Derek McLane
Encyclopedia
Derek McLane is an American set designer
for theatre
, opera
, and musical theatre
). He graduated with a BA from Harvard College
and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama
.
Derek McLane is an award winning set designer who has worked on productions at most of the major resident theatres and operas in the United States. His Broadway credits include: 33 Variations
(2008), Grease
(2007), The Pajama Game
(2006 Tony Award, Best Revival); The Threepenny Opera
; Little Women
; I Am My Own Wife
(Tony Award, Best Play); Barefoot in the Park
; Lestat
; The Women; Present Laughter
; London Assurance; Holiday
; Honour
; Summer and Smoke; Three Sisters
. Off-Broadway credits include: The Scene, The Voysey Inheritance, Two Trains Running, Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Macbeth (Shakespeare in the Park); Hurlyburly; Abigail’s Party Modern Orthodox; The Great American Trailer Park Musical; Aunt Dan and Lemon; The Creadeux Canvas; "Rafta, Rafta". McLane designed the entire Sondheim Celebration at the Kennedy Center
in Washington, DC. He has also worked in London, Dublin, Glasgow, Moscow, Krakow, Caracas, Sydney, and Warsaw.
He has collaborated for many years with renowned directors such as Scott Elliott, Moisés Kaufman
, Kathleen Marshall
, David Warren
, Kate Whoriskey, Daniel Sullivan
, Mark Brokaw, James Lapine
and Michael Mayer
.
McLane is on the Board of Directors for The New Group
and The Education Foundation of America.
. Michael Merritt Award in Chicago, 2003. 11 Drama Desk Award
nominations. 2004, 2005, 2007, 2011 (win) Lucille Lortel Awards
. 2006/7 (The Voysey Inheritance
) Outer Critics Circle nomination. 2006 Tony Award
Nomination for Pajama Game. 2009 Tony Award
win for best set design for 33 Variations.
2010 Tony Award
Nomination for Ragtime. 2011 Tony Award Nomination for best set design of "Anything Goes."
Scenic design
Scenic design is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers have traditionally come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but nowadays, generally speaking, they are trained professionals, often with M.F.A...
for theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, and musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
). He graduated with a BA from Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama
Yale School of Drama
The Yale School of Drama is a graduate professional school of Yale University providing training in every discipline of the theatre: acting, design , directing, dramaturgy and dramatic criticism, playwriting, stage management, sound design, technical design and production, and theater...
.
Derek McLane is an award winning set designer who has worked on productions at most of the major resident theatres and operas in the United States. His Broadway credits include: 33 Variations
33 Variations
33 Variations is a play by Moisés Kaufman, inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven's eponymous work. It débuted on Broadway on March 9, 2009, starring Jane Fonda...
(2008), Grease
Grease (musical)
Grease is a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical is named for the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as the greasers. The musical, set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School , follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of love,...
(2007), The Pajama Game
The Pajama Game
The Pajama Game is a musical based on the novel 7½ Cents by Richard Bissell. It features a score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story deals with labor troubles in a pajama factory, where worker demands for a seven-and-a-half cents raise are going unheeded...
(2006 Tony Award, Best Revival); The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
; Little Women
Little Women (musical)
Little Women is a musical with a book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and music by Jason Howland.Based on Louisa May Alcott's classic 1869 semi-autobiographical novel, it focuses on the four March sisters - brassy, tomboy-like, aspiring writer Jo, romantic Meg, pretentious Amy, and...
; I Am My Own Wife
I Am My Own Wife
I Am My Own Wife is a play by Doug Wright based on his conversations with German transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. The one-man play premiered Off-Broadway in 2003 at Playwrights Horizons. It opened on Broadway later that year. The play was developed with Moisés Kaufman and his Tectonic...
(Tony Award, Best Play); Barefoot in the Park
Barefoot in the Park
This article is about the Broadway production. For the film adaptation see Barefoot in the Park .Barefoot in the Park is a romantic comedy by Neil Simon. The original Broadway production, directed by Mike Nichols, opened October 23, 1963, with the four lead roles taken by actors Elizabeth Ashley ,...
; Lestat
Lestat (musical)
Lestat is a Broadway musical inspired by Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. The score is by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, book by Linda Woolverton and directed by Robert Jess Roth with musical staging by Matt West...
; The Women; Present Laughter
Present Laughter
Present Laughter is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1939 and first staged in 1942 on tour, alternating with his lower middle-class domestic drama This Happy Breed...
