Bring stories to life through design
A unique opportunity to examine the process of scenic design through script and drawing.
The Design Summer Institute in Scenic Design is a two-week, UC credit-bearing intensive for students interested in scenic design for theater, film, and television. This program provides opportunities to work with our distinguished faculty in classes such as Introduction to Scenic Design and Scale Drafting, Production Design for Theater, Film and Television, and Storyboarding. Students will learn the design process for scenic design for theater and be introduced to production design. The combination of these courses will allow students to use the training to discover how we can tell stories through visual research, sketches, and model design.
Students will learn the technical components of breaking down a script and the art of collaboration with directors while gaining hands-on experience such as model-building, perspective drawing, and scale measurement as means of realizing a design. Beyond the classroom, students will attend guest workshops that will cover portfolio and career preparation.
The program is designed for artists and students who seek additional discipline and training required for participation in a university theater program or a career in the entertainment industry. Participation in this institute is open to pre-college students.
Design Innovation Summer Institute – Scenic Program Overview
Application deadline: June 6, 2025 | Enrollment deadline: June 20, 2025
Applications are reviewed and admission to the program is granted on a rolling basis starting February 15th. Applying at your earliest convenience, prior to June 6th, is highly recommended.
Admission to the program is by digital audition and instructor consent. Applicants are required to provide the following during the online registration process:
- An unofficial transcript from grade 9 to present reflecting a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher
- If your school transcript utilizes a different grading system, please submit your transcript as is. If available, please attach a translation/equivalency guide.
- INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS: If you are an international student, a transcript refers to your complete secondary academic record. To learn more about converting your grades into a US-based GPA, please click here.
- If your school has a translation/equivalency guide, please also include it with your transcript. If you do not have a translation/equivalency guide, please still submit your most up-to-date transcript as is for staff to review.
- Value statement: At the time of registration, ALL applicants will be prompted to submit a few short sentences reflecting on their pursuit of participation in a UCLA Precollege Summer Institute. Please note that students are strongly discouraged from relying on ChatGpt/AI tools for their application responses and are encouraged to submit original and authentic answers.
- In 400 words, how do you describe your passion for scenic design?
- A resume (if you do not have a resume, submit a brief description of your theatrical and/or artistic experience).
- The resume can be uploaded as a word or pdf file during the application process.
Applicants who successfully submit all requirements will be reviewed and notified via email of an admission decision within 3 weeks. See Application Requirements below for more details. Please note that all levels are encouraged to apply. Early application is strongly encouraged.
The Design Innovation Summer Institute – Scenic Design is a residential program.
All residential precollege program tracks also feature scheduled non-curricular evening and weekend activities that all residential students are expected to participate in. The nature of these scheduled activities is at the sole discretion of the individual academic department offering the program, and are not operated by UCLA Summer Sessions. To learn more about when your selected program will host such activities, please consult the schedules for each program, or contact the department in question directly: dadams@tft.ucla.edu
Most of our residential precollege programs will hold check-in on the Sunday before the start of the program between 4-6pm, and hold check-out the Saturday after the final day of class at 11am. Please contact the department in question directly to confirm check-in and check-out times: dadams@tft.ucla.edu
For more information on UCLA housing precollege programs, please see the Housing for Minors page.
Coursework
Theater 72; 3 units
Grading
Students will receive a letter grade upon completion. See University Credit, Grades and Transcripts for more information about academic credit.
In order to successfully complete the program, students must not have more than 2 excused or unexcused absences.
UCLA Summer Sessions Summer Scholars Support
Qualified students attending grades 9th – 11th in Spring 2025 in the state of California may be eligible for Summer Scholars Support, a need- and merit-based scholarship offered by the UCLA Summer Sessions Office. Students must be 15 years old by the first day of Summer Sessions 2025 on June 23rd in order to participate in a Precollege Summer Institute and/or apply for Summer Scholars Support. A limited number of full and partial scholarships are available to support enrollment in SCIP/eSCIP, one Summer Course, or a Precollege Summer Institute.
Summer 2025 deadline to apply: March 15.
Program Dates: June 29, 2025 – July 12, 2025
Program Type: Residential
Program Eligibility: 9th-12th grade in Spring 2025*
Application deadline: June 6, 2025
Enrollment deadline: June 20, 2025
*All participants must be at least 15 years of age by the first day of Summer Sessions 2025 on June 23rd, no exceptions allowed.
The schedule and syllabus are subject to change. Enrolled students will be given updated materials closer to the program start date.
