About
I am a lighting and media designer, educator, writer, and scholar. My professional work includes over 100 designs in Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Minneapolis, Arkansas, San Francisco, and New England. I have collaborated internationally with artists in Dublin like Collaborative Artists Company and Felispeaks and with Toasterlab at the Edinburgh Fringe. I am also the current Digital Media Commissioner for USITT and a member of USA 829.
My artistic practice is centered in the belief that all environments tell a story and influence us psychologically and emotionally, and my job as a designer is to create a space that will guide an audience through the director’s journey. My choices are intentional, based in dramaturgy, support the storytelling, and consider both the work and the needs of the audience and actors involved. I believe that the best projects are ones in which ideas are flowing and voices are respected.
My research and scholarly work have gravitated towards immersive, augmented, and virtual performance. I am passionate about storytelling in immersive worlds, exploring ways to do this ethically, the connections between gaming and theatre, and developing performance methods in virtual environments that connect emotionally with audiences.
News & Projects:
Paper: “Beyond the Garden of Adrian and the authentic actor-audience connection,” at the Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English Conference 2024, Innsbruck, Austria, May 2-4, 2024.
Projection Design: Yellow Face, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Boston MA, May 31 - June 23, 2024.
Lighting Design: Into the Woods, Firehouse Center for the Arts, Newburyport MA, opens August 9, 2024.
Writing & Presentation:
"Light and Darkness: How sunlight supports a narrative at Sintra’s Quinta da Regaleira." Theatre and Performance Design, March 5, 2024.
Session Chair & Panelist: “Virtual and Augmented Reality Performance Research” USITT 2024, Seattle, March 20-23, 2024.
Panelist: “Artistic Principles in Media Content Creation with Adobe After Effects” (substitute panelist) USITT 2024, Seattle, March 20-23, 2024
Panelist: “A Neurodivergent Community” USITT 2024, March 20-23, 2024.
Paper: Accessible (im)Possibilities: Designing for Disability in Immersive Performance as part of the Practice/Production Symposium. MATC 2023, Minneapolis, March 9-12, 2023.
Session Chair: USITT 2020 Virtual Performance Series: Finding Pandora X Case Study
Sensory Accessibility Headset - Proposal created for the San Diego Opera Hack in July 2019 by Megan M. Reilly, Collin Huse, Sarah Mosher, and Jacob Sundstrom; the headset would enable audience members on the autism spectrum the opportunity to control the intensity of their own experience, mediating the experience of a performance according to their needs. Download available here as well as on the hack’s official site.
"Looking for a Game with Consequences: Exploring the Emotional Depths of 'The Tension Experience'," No Proscenium, November 28, 2016.
"My Tension Experience, Part 2," HowlRound, November 2, 2016.
"My Tension Experience, Part 1: Exploring Extreme Immersive Theatre," HowlRound, September 16, 2016.
Presenter: USITT 2016 Lighting & Scenic Design Poster Sessions - posters can be downloaded & viewed below:
"When the Gods Interfere in Your Design: The Unpredictability of Designing for Interactive Theatre."
"Great Wall of Pi: Multimedia on a Budget"
"Learning from the Gamification of Theater," HowlRound, June 18, 2014.
"The Right Chair," HowlRound, April 18, 2013.
Interviews & Press:
“Shining a Light on Neurodiversity in Higher Ed,” by Autumn Sanchez, also published in the Wisconsin State Journal, March 12, 2024.
Panelist, “Thank You Five,” a live discussion on making theatre in a virtual world.
“Finding Connection in Virtual Performance,” a part of a series titled “Faculty Members Across the Arts Bring Creative Lens to Critical Issues” in the Winter 2021-22 issue of Learning Connections.
“Thinking Outside the Black Box: Theatre reinvents itself to bring audiences back” by Lili Sarajian. Interview given to Curb Magazine for their annual issue, published December 13, 2021.
Feature: Who Lights Our World: Megan Reilly | TheatreArtLife; February 10, 2021.
“‘Ann’ at TheatreSquared.” Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Podcasts, Listen to a NWA Democrat-Gazette Features Podcast as features writer Lara Jo Hightower chats with members of the design team and cast of “Ann.” Recorded February 21, 2020.
"Ethics & Immersion," StoryForward Podcast episode 101, guest spot recorded September 25, 2016.