Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1983 - 11

October 3, 1968
)ecember 1,1968
March 12, 1969
May 13, 1969
Dctober 23, 1969
ebruary 14, 1970
April 28, 1970
May 21, 1970
May 26, 1971
Dctober 12, 1971
:cem ber 19, 1971
April 9, 1972
June 22, 1972
June 23, 1972
June 26, 1972
Ivember 13, 1972
November 1972
March 18, 1973
August I, 1973
ovember 7, 1973
Ivember 26, 1973
1973
October 6, 1974
Ivember 17, 1974
April 15, 1975

June 18, 1975
July 25, 1975
1975
May 3, 1976
May 11, 1976
1976
July 22, 1977
October 5, 1977
ebruary 19, 1978
April 1978
:cember 14, 1978
June 1979
June 9, 1979
:cember 20, 1979
ebruary 25, 1980
August 25, 1980
)ctober 20, 1980
May 13, 1981
:cember 20,1981
ebruary 15, 1982
April 1, 1982
1982
1982
lanuary 30,1983
1983
1983
1983

The Great White Hope / sets / Alvin
Promises, Promises / sets / Shubert
The Watering Place / sets / Music Box
My Daughter, Your Son / sets / Booth
Edith Stein / sets / Arena Stage
Gantry / sets / George Abbott
Mahagonny / sets / Anderson Theatre
The Engagement Baby / sets / Helen Hayes
Lenny / sets / Brooks Atkinson
Jesus Christ Superstar / sets / Mark Hellinger
Inner City / sets / Ethel Barrymore
Sugar / sets / Majestic
Julius Caesar / sets / American Shakespeare Festival
Antony and Cleopatra / sets / American Shakespeare Festival
Jesus Christ Superstar / sets / Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles
Lysistrata / sets / Brooks Atkinson
Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign / sets /
Seesaw / sets / Uris
Shubert Theatre, Los Angeles
Julius Caesar / sets / American Shakespeare Festival
Full Circle / sets / ANTA
Rachael Lily Rosenbloom and Don't You Ever Forget It / sets /
Bette Midler Tour / sets
Broadh mst
Mack & Mabel/sets / Majestic
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road /
A Chorus Line / sets /
sets and conception-adaptation / Beacon
New York Shakespeare Festival-Public Theatre
The Red Devil Battery Sign / sets / Shubert Theatre, Boston
A Chorus Line / sets / Shubert
Rolling Stones Tour of America
A Chorus Line / sets / 1st National Company (Toronto)
A Chorus Line / sets / 2nd National Company (San Francisco)
Hamlet Connotations / sets / American Ballet Theatre
A Chorus Line / sets / London company
Hair / sets / Biltmore
On the Twentieth Century / sets / St. James
Last Rite for Snow White / playwright / Ensemble Studio Theatre
Ballroom / sets / Majestic Theatre
George and Rosemary / playwright / Ensemble Studio Theatre
On the Twentieth Century / sets / National Company (Detroit)
Comin' Uptown / sets / Winter Garden
Swing / sets / Playhouse, Wilmington, Delaware
42nd Street / sets / Winter Garden
One Night Stand / sets / Nederlander
Semmelweiss / sets / Hartman Theatre, Stamford, Connecticut
Dreamgirls / sets / Imperial Theatre
The Barber of Seville / sets / Metropolitan Opera
Mahalia / sets / Hartman Theatre
42nd Street / sets / National Company (Chicago)
Rolling Stones / sets / Madison Square Garden
Merlin / sets / Mark Hellinger
Dreamgirls / sets / ational Company
Three Dances / sets / Eliot Feld Ballet
Jewels / sets / New York City Ballet

'erent-a great deal more realistic-than
t did. As Wagner learned what was gong to happen in each scene, it became
:Iear where these places were and how
hey related to each other.

!t became very clear that this
was a sholl' about the backstage/
technological world where these
entertainers lived. !mean, sound
stages and radio stations and backstages and concert halls and theatres and film sets and television
studios. They all had certain

things in common and it became
I'ery clear what it was going to be
about: !t was going to be abolll
technology. !t was going to take
place in the world in which these
people are in some way trapped
because they are absollllely controlled by a lillIe device called a
microphone. These performers are
"produced" people-as well as a
produced sound-and the apparalUS which produces all that has
a very specific connotation and

it's always present. And then we
also knew that it was a world about
curtains, because it's always upthey're always "onstage." So curtains became a part of it. !t became kind of an essay in lights
and curtains and towers and
bridges and just technology of the
theatre without ever having to
make statements.
! like the design for Dreamgirls a lot only because to me it
has an integrity to it that is about
what it 's about. Idon'tthinkofit
as scenery. ! think of it as part of
the show, so from that point of
view I look at it successfully.
For Wagner, A Chorus Line is the
most satisfying and the most successful
of all his designs simply because there's
hardly anything there-and because it

1\lerlin Photo: P. Cunningham
was the hardest to arrive at. It took two
years of installing and removing scenery
-fIguratively and literally-until the
final idea arrived. "There are three
primary worlds in which people live:
one, a studio world of the mirror; two,
the black velvet world of dance and the
open stage; and three, the show-bizrazzmatazz world of performance."
Before arriving at that solution Wagner and Bennett had considered doing
several big, fully-designed production
numbers. They had the band set on stage
at one point. They even had a whole
Ziegfeld Follies number at the end.

!t was a long and drawn out
process and finally we were just
throwing out anything that we
didn't feel had some authel1l icity
SITT/Wil1ler 198J/Theatre Design & Technology

9
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1983
