Em Stripling (she/her) is a lighting designer from Brooklyn, NY who views lighting as her mechanism of communicating her viewpoints to others. Her neurodivergence allows Em the desire to explore the uncomfortability of existing in everyday life. She is able to use color, shape and timing of lighting to bring others into a trusting space of balancing realism and non-realism in her work, the way that it balances in her own brain. 

Her favorite texts are heavily realistic in nature, taking space in “real” places but begging the audience to wonder what reality means in the world of the play, and therefore in their own lives. For this reason she loves horror and ghost stories!

As someone who grew up alternating between the Georgia oaks and New York buzzing sidewalks, lighting has been a marker of place and emotion throughout her life. She aims to bring that feeling to others in her designs.

Em Stripling currently works at Sovereign Candle Co., Berklee NYC, as a Design Intern at E26 Designs and as the Lighting Associate at the Brick. She graduated with a BFA in Theater Design and Technology from Syracuse University.