Fees and Payment Info
The program fee includes the unit fees for the UCLA coursework offered as part of the program and thus varies by UC student status. The program fee also includes the cost of UCLA Housing (for residential programs). In addition to the program fee, students are assessed other campus and administrative fees during the summer. This is a summary of fees that commonly apply to the selected student type.
Actual tuition and fees are subject to change by the University of California. Visit the fees, payment, and financial aid section for important disclaimer, as well as more details on fees, payment instructions, and information on delinquency, refunds, and financial aid.
Meet your instructors
Randy Wong-Westbrooke
InstructorRandy Wong-Westbrooke is an award-nominated scenic designer born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, specifically on the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone people. Driven by their own mixed-Asian, trans, and non-binary identities, they seek opportunities to work with diverse creative teams to tell radical, provocative, and intersectional stories that question and celebrate our collective histories.
They have designed sets for American Conservatory Theater’s M.F.A. Program, Shotgun Players, TheatreFIRST, Crowded Fire Theater, Ferocious Lotus, SF Playhouse’s Sandbox, New Conservatory Theater Company, Custom Made Theatre, Cutting Ball Theater, Los Altos Stage Company, Palo Alto Players, Contra Costa Civic Theater, as well as many other new and independent projects.
While primarily a scenic designer, their additional credits include costume designer for Art and Significant Other (SF Playhouse), and props and associate costume designer for the world premiere of Mermaid Hour: Remixed (Mixed Blood Theatre Co.) in Minneapolis. During the pandemic, they’ve worked on multiple virtual productions as well as production designing music videos for Oakland-based music group Tune-Yards and designing installations for the lobbies for the Lighthouse Immersive Immersive Van Gogh Exhibition around the country.
They have been a scenic art assistant in Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s F.A.I.R. Program and a mentee in the USITT Gateway Program. B.F.A. Ithaca College. This Fall they will start their third year pursuing their M.F.A. in Set Design from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television.
Black Lives Matter. Black Trans Lives Matter. Black Stories Matter. The Revolution Must Be Accessible.
VOTE.
Myung Hee Cho
ProfessorMyung Hee Cho is a set and costume designer for theater, opera, and dance. Her current projects include For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf at Booth Theater on Broadway; Richard III and As You Like It for Shakespeare in the Park at The Delacorte Theater. Her recent projects include set design for The Body of the World at Manhattan Theater Club and ART; Aubergine & Sheepdog at SCR; Black Super Hero Magic Mama at Geffen Playhouse; set and costumes for Golden Fairytale Fanfare, the opening show at the new Shanghai Disney Resort; The Thieving Magpie at Glimmerglass Opera; The Marriage of Figaro at Washington National Opera and the set design for Trojan Women, a new Korean opera at the National Theater of Korea, Theater an der Wien in Vienna, and Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Holland Festival, Amsterdam.
Cho has designed many premieres including the musical Stuck Elevator at American Conservatory Theater; the Off-Broadway production and North American national tour of WIT; The Public Theater production and North American national tour of Lackawanna Blues; Black Odyssey at Denver Center Theater; Emotional Creature by Eve Ensler at The Linney Theatre in New York, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and The Market Theatre, Johannesburg; Extraordinary Chambers at Geffen Playhouse; 36 Views at the Berkeley Repertory Theater and The Public; Awaking for Singapore Theatre Festival; The National Broadway Company, TheaterWorks, Singapore; Yellow Face for Mark Taper Forum and The Public Theater; System Wonderland and The Piano Teacher at South Coast Repertory; Citizen 13559 at the Kennedy Center; The Golden Mickeys for Disney Creative Entertainment/Hong Kong; Open Window for Pasadena Playhouse and Deaf West Theatre; and Flight and Distant Shore at Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre. Other selected credits include Miss Julie at Geffen Playhouse; The Magic Flute at the Canadian Opera Company; The Good Person of Szechuan at the Landestheater Linz, in Linz, Austria; and Le nozze di Figaro at the Chicago Opera Theater.
Cho is Professor of Stage Design at UCLA. In 1996, Cho received a Princess Grace Award and was an artist-in-residence at The Public Theater/NYSF. She is a graduate of Cooper Union and Yale School of Drama.
Design Innovation Summer Institute – Scenic FAQ
We welcome students of all levels; however, students should have a strong interest and a desire to learn scenic design.
- Laptop
- Required Text: Music of choice
- Mlima’s Tale, by Lynn Nottage. (published by TCG in September 2021.)
Still have questions? Check out the general Summer Institutes FAQ.