; London Assurance; Holiday
Holiday (play)
Holiday is a 1928 play by Philip Barry. It was adapted for film twice. First in 1930, directed by Edward H. Griffith with Ann Harding, Mary Astor, Edward Everett Horton, Robert Ames and Hedda Hopper...
; Honour
Honour (play)
Honour is a 1995 play by the Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith.It tells the familiar tale of a middle aged man, George, who leaves his wife, Honour, and their 24-year-old daughter, Sophie, for a relationship with a much younger woman by the name of Claudia.It was first performed in...
; Summer and Smoke; Three Sisters
Three Sisters (play)
Three Sisters is a play by Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov, perhaps partially inspired by the situation of the three Brontë sisters, but most probably by the three Zimmermann sisters in Perm...
. Off-Broadway credits include: The Scene, The Voysey Inheritance, Two Trains Running, Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Macbeth (Shakespeare in the Park); Hurlyburly; Abigail’s Party Modern Orthodox; The Great American Trailer Park Musical; Aunt Dan and Lemon; The Creadeux Canvas; "Rafta, Rafta". McLane designed the entire Sondheim Celebration at the Kennedy Center
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts center located on the Potomac River, adjacent to the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C...
in Washington, DC. He has also worked in London, Dublin, Glasgow, Moscow, Krakow, Caracas, Sydney, and Warsaw.
He has collaborated for many years with renowned directors such as Scott Elliott, Moisés Kaufman
Moisés Kaufman
Moisés Kaufman is a playwright, director and founder of Tectonic Theater Project. He is the author of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, 33 Variations and is perhaps best known for writing The Laramie Project with other members of Tectonic Theater Project...
, Kathleen Marshall
Kathleen Marshall
Kathleen Marshall is an American choreographer, director, and creative consultant.-Life and career:Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Marshall graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School and Smith College. She worked in the Pittsburgh theatre scene when she was younger, performing with such...
, David Warren
David Warren (director)
David Warren is an American theatre and television director.-Theatre:Warren has a number of Broadway production directing credits to his name, including Holiday, Summer and Smoke and Misalliance...
, Kate Whoriskey, Daniel Sullivan
Daniel J. Sullivan
Daniel J. Sullivan is an American theatre and film director and playwright.-Life and career:Sullivan was born in Wray, Colorado, the son of Mary Catherine and John Martin Sullivan. He was raised in San Francisco, where he graduated from San Francisco State University...
, Mark Brokaw, James Lapine
James Lapine
James Lapine is an American stage director and librettist. He has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for Into the Woods, Falsettos, and Passion. He has frequently collaborated with Stephen Sondheim and William Finn.-Biography:Lapine was born in Mansfield, Ohio and graduated...
and Michael Mayer
Michael Mayer (director)
Michael Mayer is an American stage and film director. He won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in 2007 for directing Spring Awakening.-Biography:...
.
McLane is on the Board of Directors for The New Group
The New Group
The New Group, an Off-Broadway theater company located at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, is an artist-driven company with a commitment to developing and producing powerful, contemporary theater. Founded by Artistic Director Scott Elliott, The New Group produced its first play, Mike Leigh's...
and The Education Foundation of America.
Awards
1997 and 2004 OBIE Awards for Sustained Excellence in Scenic Design. Drama League Award, 1997 for Harmony at La Jolla PlayhouseLa Jolla Playhouse
La Jolla Playhouse is a not-for-profit, professional theatre-in-residence on the campus of the University of California, San Diego. -Background:...
. Michael Merritt Award in Chicago, 2003. 11 Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
nominations. 2004, 2005, 2007, 2011 (win) Lucille Lortel Awards
Lucille Lortel Awards
The Lucille Lortel Awards recognize excellence in New York Off-Broadway theatre. The Awards are named for Lucille Lortel, an actress and theater producer, and have been awarded since 1986...
. 2006/7 (The Voysey Inheritance
The Voysey Inheritance
The Voysey Inheritance is a play written by the English dramatist Harley Granville-Barker. Originally written in 1905, it was revived at the National Theatre in 2006.It is currently in the public domain.- See also :*...
) Outer Critics Circle nomination. 2006 Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
Nomination for Pajama Game. 2009 Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
win for best set design for 33 Variations.
2010 Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
Nomination for Ragtime. 2011 Tony Award Nomination for best set design of "Anything Goes."