School of Music

Tanya Orellana designs performance spaces for theater and opera. Originally from San Francisco, she has been a core member of the award winning ensemble Campo Santo since 2008, participating in their intimate new work process, conceptualizing and designing sets alongside the writing process.

Her design collaborations includes The Industry’s Sweet Land, a world premiere opera directed by Yuval Sharon and Cannupa Hanska Luger at LA State Historic Park; the world premiere of The Heath, by Lauren Gunderson directed by Sean Daniels at Merrimack Repertory Theatre (Lowell, Mass.); the Mexico premiere of Angels in America directed by Martín Acosta at Teatro Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (Mexico City); Native Gardens by Karen Zacarias directed by Rebecca Rivas at TheatreSquared (Arkansas), Casa de Spirits written and directed by Roger Guenveur Smith at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum (San Francisco, CA); and Rasgos Asiaticos, written by Virginia Grise, a scenic installation using sound, light, and objects to conjure narratives of immigration and migration in the US–Mexico borderlands.

Tanya received her MFA in Scenic Design from CalArts and is the 2016 recipient of the Princess Grace Fabergé Theatre Award.  Her design work on Angels in America was presented in the US Emerging Designers Exhibit at the Prague Quadrennial 2019. She is an organizing member of La Gente: The Latinx Theatre Design Network.