2026 Promotion and Tenure Awardees

Courtney P. Smith

Granted tenure as an associate professor of theater.

Smith is a lighting and production manager and digital media designer, whose work spans many genres and media including live theater, dance, television, film, and events. Smith’s designs have received several awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Additionally, his work received a “Distinguished Achievement Award in Design” from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Smith’s work has been seen in theaters from coast to coast and internationally, and some of his notable projects include work for Victoria’s Secret, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, and window display design and fabrication for Saks Fifth Avenue.

Smith brought this experience to Bates last fall when his course, “Introduction to Digital Media,” cross-listed between theater and digital and computational studies, created a digital portrait of Lisbon Street dating back to the days of electric trolley cars. Fifteen students looked at the street’s rich history, diving deep into archival material at the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and the Androscoggin Historical Society. Smith was also essential in the Fall 2025 production of Metamorphoses, which was a technical feat involving filling a pool in Schaeffer Theatre. Smith is a member of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology and has an MFA in design and technology from the University of Idaho.