Corey Shelsta

Corey Shelsta is a professor of theatre at South Dakota State University. He designs lighting, scenery and sound for productions at SDSU as well as other theatres in the region. Additionally, he teaches courses in design, technical production and theatre history. His interests include incorporating digital technology and virtual reality simulations into the classroom and the stage. During the summer, Shelsta is the production manager for Prairie Repertory Theatre. Before coming to SDSU, he was the resident lighting and sound designer at Theatre Memphis in Memphis. Shelsta’s awards include SDSU Artist of the Year for "An Evening with Harvey Dunn’s Feminine Images"; Broadway World Award for "Shrek the Musical" (lighting design); Detroit Free Press Theatre award for "Beyond the Horizon" (lighting design) and Memphis Theatre Awards for "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (lighting design), "As Bees in Honey Drown" (original music), "Gypsy" (sound design) and "A Piece of My Heart" (sound design). Last year marked a milestone for Shelsta as he designed his 200th career production. Recent designs include lighting designs for "Romeo and Juliet" and "THE (scream)" at Minnesota State University Moorhead; scenic, lighting and projection designs for "Bonnie and Clyde" and "An Evening with Harvey Dunn’s Feminine Images" at South Dakota State University; lighting design for "Mary Poppins" at Sioux Empire Community Theatre; scenic designs for "Smokey Joe’s Café," "Dial M for Murder" and "Boeing, Boeing"; and lighting design for "Smokey Joe’s Café" and "Hairspray" at Prairie Repertory Theatre. Last summer, he directed "Don’t Hug Me" for Prairie Repertory Theatre. Shelsta and his wife, Stacy, have two children, Preston and Ainsley, both of whom have been coming to the theatre since before they were old enough to walk and are now active in high school and community theatre. When he is not teaching, designing or mentoring student designers, he can be found getting his fingers tangled up in guitar and banjo strings, mowing his lawn or running model trains around his basement.