ABOUT

I’m a multi-award winning lighting designer for live performance, based in Brooklyn.

Sometimes I joke it could be more accurate to call me a ‘darkness designer.’ My contributions bloom from design dramaturgy, space, and surprise. I especially enjoy developing new works and reigniting classics. I hope my designs activate elemental layers in stories, heightening our listening and empathy. I’m fascinated by the uncanny and delight in time as a medium. I celebrate vivid design that charges us with emotion and challenges our expectations of spectacle. Often the camera does not fully capture my work. I prioritize kindness and fun in every process.

My designs have received accolades, including 3 Tony nominations, 3 Lucille Lortel awards, 2 Obie Awards, DramaDesk Special Award, and a Henry Hewes Design Award, and many more nominations.

Toward the beginning of my career, my design for Heroes of the Fourth Turning, (Will Arbery 2019), received much attention within the press. Some called the design “rich with portent and glinting significance” and “wonderfully dark… [where] the light only makes the shadows thicken… naturalism that’s also something more.”

A joint review in The New Yorker (2022), Cunningham wrote about Arbery’s Corsicana and Brian Watkins' Epiphany, focusing directly on the impact of the lighting… “Byrd’s lighting, exerting a strong but delicate harmonic influence, like that of the double-bass in an orchestra, made the pieces cohere for me, forming a suite on the themes of the terror of love and the agonies of belief.”

In 2021, the revival of Cabaret marked my West End debut and garnered an Olivier nomination. Soon after I made my double Broadway debut in 2024 with Cabaret and An Enemy of the People, both staged in-the-round. Each design received Tony nominations for Best Lighting Design of Musical and Play!

I am a member of USA-829 and support union labor and freelancer rights. In the industry pause created by the pandemic, I was able to realign toward arts activism, food justice, and respect.

See the news and press pages for current and upcoming projects, highlights, and links to features that begin to discuss my design thinking. I would love to expand my creative collaborations beyond the theatrical bubble. Don’t hesitate, say hey.

 
 
 

  • Here are some collaborators and friends who have shaped my recent body of work:

    - Will Arbery - Annie Baker - dots - Rebecca Frecknall - Tom Scutt - Jeremy O.Harris - Martyna Majok - Mikaal Sulaiman - Lee Jellinek - Caitlin Sullivan - Kimie Nishikawa - Matt Saunders - Sarafina Bush - Lee Kinney - Cheyenne Sykes - Justin Ellington - Masha Tsmiring - Palmer Hefferan - Tyler Micoleau - Jane Cox - Matt Frey - B Norwood - Brian Watkins - Cate McCrea -

    Regulars on my Lighting teams include…
    Paul Toben - Victoria Bain - Emily Schmit‍ ‍- Timothy Reed - Kelley Shih - Aaron Tacy - Alejandro Fajardo - Parker Conzone - Matt Steinberg - Bev Fremin - Kat Zhou -

  • While it feels uncool to declare this stuff, I think it’s important, and I hope it will help keep me accountable.

    I strive for creative bravery and want to create alongside those who work to learn, listen, and create with compassion. This way of working can challenge both my art and technical brains while expanding that muscle in the center of my chest. How can we collaborate and care for our moral imagination? Can the liveness of performance space inspire greater change?

    I wish I could say the theatre is always a rewarding place to be a freelance artist in America, but there are many caveats.  I know we must continue to evolve: reorganize, reinvent, and un/learn to re/build systems that offer respect, equity, and artistic license to our artists and laborers. My citizenship, body, and artistry are tethered, and I am constantly working to support more intentional spaces within all of my collaborations. I believe sustainability and kindness will harness bold work.

  • CHANCE MAGAZINE ♦ Isabella was a contributor and producer at Chance Magazine.  Aside from curating content for print, she was invited to lead a symposium and seminar at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial, exploring the fertile encounter of photography, theatrical design, and thought artifacts.

    GREENE HILL FOOD COOP ♦ From 2020 to 2021, Isabella served on the Board of Directors at the Greene Hill Food Co-Op.

    13P ♦ Isabella spent many years volunteering, administratively, for 13Playwrights, including the role of Creative Producer for their archival site www.13p.org. In 2012, the Obie Award-winning downtown collective completed their producing mission and 'imploded' into the interactive digital time capsule, before allowing it to fade into internet history.