"I'm a third-year graduate student excited to graduate in May! I have a love and passion for music videos, film, and concert designs because I have a background in dancing and choreography. I want to find a way to make these two worlds merge, and I'm at the Emerging Creatives Showcase to find things that excite me and fill my cup!"

-Shartoya Jn. Baptiste, University of Maryland

The annual Emerging Creatives Showcase brings together talented graduating students and early career professionals with established designers and directors for a review and discussion of their work.

The Emerging Creatives Showcase is an annual open adjudicated exhibition of designers, craftspersons and managers. This helps us display emerging talent that has, for the most part, been left unfeatured in this and other exhibitions of rising talent. Applicants must be graduating students or early career professionals (within 5 years of graduating). Participation is by juried selection only.

The cohort for this year's exhibition will feature Designers and Craftspersons of Middle Eastern, Southwest Asian, and North African descent. At the same time, ECS is open to anyone who wishes to apply. All applicants will go through the same adjudication. If there are a small number of featured applicants, we will fill in the cohort with the remaining applicants. Our intention is to expose these cohorts to the people in charge of hiring or for graduate school, and to give theatres the chance to meet with a more diverse pool of theatre artists.

"I have an incredible passion for art and illustration, so costume design was just a fantastic opportunity for me to get into it. I've had so much fun creating ideas, and it's been an amazing opportunity to go to school for it. And now I'm here to find a job!

-Maki Niikura, University of North Carolina