MFA in Technical Design and Production from David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University

Office: MCD 70
Phone: 801-581-5154
Email: em.bertelli@utah.edu

Em Bertelli holds an MFA in Technical Design and Production from David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University. She has worked in production management, lighting, scenery, sound, and automation in various theaters across the country, and is thrilled to join the team at The University of Utah School of Dance.

Em's first foray into lighting design was during her undergraduate studies, and she was the first member of her college dance group to design lights for a show she was also performing in. After a brief stint in cognitive science and sleep research, she returned to a backstage career and specialized in outdoor repertory theatre, holding production management roles at Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Transcendence Theatre Company (Sonoma, CA), and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She then became a senior designer at K2, an audiovisual consulting firm based in Boulder, CO, and worked on building renovations nationwide. 

She and her husband Dante and doodle Mina lived in a self-converted Chevy van for nine months, during which she worked as a freelance lighting designer and technical draftsperson, before moving to Millcreek UT just (inadvertently) in time for the pandemic. Personal passions include hiking, camping, mountain biking, acroyoga, and coaxing her infant daughter to sleep. Her family is starting to dip their toes into canyoneering and river rafting.