Scenic Designer Beowulf Boritt: The Mind’s Eye – Part Two

Putting it Together

“I read the script, sit down with the director and just talk,” Beowulf Boritt, scenic designer says. “What’s important dramatically, what’s the feeling you want it to have, is there anything not obvious in the script? If it’s a one set show, it’s easier, but a musical say with 25 locations gets trickier. I start with a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle – how do I make it all fit together?”

“Then I think does it need to have projections,” he continues. “I might also talk to a lighting designer as soon as I have a plan…there’s going to be something here, here, and here. Something’s going to obstruct. The ceiling could be an issue. Almost invariably I’m doing a set that blocks some of the positions they’d like to have for lights.”

On the Town

Also in consideration is the time it takes to change a scene. Librettist David Thompson tells me director Susan Stroman famously gives Boritt seven seconds! With shows that feature a lot of dancing, the nature of the floor is paramount. The designer had to change i.e. rip up and replace the stage floor for On the Town (2014). When a show is revived with a new set, furniture must accommodate original choreography. Compromise is constant.

Yiddish Fidder on the Roof with the Torn Paper

Boritt believes scaling back is more difficult than going big. “I strive to find the crucial elements to tell the story.” Sometimes minimalism is met with surprise. Joel Grey who directed Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (2022) remembers the producer’s initial reaction to Boritt’s pared down set as, “This is it?” “And it was,” Grey says. “That simple, perfect. He’s wondrous. ” “Torah” was written on a paper panel in Yiddish. Every night, it was physically torn away by Russians depicting the Pogrom and replaced with a new one. It was, as Prince might say, the engine of the musical.

Chair configurations for Scottsboro Boys

For Scottsboro Boys (2010), director Susan Stroman conceived a minstrel show. Every location would be constructed out of nine chairs. “It was Wolfie who came up with what we could do with just chairs and planks to make it dramatic,” librettist David Thompson comments. “Actors on stage built and rebuilt. He’s a fount of ideas and tireless… There’s no ego.”

Scottsboro Boys: Colman Domingo, Forrest McClendon and Company

Visibly economic, Scottsboro was actually immensely complicated. Not only did its cast need to memorize blocking, vocals and dialogue, but also configuration of the chairs. Numbers were put on the backs of the furniture where audience couldn’t see. Each arrangement was a series of digits. Actors carried pegs in their pockets to hold the chairs so they would be sturdy. “When they dropped their clothes to enter prison, it was reassuring to hear the thunk of pegs,” Thompson says.

“Every night we had six big guys jumping around on wooden planks made of aluminum trusses and I’d just cringe, waiting for one to break,” Boritt tells me raising his brows. “If something really breaks, you have to shut everything down to fix it, so you could lose a day of tech. That kind of time is golden. Years ago, I calculated that every 15 minutes of tech time at a Broadway theater cost about $5000. Probably more than that now.”

Little Dancer: Joeseph J. Simeone, Michele Ragusa, Michael McCormick, Wendi Bergamini, James A. Pierce III, Juliet Doherty, Lyrica Woodruff, Polly Baird, Jolina Javier and Nina Goldman.

“The set of Little Dancer (produced in Washington, D.C.) had to open up, but we couldn’t use tracks because dancers en pointe might catch their toes and trip,” he says. “It was hung from above and able to rotate by way of giant trusses. One of them rotated a piano out on stage. Placed incorrectly, it got wedged between two pieces of scenery and began to move. There was a crunch. That sound is horrifying. I think it took me 30 seconds to get to it.” The piano survived. A piece of wall into which it careened did not.

Lynn Ahrens, Dancer’s lyricist tells me, “Beowulf captured Degas’ vision of light, color, and brushstrokes. …I would call it an example of a set designer collaborating with a character—in this case, Degas—to bring the artist’s vision ‘to light’ in a new way—on the stage.”  Research included travel to museums and walking Montmartre in Paris. (“I went to my 1st and only Yankees game when working on Bronx Bombers and spent a lot of time roaming the Bronx for A Bronx Tale,” he says citing other research travel.)

A Bronx Tale: Rory Max Caplan, Dominic Nolfi, Bobby Conte Thornton, Keith White

I am always doing what I cannot do in order to learn how to do it (Pablo Picasso)

Boritt says his math is terrible, but his geometry is good. What about mechanics? “I just have to know what’s possible,” he says. “The truth is most theater technology uses the same kind 0f motors. It’s not terribly complicated stuff. Unless I’m doing something weird, really heavy (initially the steel fire escapes in New York, New York went through the show deck which had to be repaired) or it has to move really fast, I don’t actually have to know much.”

