Making a Splash at the Met
EMU’s Jeromy Hopgood goes to sea with the opera’s production of ‘Moby Dick’
There are career milestones, and then there are pinch-me moments. For Jeromy Hopgood, faculty member and newly appointed director of the School of Communication, Media & Theatre Arts in Eastern Michigan University’s College of Arts and Sciences, winter 2025 firmly belonged to the latter.
“I felt I was walking on air,” Hopgood says. “The whole semester was fantastic.”
At the center of it all: Moby Dick at the Metropolitan Opera, where Hopgood joined the creative team behind the opera’s Met debut, collaborating with renowned projection designer Elaine McCarthy, whose résumé includes opera houses across the globe and a little show called Wicked.
“She’s a goddess in our industry,” Hopgood says, laughing. “And she’s also a friend.”
The sea-drenched adaptation of Herman Melville’s epic was part of the Met’s 2024-25 season.
From Arkansas to Lincoln Center
Hopgood’s path to the Met didn’t follow a straight line, and that’s exactly what makes it resonate. A first-generation college student from Arkansas, he worked his way through school on music scholarships at Arkansas Tech before discovering theatrical design late in his undergraduate career.
“That close to graduating, I changed my degree,” he says. “Which paid off.”
Today, Hopgood is a union projection designer and one of the country’s leading voices in immersive media for live performance. His specialty—projection design—sits at the intersection of technology and storytelling, blending video, lighting, animation, and space into large-scale visual worlds. He’s also the author of The Projection Designer’s Toolkit, a professional handbook used by designers and educators to demystify workflow and technique in the field.
“That’s my world,” he says. “I create immersive experiences and live events.”
“Thirty years ago, I wouldn’t have this career working at a regional university. Today, with Zoom, social media, and global networks, you can.”
— Jeromy Hopgood
Inside Moby Dick at the Met
Moby Dick isn’t a new opera, but its Metropolitan Opera debut required a fresh technical eye. Originally created in 2008, the production’s video elements needed to meet 2025-level expectations without losing their original artistic intent.
“You’re at arguably the most famous opera house in the world,” Hopgood explains, “and you can’t run the risk of digital content from 20 years ago looking ‘clunky’ on today’s higher resolution equipment.”
Working behind the scenes, Hopgood helped modernize and restore projection content, navigating everything from upscaling content to tracking changes, taking notes, and making updates to the production paperwork that is updated and catalogued for each production of the opera. His role focused less on personal artistic credit and more on supporting the creative vision at scale.
“At this level, your job is to make sure the designer doesn’t have to think about the technical details,” he says. “So they can stay creative, responsive, and in the room.”
Hopgood’s production design expertise makes him a leading voice in creating immersive media for live performance.
The Ripple Effect
Hopgood’s sabbatical, and his access to spaces like the Met, was supported in part by EMU’s Brickley Awards, which fund faculty research and creative work. For Hopgood, that support made it possible to pursue professional experiences with lasting impact.
For him, the real payoff isn’t prestige, it’s access.
“It’s always about how I can get students work,” he says.
That strategy is already paying off. Students he mentors are landing internships, graduate placements, and professional roles, sometimes because hiring managers already know the quality of EMU training. One recent student, a 2025 graduate, is now at Yale.
“They were like, ‘Oh, you’re Jeromy’s student. You should look into this internship,’” he recalls. “That’s the whole point.”
For students wondering whether a regional public university can launch national, or international, careers, Hopgood is living proof.
“Thirty years ago, I wouldn’t have this career working at a regional university,” he says. “Today, with Zoom, social media, and global networks, you can.”
And that, perhaps, is the quiet thesis of Hopgood’s story: talent doesn’t need permission, geography isn’t destiny, and opportunity often follows those willing to say, I could do that.
“I want my students to see that not only can they do it,” Hopgood says, “but this is a really great place for them to do it as a springboard.”
By Darcy Gifford
Photos courtesy of Jeromy Hopgood