Eric is an associate professor of scenic design and the director of the theatre design and production program. At Shenandoah University, he designed Legally Blonde The Musical, Into the Woods, Rent, the 2023 Holiday Gala, Pippin, and Moscow, Cheryomuski, as well as teaching and mentoring Bachelor of Fine Arts students in Shenandoah Conservatory.

From 2008 to 2015, Eric’s work at the University of Iowa included serving as the director of graduate studies, head of the design program for the University of Iowa’s Department of Theatre Arts, and the vice-chair and chair of the Faculty Assembly. He designed twenty-eight productions for Theatre Arts, including Something Rotten!, Our Lady of 121st Street, Rome Sweet Rome (with the Q Brothers), American Idiot, and Out of the Pan Into the Fire (with The Moving Company), and advised 180 student productions for the department. Eric was honored with the distinction of emeritus professor upon retirement.

In September, Eric’s designed Paul for Pete which performed in New York City, after having toured in Oregon, California, and Minnesota.

He worked extensively in the art department for the Fox Live broadcast of Rent in Los Angeles.  The production won the 2019 Emmy award for Outstanding Production Design for a Variety Special. 

Eric has designed over 150 productions across the country, with work touring to New York and Internationally. Other design credits include work as the associate designer for the USITT USA National Exhibition at the 2011 and 2007 Prague Quadrennial (and Steering Committee Member for the 2011 Exhibit); the associate designer for Ralph Lemon’s Scaffold Room (2014) and Come Home Charley Patton (2004); and designs for the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (The Sound of Music), Madison Opera (four productions, including She Loves Me, A Little Night Music); Great River Shakespeare Festival (twenty-three productions, including Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, Henry V, The Glass Menagerie), Utah Shakespearean Festival (thirteen productions, including Cyrano de Bergerac, Camelot, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, My Fair Lady, Born Yesterday), Skylight Opera Theatre, Fulton Theatre, American Players Theatre, California Shakespeare Festival, and San José Repertory Theatre.

Eric was the chair of the scenic design program for the University of Illinois at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (2001–2008; ten designs, including Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, Metamorphoses, Nine, Twelfth Night); he was the resident scenicdesigner at PCPA Theaterfest (1995–2001; thirty-six designs, including The Servant of Two Masters, The Grapes of Wrath, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, The King & I, Cinderella, 42nd Street, On Golden Pond, The Lion in Winter, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The 1940’s Radio Hour).

He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Lewis & Clark College and Master of Fine Arts from Ohio University. Eric is a member of the United Scenic Artists 829.

Visit www.rericstone.com to learn more.