proud of them,” said Ulises Alcala, lecturer of design and University costume shop manager.

The Prague Quadrennial is the world’s principal theatre design exhibition. Held every four years, the event attracts contributions from approximately 60 countries, and draws some 5,000 theatre professionals and students and about 30,000 other visitors. It was created to explore performance and performance design as an interdisciplinary phenomenon – exploring performance design in context of contemporary trends in the theatre, as well as other art and cultural disciplines – creating dialogue between visual arts and theatre.

“These honors speak to the opportunities Theatre and Dance encourages its students to take, especially opportunities to experience what’s happening in theatre globally,” said Thomas Hird, theatre and dance chair.

“It is thrilling to be able to participate in such a collaborative event that you know will be one-of-a-kind because of the internationally gathered teams," Samoray said. "From this experience I hope to both share and gain insights to producing and visualizing a production and learn from the experiences of the group leader in creating site-specific performances.”

There are two components to the Quadrennial, displays and on-site participation. Flores and Samoray were selected for on-site participation based on their applications, including personal statements, references and samples of their work. The women have been told that only 120 American student designers have been invited to attend.

Samoray, a senior specializing in design, will participate in a program called Scenofest, in which she will work within a group of international stage design students making a site specific theatre piece in downtown Prague over 10 days. Paired with another American student designer, Flores will be given 90 minutes to create a design based on written text. This design will be displayed throughout the Quadrennial, along with others of its kind.

Flores received her degree in theatre arts with a Technical and Design Option in 2004 and expects to complete her master’s degree in theatre arts with a concentration in design/technical production from San Francisco State University in 2011.

Both women have extensive work experience.

Flores began designing in 2003 as an undergraduate and is currently working part-time in the CSUEB costume shop. She has worked in all areas of design, construction, sewing, assisting and wardrobe.

In between, she has designed costumes for productions at such Bay Area theatres as Renegade Theatre Experiment in San Jose, Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco and Impact Theatre in Berkeley. She held a 2009 summertime internship with the California Shakesespeare Theatre where she assisted on the production "Private Lives.” She also designed the “Anna Bella Eema” costumes for the CSUEB-Aces Wild production that performed at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland.  

At CSUEB, Samoray designed scenery for “Ring the Bells for Peace” and is working on the upcoming musical “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” She did lighting for last year's “Performance Fusion” and lit Nina Haft & Company's recent performance “Debris/Flows” at Zaccho Dance Theatre in San Francisco. She’s also worked at Theatreworks and Opera San Jose.