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Graduate student Matt Grenier won the Storyteller Award at the 2025 Research Live! competition, which was held on April 8 in the Campus Instructional Facility Atrium. At the event, which is hosted by the Graduate College, thirteen finalists presented their graduate research in three minutes or less to a general audience. Wang received $200 for winning this category.
Grenier’s presentation titled “Teaching Counterweight Rigging in the Classroom” addressed how to teach life-saving safety skills for theatre technicians.
more about Matt
Matt Grenier is a technical director, educator, designer, and fabricator with specializations in scenery, rigging, stage machinery, lighting, props, and sound. Currently, he is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Scenic Technology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before returning to school, Grenier served 10 years as the Assistant Technical Director for the SUNY Oneonta Theatre Department, where he helped operate the venues, taught students the ‘ins and outs’ of technical theatre, and designed for productions.