Curators
Kevin Rigdon is a scenic, lighting, and costume designer whose extensive international credits include the Broadway productions of David Mamet’s The Old Neighborhood, Speed-the-Plow, and Glengarry Glen Ross; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest directed by Terry Kinney; Buried Child directed by Gary Sinise; The Rise and Fall of Little Voice directed by Simon Curtis; A Streetcar Named Desire and Our Town directed by Gregory Mosher; The Grapes of Wrath directed by Frank Galati; The Caretaker directed by John Malkovich; The Song of Jacob Zulu and Ghetto. London credits include Waiting For Godot and You Never Can Tell directed by Sir Peter Hall, and Orphans (West End); One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Man Who Came to Dinner (Barbican); American Buffalo (Donmar Warehouse); Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants directed by David Mamet (Old Vic); Speed-the-Plow and The Grapes of Wrath (National). Other UK productions include Measure for Measure, Habeas Corpus, Miss Julie, Much Ado About Nothing, You Never Can Tell, Waiting For Godot, Man and Superman, Galileo’s Daughter, and Don Juan for the Peter Hall Company Season at Theatre Royal Bath. Off-Broadway his credits include: David Mamet’s American Buffalo, Oleanna, Prairie Du Chein, The Shawl, Bobby Gould In Hell, and Edmond; Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love directed by Derek Goldby; Orphans, Landscape of the Body and True West directed by Gary Sinise; Balm in Gilead directed by John Malkovich; Road directed by Simon Curtis; Clara and I Can’t Remember directed by Gregory Mosher; Lemonade; Picasso at the Lapin Agile; Educating Rita; And a Nightingale Sang and Distant Fires. As the resident designer for Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre from 1976 to 1997 he designed the scenery, costumes, and lighting for more than 110 productions including the world premiere of The Grapes of Wrath; Libra directed by John Malkovich; Mojo directed by Ian Rickson; The Libertine directed by Terry Johnson; and A Clockwork Orange directed by Terry Kinney. In addition to his stage designs for Steppenwolf, he was also the designer of their new theatre complex that opened in 1991. Currently Mr. Rigdon is the Associate Director/Design for the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas where he has designed more than 60 productions including; Our Town directed by Jose Quintero; Julius Caesar directed by Corin Redgrave; Antony and Cleopatra directed by Vanessa Redgrave; The Zoo Story and The American Dream directed by Edward Albee; After the Fall; The Crucible; Proof; Topdog/Underdog; Twelfth Night; Of Mice and Men; Closer; The Greeks; and In the Jungle of Cities. Other Theatre productions include Sir Peter Hall’s national tour production of The Importance of Being Earnest, The American premiere of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good directed by Max Stafford-Clark for The Mark Taper Forum and productions for The Kennedy Center, American Repertory Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse In The Park, The Cleveland Playhouse, The Virginia Museum Theatre, Old Globe Theatre, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Hartford Stage, The Dallas Theatre Center, The Remains Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, The Ford’s Theatre, The Festival of Perth, The Festival of Sydney, The Cameri Theatre of Tel-Aviv. Mr. Rigdon’s many awards include two Tony Award nominations, seven Joseph Jefferson Awards, two American Theatre Wing Design Awards, the Drama-Logue Award and a Special Honorary Mention from the 2003 Prague Quadrennial Sceneography Exhibition for his participation in the American exhibit. Mr. Rigdon is the curator for the American National Exhibit for the 2015 Prague Quadrennial Sceneography Exhibition and he serves on the board of directors for USITT. In addition to his design credits, Mr. Rigdon is the John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Theatre at the University of Houston where he is Head of Graduate Design and teaches scenic and lighting design.
Carrie Robbins’ work features 30+ Broadway shows, including Class Act, Grease (original), Agnes of God, Yentl, Octette Bridge Club, Sweet Bird of Youth (Bacall), Frankenstein, Happy End (Streep), Boys of Winter, Cyrano (Langella), & Shadow Box (Ruehl).
Her awards and nominations incl. 2012 recipient of the Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Theatre Development Fund & the TDF/Costume Collection with the support of the Tobin Theatre Arts Fund. 2 Tony (Noms.), 5 Drama Desk, Maharam, USITT/Prague International, L.A. Dramalogue, Henry Hughes, F.I.T-Surface Design, & Audelco, among others.
Robbins’ costumes for the Irving Berlin musical White Christmas have played major cities in the USA, Broadway, & Great Britain. Her regional work includes M. Butterfly and On the Verge, for director Tazewell Thompson (Arena Stage) and the Gershwin musical American in Paris by Ken Ludwig for director Gregory Boyd (Alley Theatre, Houston) as well as The Tempest (Anthony Hopkins as Prospero) & Flea in Her Ear (director Tom Moore at Mark Taper Forum), many productions for the Guthrie (MN), Williamstown, and many others from Alaska to Buffalo.
Opera design includes Death in Venice for Glimmerglass (’08 Prague International Design Exhibit), Samson et Dalila (San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand, more), and many productions for Sarah Caldwell’s Opera Company of Boston. Her work has also been seen at the Hamburg StatsOper.
In NYC, Robbins designed many productions for The Lincoln Center Repertory Theatre, Chelsea Theatre at BAM, Acting Company at Juilliard and NY Shakespeare Festival.
For film Robbins designed the movie In The Spirit (Elaine May, Peter Falk, Marlo Thomas); TV design includes: Saturday Nite Live, PBS Arts in America, & several unseen pilots.
Robbins has designed clothes for several seasons of Queen Esther Marrow and The Harlem Gospel Singers’ European Tour. Currently she is at work on designs for The Cincinnati Ballet’s new Nutcracker, Dec. 2011
Known for her drawing ability, Ms. Robbins’ work is featured in the Time-Life Series Collectibles (between Telephones & Trivets). She has been profiled in: Costume Design, Techniques of Modern Masters (Pecktal, Watson-Guptil), Contemporary Designers (Editor: Colin Naylor, St. James Press, London) & LPTW/CUNY-TV’s Women in Theatre Series.
In 2008-09, Robbins was co-curator (with Barbara Cohen-Stratyner) for a groundbreaking exhibit of Women’s Design for the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center & the League of Professional Theatre Women which celebrated a Century of Designing Women for Live Performance. She co-wrote the dense 100+ page catalog (currently available at the N.Y.Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center).
In August 2010, her play, “The Death & Life of Dr. Cutter, a Vaudeville”, written by Robbins based on the true stories told by Dr. R.D.Robbins, had its 4th reading at the Snapple Theatre Center; it was chosen by Abingdon Theatre Co, NYC, to be part of its First Readings Series in Fall, 2009.
A book on Robbins’ design work will be published by United States Institute for Theatre Technology/Broadway Press, (Written by Annie O. Cleveland & M. Barrett Cleveland) scheduled for release: Spring, 2011 and is available at the organization’s Online Bookstore as well as Drama BookShop, NYC,Samuel French, Inc., & Amazon.com.
Robbins is an MFA grad from the Yale School of Drama and was Master Teacher of Costume Design at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts for many years. She is extremely proud of the extraordinary number of award-winning, successful young costume designers and costume teachers across the country who came out of her classes.
Tony Walton is an English set and costume designer. Walton was born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England. He began his career in 1957 with the stage design for Noël Coward’s Broadway production of Conversation Piece. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s he designed for the New York and London stage. He entered motion pictures as costume designer and visual consultant for Mary Poppins in 1964, for which he received an Oscar nomination.
His awards include an Oscar for All That Jazz in 1980 and an Emmy for the acclaimed 1985 TV version of Death of a Salesman. He has received many Oscar, Emmy and other nominations, including BAFTA nominations for costume and set design for Murder on the Orient Express in 1975 and Oscar nominations for both costume design and set direction/art direction for the motion picture version of The Wiz in 1979.
In December 2005, for their annual birthday celebration to ‘The Master’, The Noël Coward Society invited Walton as the guest celebrity to lay flowers in front of Coward’s statue at New York’s Gershwin Theatre, thereby commemorating the 106th birthday of Sir Noël.
Veronika Vorel‘s career in sound design and music spans theatre, exhibits, and theme parks. Design and associate design for theatre includes work on and off Broadway, the Kennedy Center, and theatres across the United States, ranging from sound system design and mixing for large musicals to immersive soundscapes and scores for new plays in development. She created a sound-art installation for an exhibit on Futurism at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and has made contributions to the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space since 2003, including exhibit design and curatorial work. She received her training at the California Institute of the Arts (BFA) and Yale School of Drama (MFA).
Designer
Klara Zieglerova has been designing extensively for theatre both in the United States and in Europe. Her work has been seen on Broadway, where Ms Zieglerova designed Sister Act at the Broadway Theatre, directed by Jerry Zaks, The Farnsworth Invention by Aaron Sorkin at the Music Box, directed by Des McAnuff; Jersey Boys at the August Wilson Theatre, directed by Des McAnuff and The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe at the Booth Theatre, directed by Jane Wagner. In London’s West End she has designed Sister Act at the London Palladium and Jersey Boys at the Prince Edward’s Theatre. Ms Zieglerova has received a Tony Award nomination for her design of Jersey Boys.
Klara has designed numerous productions all over the United States at theaters such as the New York Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Irish Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, Portland Center Stage, Seattle Rep, Florida Stage, Wiliamstown, and others.
In Europe, Ms Zieglerova has worked for Stage Entertainment on productions such as Saturday Night Fever at the Beatrix Theatre in Holland and Sister Act in Hamburg, Vienna, Milan and UK & Ireland Tour. In Ireland she has worked for The Everyman Palace in Cork on the productions of Eden (by Eugene O’Brien) and Wrecks (by Neil LaBute). Klara has also designed the interior of the New World Stages in New York – the home of five Off Broadway Theatres (www.newworldstages.com). Ms Zieglerova has won The Green Room Award 2010 (Australia) for Best Design of a Musical, The Best Set Design of the 2009 Theatregoers’ Choice Award London (both for Jersey Boys), 2005 Lumen Award (New World Stages), 2003 Drammy Award for Best Set Design; 2000 Carbonell Award for Best Set Design; sets for the Best Touring Production, 2003 L.A. Ovation Award. Ms Zieglerova is currently based both in London and New York City.
Artistic Director
Markéta Fantová is a scenic, lighting and costume designer for theatre, dance, and performance art. She has worked in theatres, galleries and visually inspiring sites in both the United States and Europe. Her costume and set designs were included in the USA PQ National Exhibit (2007) and World Stage Design Exhibit in Seoul, South Korea (2009).
In New York, she was set and lighting designer for the Off-Broadway world premier of Tiny Bubbles, with New Directions Theatre (2012). She has designed for UnderMain Theatre, Circle Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theatre and Water Tower Theatre, all in Dallas-Forth Worth. Ms. Fantova was a guest artist at The Ohio State University, University of Toledo and Texas State University. She has worked in collaboration with dynamic artists and choreographers on numerous performance projects and dance works including Angier Performance Works: Paper III, a site specific performance art piece performed in Prague, Czech Republic; costumes for the performance installation Liminal exhibited in The Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, NY; and site adaptive installation performance pieces Waiting III and IV in the Random Room Gallery, Alfred, NY and Gem Hotel Gallery in New York City. Her current projects include Letter to the World co-created with D. Chase Angier and Evelyne Leblanc-Roberge.
A native of Prague, Czech Republic, Ms. Fantova began her career there as a scenographer for Theatre 22. She holds an M.F.A. in theatre design from Wayne State University and currently serves on the Board of USITT as Vice-President for International Activities.
Technical Director & Exhibit Project Coordinator
Paul Brunner is Faculty Technical Director and Head of Theatre Technology at Indiana University where he teaches courses in technical management, structural design for the stage, electronics for theatre, mechanical design for scenery, and theatrical drafting. He’s been technical director and mechanical designer for theatre, dance, opera, ballet and installation work. He is Commissioner for USITT’s Technical Production Commission and is a Director on the Board of Directors. He is also co-chair of the Broadway Green Alliance’s education committee, has published several articles on sustainable production, and speaks nationally and internationally concerning greener theatre production. Paul’s received the K&M Fabrics Technical Production Award in 2001 and more recently the Herbert Greg’s Merit Award for his recent TD&T article on sustainable design and production. He is also active nationally and internationally on academic standards and accreditation through BFA standards for design and technology with NAST, and the Hong Kong Performing Arts Academy.
Digital Exhibit Coordinator
Ian Garrett is designer, producer, educator, and researcher in the field of sustainability in arts and culture. Ian is the co-founder and director of the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA), a leader in the conversation on sustainability and the arts, and is an Assistant Professor of Ecological Design for Performance at York University in Toronto. He is a member of USITT, OISTAT and the Associated Designers of Canada. He is a trustee and Vice Chair of the Board for DanceUSA, the national service organization for dance, where he serves on the Executive, Technology, and chairs the Programming committees.
Ian maintains a design practice focused on lighting, with work in scenic and video design. Recently he designed the set and energy capture systems for Vox:Lumen from Zata Omm Dance Projects, a full length dance production which premiered in March 2015. In October 2014, he designed the video systems of DTAH Architects’ installation for the Storefront for Art and Architecture’s Toronto Site. Previously, he served as the lighting curator for Scenofest at the Prague Quadrennial, and is the resident designer for the Indy Convergence, an annual artistic open-space in Indianapolis. He received the 2006 LA Weekly Theater Award for best lighting for Permanent Collection at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, was the lighting designer for Song of Extinction with Moving Arts, which won the 2008 LA Weekly Theater Award for Production of the Year, and has been involved with over 100 other theatre productions. Some notable projects include working on the lighting team for the Crimson Collective’s Ascension, a 150’ wide, origami-style crane sculpture at the 2010 Coachella Music Festival; events on the veranda at the Alden Hotel for a Houston Grand Opera O.N. event; and rewiring the DiverseWorks Gallery for Claude Wampler’s PERFORMANCE (career ender) installation.
Ian received dual MFAs in Lighting Design and Producing from CalArts, and has a BA in Architectural Studies and Art History from Rice University.