How do you feel about authenticity? “Authenticity should only be used when it’s right for the play,” he explains. “Of course, someone in the audience may see something’s wrong and it will pull that person out of the story.  It’s just kind of instinct. If I can make it accurate and it doesn’t mess anything else up, I should make it accurate. If it’s more important for the story that I mess with it, then I do… Furniture is cheaper to buy it than build it. A room is cheaper to make. I don’t do a huge amount of super accurate stuff. I don’t get hired for those kinds of shows.”

Therese Raquin: Gabriel Ebert, Keira Knightley and Matt Ryan

What about the challenges of water? “Water is a pain in the butt,” he notes. “Almost every time you do water on stage you need a giant sheet of rubber. If people will be in it, you need a heater. The problem is you can see through it. On stage, it’s hard to keep it silty. I paint the liner and put weeds in.”  During one show, water leaked to the basement doing some damage to structural beams. After another, it flooded a second theater below. “Water finds a way,” he shrugs.

The original design for Mike Birbiglia’s The Old Man and the Pool was to have real water. It was going to be the cross section of a pool the whole length of the stage with a Plexiglas front. The preshow would be Birbiglia swimming laps. “It was his idea!” Boritt tells me grinning.  Hopping the show around the country, the performer decided they were doing too much, thus the curved wall of an ersatz pool which also stood in for other things.

For the apocalyptic If There Is, I Haven’t Found It Yet (2012), there was a wall of real rain as one entered and a moat filled with water across the length of the stage. As the story progressed, furniture is tipped into it. Meanwhile, the entire stage filled with water up to the actors’ ankles. It was problematic, but when talk rose of eliminating the effect, star Jake Gyllenhaal threatened to quit.

If It’s There I Haven’t Found It Yet (moat is out front) Jake Gyllenhaal, Bryan O’Byrne, Annie Funke & Enid Graham

Hudson Scenic, with whom the designer has worked many years, solved water issues with a pool liner, then a layer of steel like roofing material, then another pool liner. Water is also heavy. You have to make sure a stage can hold it. “When you’re working with a designer, you’re looking for a level of interest. Beowulf is involved with everything that goes on in the shop,” Nick Mazzella, head of Hudson tells me. “He shows up. It’s a collaboration. Beowulf’s not different, he’s special.”

Easter Eggs: A theatrical term for hiding things on set few can see and fewer know about.

“When I was a little kid, I loved elephants, so early on I started hiding them on sets,” ‘he says. Like the Ninas hidden in Hirschfeld’s celebrated caricatures. (Hidden names of his daughter.) New York, New York (2023) had more than 13 of them. The Elephant in the room? There’s one on Francine’s window sill, one among the radio equipment at the station… there’s an elephant ash tray. Some directors never know.

An elephant hidden on the set of Harmony

In New York, New York, Boritt wrote John Kander and Fred Ebbs’ names and birthdates on a featured beam. Kander tells me he was tickled but told the designer “Fred lied about his age. He always said he was ten years younger.” Boritt changed 1928 to 1938. (John Kander and Fred Ebb collaborated on part of the score to the film New York, New York and notably authored the song. Ebb is deceased.)

One backdrop depicts the San Remo Apartments on Central Park West where Ebb lived. His windows on the 14^th floor are lit. An intermission photo shows a young John and Fred walking through Washington Square Park. A 1940s automat image is doctored to include a yellow sweater left on a chair. His wife Mimi had told him she forgot her yellow sweater the first time she visited Horn & Hardart.

See the yellow sweater?

Boritt’s dog’s name – Natasha – is on the hot dog cart in New York, New York and a bratwurst brand in Harmony. There’s a scene in the former at little café bar. Printed inside menus is a drink named after every person who worked backstage. In the music booker’s office, posted bookings were all people who worked on the production. Call Susan Stroman for XYZ.

Vignette sets of The Prince of Broadway each featured the original designer’s name hidden somewhere. Boris Aaronson was written in the projected birch trees of A Little Night Music and on Tevye’s cart (Fiddler on the Roof). William and Jean Eckart’s names were on the awning in She Loves Me and on the lockers of Damn Yankees. Eugene Lee’s name was in an advertisement at Mrs. Lovett’s Pie Shop. (Sweeney Todd).

