Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1983 - 8

[n addition to working as an assistant, Wagner designed about twentyseven off-Broadway shows including In

White America, The Prodigal, Between
Two Thieves, and the first revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge
("Dustin Hoffman was the assistant
director"). "But then [ left. [gave it
all up. [said, '[ don't need ew York.'
That's when [ went to the Arena Stage
in Washington, D.C. Zelda Fichandler
and Ed Sherin were there at the time.
[ was their resident designer for three
years. "
Needless to say, that decision didn't
keep him away from Broadway for long.
Since resuming his New York career,
Wagner has designed more than fifty
productions, some of which won him
the following awards: the Joseph Maharam Award (Seesaw), the Drama Desk
Award (Lenny, On the 20th Century,
and Dreamgirls) and the Tony Award
(On the 20th Century), as well as many
other nominations.
Wagner never studied theatre or
design in a college or university. He
learned theatre from the theatre. His
intensive "training" course might best
be illustrated by his experiences at the
Sacramento Music Circus, where for
three summers he designed ten musicals,
one after another. "When you're doing
a season like that, you learn what has to
be there in order to make the show work
and you never put anything else on the
stage. [f all that was needed was
somebody in a rocking chair, you got a
rocking chair and that chair had to make
the statement of the whole room."
Wagner says he ended up in the
United Scenic Artists through a quirk
of fate ("[ could never pass the exam").
He had worked at the Sacramento Music
Circus and had to become a member of
816, the Hollywood local of the Scenic
and Title Artists. The year he came to
ew York there was an exchange between the two unions. "[ walked in, got
a full card, and just paid dues. They
ended the exchange the next year but [
was already a member.
ow you have
to take something like five exams to get
a full card so [just lucked out, [ guess.
I've been very lucky that way, just standing on the right corner at the right time."

Collaborations
Wagner's relationship with Sherin
had begun a couple of years prior to
becoming the resident designer at Washington's Arena Stage when Wagner was
6

designing sets for the Totowa Theatre,
a winter stock house, and Sherin was
playing the lead in Barefoot in the Park.
Sherin was about to direct his first play,
Major Barbara, at the Fred Miller Theatre in Milwaukee and he asked Wagner
if he would design it. Wagner was unable to go to Wisconsin due to other
commitments, so he designed it by mail.
This was the beginning of a relationship
during which they have collaborated on
more than fifteen productions in ew
York, at the Arena Stage, and other regional theatres.
Wagner's collaborative relationship
with Tom O'Horgan began when that
director decided to look for a new designer for the Broadway opening of the
hit musical, Hair. "It was a bizarre situation since two other designers had
done earlier productions. But after a

gether has resulted in A Chorus Line,
Ballroom, and Dreamgirls.
The musicals that this team has produced are the end-product of a timeconsuming discovery / workshop process. For example, A Chorus Line \Va
worked on, evolved, and grew for two
years in Michael Bennett's Workshop
before it ever opened off-Broadway at
Joseph Papp's Public Theatre. The
show went through still further refinements there before it finally opened on
Broadway in 1975. The same process
was followed for the productions of
Ballroom and Dreamgirls.

The Design Process
Designing a new musical is particularly challenging since it tends to evolve
a great deal more from a team of writers
than does a drama that comes from the

A Chorus Line. Photo: Martha Swope.
strange series of events, [ ended up with
it. That was my first association with
O'Horgan and it just kept on going after
that." Hair was also Wagner's big break
-his first hit show on Broadway. The
collaboration between Wagner and
O'Horgan has produced, along with
other shows, multiple productions of
Jesus Christ Superstar and an unbelievable fourteen separate productions of

Hair.
With Michael Bennett the collaborative process has produced shows that
could be described as organic, dynamic,
and choreographed "wholes." After
Wagner worked with Bennett on Promises, Promises and Seesaw, costume designer Theoni Aldredge and lighting designer Tharon Musser became part of
this collaborative team. Their work to-

Theatre Design & Technology/USITT/\Villlcr 1983

typewriter of a lone playwright. So how
does Wagner deal with this problem?
You have to get as many pages

of script as you can. And since I
do primarily musicals now, you
really do have to have the music
so you can hear what it's about
and the feeling that it's trying to
evoke. The music helps things become very clear visually. Is it a
dark sholl' or light sholl'; it it colorful or somber? All these differem things are clear in the music.
This is particularly importam because you knoll' the words and the
lyrics are going to change, because
the book is always in flux, but the
musical style is generally more
constan£. You also need to find
out who the major characters are,

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1983