AMP is a collective founded by Christine Jones and Brett J. Banakis to amplify, provide support, and promote visibility to emerging and underrepresented designers through equitable collaborations. 

AMP is our offering, a response to the urgent need to diversify our field. Recent studies show that Broadway set designers are overwhelmingly non-diverse: 78.8% are white, and 82% are male. We strive to bring new voices to our field and to offer those voices an environment that enables them to succeed.

AMP believes in collaboration. AMP believes that for an emerging designer to thrive, it is essential not only to offer space and opportunity but also to provide the support and tools necessary for success within those opportunities and beyond. AMP features a different designer joining Christine and Brett as a co-scenographer on each project designed by this collective. Through AMP, we strive to train, foster, and amplify the next generation of diverse set designers for theater.

AMP believes in education. Brett and Christine are scenic design instructors on faculty at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. We envision AMP as a type of post-grad education, a hands-on opportunity to engage in professional projects of scale, learning from the experience of Christine and Brett in all phases of the design, build, and production processes.

AMP believes that scale matters. We look to engage in AMP collaborations for projects that reach large audiences, have large commercial or non-profit organization resources, are reviewed by national and international publications, and otherwise create large-scale exposure opportunities for our fellows.

AMP believes that visibility matters. Christine and Brett remove their names from each production credit, allowing name recognition for our AMP Fellows. The billing for each AMP production is Scenography by AMP featuring [name of fellow].

AMP believes in action. As freelance artists, we can feel alone on an island in our ability to enact change. AMP has chosen to use the tools at our disposal: the shows we work on, the budgets we are afforded, and the billing we are offered to do what we can within those resources to enact meaningful change.

We stand in solidarity with organizations that share our goals for a more diverse American Theater, which include but is not limited to this list: