December 3, 2015

Granoff Center, Englander Studio

Tony Award-winning scenic designer, John Lee Beatty ’70 talked about how a designer’s work goes from the written page, to a two-dimensional image, to a completed stage set.

His recent work has included designs for plays by Brown graduates, Ayad Aktar ’93 (Disgraced) and Lynn Nottage ’86 (Sweat). This talk was part of the Creative Arts Council’s Brazenly Brown Series, and was sponsored by TAPS and the CAC.

Beatty has designed sets for more than seventy Broadway productions since 1973 including The Apple Tree, Losing Louie, Heartbreak House, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Rabbit Hole, The Color Purple, Crimes of the Heart, The Odd Couple, Doubt, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Twentieth century, Wonderful Town, Dinner at Eight, Morning’s at Seven, Proof, Footloose, Ivanov, The Little Foxes, Once Upon a Mattress, Chicago, A Delicate Balance, The Heiress, Redwood Curtain, A Small Family Business, The Most Happy Fella, Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Octette Bridge Club, Duet for One, Fifth of July, Talley’s Folly, The Innocents, and Knock Knock.

He won the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Play for The Nance (2013). He has received eleven Tony Award nominations, including for Other Desert Cities (2012), The Royal Family (2010) and The Color Purple (2006). Beatty also has won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design four times: Twentieth Century (2004), Dinner at Eight (2003), Fifth of July (1981) and Talley’s Folly (1979). He received ten other Drama Desk nominations.