WALSH

Known mononymously by colleagues as ‘WALSH’, Matthew Bryan Walsh is a Minneapolis/Twin Cities-based theatrical lighting designer.

Walsh has established an extensive professional footprint across the Twin Cities. His designs have been seen at The Southern Theater, Open Eye Theatre, Rarig Center, Phoenix Theater, and the Hanifl Performing Arts Center, among others. Working with companies like Jackdonkey Productions, Children’s Performing Arts, and Northern Starz Center for the Performing Arts, he has consistently scaled technical rigor across diverse venues, earning recognition as one of the Twin Cities' brightest rising design stars.

Walsh’s process is guided by a distinct musician's sensibility, creating a deliberate intersection of theater and musicality. As a self-taught pianist, arranger, and composer, he is fluent in sheet music across many styles and approaches light as a rhythmic, structural element. By viewing the lighting console through a composer's lens, he seeks the fundamental "key" of every scene to reveal the architectural truth of the text.

Walsh is a BFA graduate from Minnesota State University, Mankato and the recipient of the 2025 ETC Emerging Designer Award and the 1st Place prize for Regional Design at the 2026 KCACTF Region V festival.