The Outlet in Hand to God: Sarah Stiles, Steven Boyer, Geneva Carr, and Michael Oberholtzer

During Hand to God (2015) one night, a drunk audience member jumped on the stage and tried to plug his phone into an outlet. Ever since, Boritt tries to put a fake outlet downstage right in homage to that moment. “I was on Google last night trying to locate an antique German electrical outlet for Harmony,” he says. “The only one I could find was in Lithuania and I didn’t think it would get here in time, so I ended up having one 3D printed.”

Alexis Distler, his devoted assistant for 15 years, says she’s rarely seen him lose his temper – even in China when a fire curtain no one mentioned required moving a set ten feet upstage. “The theater jack-hammered  a hole in its back wall, built a bamboo hut in the parking lot outside and put a $10,000 projector inside,” she recalls, still somewhat stunned. Examples of his sensitivity and kindness bring tears to her eyes.

Alexis and Beowulf doing Tech on Hamlet

Her boss also gives her opportunities. Distler designed Public Works’ Tempest in Central Park this summer. She had to interview, but came highly recommended. He regularly makes himself available to young people for advice, sometimes inviting them to a tech rehearsal and has set up a grant organization for young theater designers called The 1/52 Project: 

What’s Past is Prologue  (Shakespeare)

Beowulf Boritt collects the 2023 Tony Award Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

At  the 76th Annual Tony Awards, Boritt took home Best Scenic Design of a Musical for his outstanding work on New York, New York. John Kander says it was the most elaborate set in which he’s ever worked and “dazzling.”  Kenny Leon tells me he threatened to scream should the presenter not call the designer’s name. 

At Hudson Scenic with painter Irina Portnygina (Photo by Amy Wortman)

“New York, New York was about young artists in New York striving to create a life,” he says. “I wanted to show both what was unpleasant and difficult about the city, but also what was inspiring about it.” A year into the project with two sets rejected, Boritt had a month to come up with an entirely new idea and was visited by Hal’s spirit. “Dumb ass, make things simpler,” he was told. “I don’t really believe in the supernatural, but it solved the show for me.”

The New York, New York Company (Photo by Paul Kolnick)

The designer suggested to librettist David Thompson and director Susan Stroman that they form the Whispering Arch (in Central Park) with suitcases. Thompson responded, “That’s it. New York is about people, not architecture.” The set became all about people. Boritt stripped away buildings and left what people stood on, fire escapes. “Every window implied there was someone living there. Painted drops became the fantasy…” Structural relationships are not always accurate, nor is the scale. “Our eyes are amazing.,” he says. “They zoom in and do close ups for us all the time.”

Anna Uzele and the New York, New York Company (Photo by Emilio Madrid)

The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s production of Harmony (Off Broadway, 2022; Broadway, 2023) inhabits a series of arches now with connecting roof. (There were construction restrictions at its last venue, the Museum of Jewish Heritage.) This makes things harder for lighting design. “Light is gonna bounce everywhere and you might see things reflected you don’t want to see,” he explains.

Harmony Load-In

Ignominious inspiration here was a cell phone. “Once upon a time, Fascists came through the radio,” he says. “Now they come through cell phones. The shiny black surface was my jumping off point. There’s a sense of beauty and a sense of doom.”  (Down the rabbit hole?) Two Golden Ratio prosceniums are formed by light bulbs which create theater within the theater.

Harmony model

Negotiations ensue between set, lighting, sound and projection designers. The light is this big, can you move that piece of scenery two inches upstage? We need to put a speaker over here and it’s this size. In some cases there are LED projections behind the set which is also scaled in accordance with panels they can ‘”see” through. With all the adjustments, Boritt endeavors to keep the set looking the way he wants.

In his newly published Transforming Space Over Time (Applause Theatre and Cinema Books) Boritt addresses the dynamics of six productions from concept to completion. The designer then interviews each director with whom he worked. It’s full of photographs and drawings, beautifully designed, and fascinating. He closes with: “The highs have made the lows more than worth it. I love what I do, and that, more than anything, has animated my work …”

The word “theater” comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. A great set, however, draws one in with more than vision. It influences thinking, affects emotion, creates cohesion. Beowulf Boritt is a great designer.

Opening Top: left to right: On the Town, Act One, Flying Over Sunset
Bottom left to right: Scottsboro Boys, Follies, Much Ado About Nothing

Read Part One

All Uncredited Photos – Beowulf Boritt