One of the most rewarding things about going to a theatre school in a liberal arts environment is the opportunity for students to pursue all aspects of theatre. From performing Shakespeare, to hanging lights and running sound, the theater program allows students to purse all of their passions. The MTA is fortunate enough to have key contributors who can lend a hand in all aspects of the theatre.

Junior Lauren Scattolini is a design concentration, whose hands and designs can be found just about every aspect theatre here at Muhlenberg. Hailing from the Northeast corner of Philadelphia, Scattolini developed a love for the theatre at an early age. When she was very young, her older sister spent several years as a technical theatre teacher at a local high school. "She would tell me about all the really neat things her school put on," Scattolini said, "and I would look at the videos and think 'wow, I would really love to know how to do that'". It was from her sister that Scattolini began to learn technical vocabulary and the basics of design, and it was from there that her interest grew.

After performing as an actor throughout high school with her theatre club, Scattolini came to Muhlenberg for acting and design. The thing that first interested her about the school was the opportunities she would have to work both onstage and behind it. With a passion for acting and desire to embrace a wide spectrum of what theatre has to offer (as well as a mother who refused to pay her daughter's way through school to become an actor), Scattolini ended up at Muhlenberg. She was confident that she would be able to explore all her interests in a comfortable environment. "All the schools I looked at for design said 'you are going to design and you are going to do nothing else for the rest of your life'... and I decided that's not what I wanted... [Muhlenberg] is what I wanted."

In her first semester at Muhlenberg, Scattolini was introduced to Associate Professor of Design, Tim Averill. She remembers that his lighting design class was "more than a bit intimidating" at first, but "after several sessions [with Averill] of just teaching me what certain small terms meant, it got better and easier for me as we went." Today, Scattolini credits working with Averill as the thing that has most helped her growth in her first two years at Muhlenberg. A year after taking lighting design, Scattolini began working on her first show at Muhlenberg, Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile. She worked as the light board operator. On this production, Scattolini worked closely with lighting designer Nelson Ruger, who "taught me so much. Every time he's here I'm just so excited!"

In the year following Picasso, Scattolini has produced a very impressive resume. She most recently assisted Jeremy Kumin on the lighting design for On the Town, which Scattolini called "a really fabulous experience." This year, Scattolini also worked as the lighting designer for An Evening with the Ladies, a collection of Black Box productions written and directed by women, as well as The Diary of Adam and Eve, another Black Box production, which Scattolini considers her finest work. "I thought that that turned out to be an incredible show. I worked with incredible people and it came off being exactly the way I envisioned it. For me, that is one of my hardest things... making something come out the way I imagined it to be, and that one was exactly the way I imagined it..."

Scattolini adores the concept of being able to take a blank space and create something that did not exist there before. With every production she designs, Scattolini tries to think about the best way to convey the message of the play visually, using lights. "You try to think about the best way to get the message across. If the play is taking place in a ballroom, [I ask myself] how can I make it not look like outside?" Scottolini says that the highest compliment she can be paid after a show she has designed is that the space looked the way it was supposed to look. That is her number one priority as a designer.

Scattolini hopes to continue to do design work throughout the remainder of her college career and beyond. After college, "I hope to be either doing lighting design on my own or getting my masters' degree to do so." She wants to use her "creative potential," and not spend too much time out of the loop doing non-demanding work. Next up, Scattolini will be trying her hand at something different, working as the sound designer for the December Black Box production of After School Special. This will allow Scattolini to try her hand at new things that help keep her fresh and challenged creatively here at Muhlenberg. She comments that at many other colleges, she would not be able to associate with actors the way she can at Muhlenberg because all theatre majors here are required, and care enough, to do technical work in addition to being onstage. This allows for growth as theatre artists and a level of socializing which Scattolini appreciates. When it comes down to it, Scattolini says, Muhlenberg provides her with "tons of opportunities to get to do what I want to do". That is a very refreshing bottom line, coming from this unsung hero of the MTA.