Derek McLane is a set designer for theatre, opera, and television. McLane has designed more than 300 productions at theatres throughout the United States and around the world, for Broadway, Off-Broadway and major live television. McLane won an Emmy and an Art Directors Guild Award for his design for the 2014 Oscars. Broadway credits include: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, 33 Variations (Tony Award, Best Scenic Design 2009), Grease, The Pajama Game (2006 Tony Nomination), I Am My Own Wife (Tony Award, Best Play), The Women, Present Laughter, London Assurance, Holiday, Honour, Summer and Smoke, and Three Sisters. Off-Broadway credits include: Buried Child, Into the Woods, Posterity, The Scene, The Voysey Inheritance, Two Trains Running, and Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. For television, McLane designed the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Academy Awards, as well as the live television productions of The Sound of Music Live!, Peter Pan Live! and The Wiz Live!.
We talked about everything design related and more including:
- Why a fish tank led to his career in design.
- The one piece of advice that got him accepted into the Yale School of Drama.
- How you can get him to design one of your shows.
- The big part of a designer’s job that people don’t know about.
- How projections will influence design in the future . . . or how they won’t?
Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway