Design

Regina García chats with scenic designer Deb O about why she’s in theatre, how important it is to answer the call, and shaking things up.

Sound designer Toy Deiorio discusses the complicated, multi-faceted artistic process of sound design.

Linda Buchanan reflects on challenges she’s faced in her career, and asks why there aren’t more women scene designers.

Meghan Healey breaks down what designers do.

Porsche McGovern gathered information on who designs in theatre, and shares her results in an infographic.

Lighting designer Lucrecia Briceno writes about the joys and challenges of designing for non-traditional theatre pieces that are in direct dialogue with audience members.

Regina García talks with Jessie Marshall Zarazaga, an architect, designer, and urban planner who designs beyond the stage and beyond boundaries.

Regina García kicks off our week on Designing Women with her thoughts on collaboration, a sustainable life in the theatre, and championing artists. 

Matthew Gray offers support from the academic arena for HowlRound contributor Seth Lepore’s charge that university theatre departments are not readying the next generation of theatre artists.

Australian scenic designer Tanja Beer explores designing with the intentions of enriching audiences as well as our environment and communities.

Adam R. Burnett looks at resilience in theatre, how artists seem to forget where they’ve been, and the ethical responsibilities in the production of production.

Commons producer Jonathan Norton chats with Anne Bothwell about Stagger Lee: Making a Musical, a digital storytelling project tracking the development of Will Power’s new musical.

Lighting designer Megan Reilly outlines the process of designing for production with twelve possible iterations.

Dreams on the open sea are part of a larger narrative as Natasha Lee Martin, an actress, director, and teacher, performs in Confessions of a Synesthetic Sailor at TheaterLab in New York City.

Nephelie Andonyadis reflects on Cornerstone Theater Company’s California Bridge Tour and how its stories resonate within her.

Chance publisher and sound designer Fitz Patton talks with Cecilia Friederichs about the sudden end-of-season decision announced by the Tony Administration Committee on June 11, 2014, to eliminate the awards for sound design of a play and of a musical.

Robert Kaplowitz offers insight on theatre awards. 

The answer is not to sweep them under the rug, refuse to acknowledge their contributions, and hide from our own lack of understanding. And we especially cannot do this when our industry already fails in so many others ways to support the artists who make the magic happen.

Last night there was an outpouring of disgust, sadness, confusion, anger, and frustration over a decision to again treat our field as though we are not as important as the rest of the team. This rush of emotion comes because this is not new to us at all. The amount of work in order to be validated by the Tony Awards as a category, which was instated in 2008, seems to have meant nothing at all if it suddenly goes away. It’s not about an award. It’s not about the spotlight—most of us work very hard to go unnoticed during a performance (unless we need to be noticed). It’s about validation for the work that we do and how hard it is to do this work.

Jonathan Mandell writes about the life of prolific costume designer Carrie Robbins, and her new ambitions as adaptor and playwright.

We usually consider a fight choreographer’s job to be staging the fights so that they are safe. Certainly safety is essential: actors should not be getting hurt in the exercise of their art. But a violence designer is far more than a mere “safety foreman.” Like any other artist working in the theater, the violence designer’s primary role is doing interpretive work: making choices that help tell the story. Not the story of Hamlet, but the story of this Hamlet: that is to say, the story that this production of Hamlet is telling.

Stage combat is the art of creating the illusion of violence for the sake of storytelling. Some illusions are easier and/or less expensive than others. One thing I’ve found myself saying many times is that the difference between one character pulling a knife on another versus breaking a bottle and threatening to attack them with the broken base is hundreds of dollars.

Kyna Hamill interviews Casey Kaleba—a certified fight instructor with Society of American Fight Directors and blood expert—about the secrets to using blood in production.

Inspired by the Adele’s song for Skyfall, the artists of the new play By and By collaborated with the band The Kilbanes to reframe the experience for the audience members.