2026 Alexandra B. Bonds Grant for Student International Endeavors Recipient Announcement

Students, get ready to set sail, take off, and explore the world in pursuit of your education. The Alexandra B. Bonds Grant for Student International Endeavors was created to help students experience everything the global live entertainment industry has to offer — and it continues to open doors for emerging artists and technicians today. The goal is to help students broaden their perspectives, immerse themselves in new cultures, and gain hands-on insight into how theatre and live entertainment are practiced across the globe.

Announcing the 2026 Recipient: Kiran Desai

USITT is proud to announce that Kiran Desai is the 2026 recipient of the Alexandra B. Bonds Grant for Student International Endeavors.

Kiran is a student at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), studying theatrical design and technology with a focus in technical design. Outside of class, Kiran enjoys designing, building, and restoring animatronics.

Kiran shared appreciation for the people in his life and what this award means to him:

“I would like to thank my fellow peers for their endless support; especially my research partner Alexa Aure, alongside my mentor JR Luker who were so instrumental in helping me navigate the world of 3D Scanning/Reality Capture Technology this past summer, for the 2025 SUReA Summer Research Program.

Winning this Award/Grant/Scholarship/Mentorship Program means so much to me, as I'll be able to further explore 3D scanning/reality capture technology both domestically and abroad. I look forward to exploring how said technology can be used to archive historical theatrical spaces, all the way down to individual assets for fabrication purposes in the entertainment industry.”

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Funding for this grant is generously provided by Alexandra B. Bonds.

Alexandra Bonds is Professor Emerita of Costume Design for the University of Oregon and has been active in USITT since 1985. An award-winning designer, her costumes have been included in the USITT USA PQ National Exhibitions four times, the WSD in Korea and Cardiff, and Costume Design at the Turn of the Century 1990-2015 in Moscow, Russia in 2015. While USITT Vice President for International Activities, she was the Commissioner /Project Leader for the USITT USA exhibitions to PQ 2003, 2007, and 2011. She is now the Chair of the newly formed PQ Advisory and Advocacy Group to share information among the members of PQ teams past and present. An advocate for international visibility of theatre design, she was also a curator for the USA entries for Costume Design at the Turn of the Century and Innovative Costume: The Next Generation, and the Jury Director for selections and awards for the original WSD in Toronto in 2005 and again for the latest WSD in Calgary 2022.

While Chair of the International Activities Committee, she initiated the Student and Member/Professional International Travel Grants, the Artist Exchange Grant, and invited prestigious international designers to present at our conferences. She is the author of Beijing Opera Costumes: The Visual Communication of Character and Culture, the Golden Pen-winning investigation of these costumes in context with Chinese textile and clothing traditions. USITT supported this research with an Edward F. Kook award. A Fellow of USITT, she has received the Joel E. Rubin Founder’s Award for her dedication to increasing internationalism in USITT. With this award, she honors her parents for initiating her passion for global traveling and understanding.

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