Interview with John Kander and Greg Pierce of THE LANDING
We are thrilled to be launching our 2013-14 season with the world-premiere of John Kander and Greg Pierce’s THE LANDING. This stirring and haunting new musical is comprised of three distinct and thematically connected pieces, and marks the first collaboration between legendary theatre artist John Kander, author with the late Fred Ebb of such groundbreaking […]
We are thrilled to be launching our 2013-14 season with the world-premiere of John Kander and Greg Pierce’s THE LANDING. This stirring and haunting new musical is comprised of three distinct and thematically connected pieces, and marks the first collaboration between legendary theatre artist John Kander, author with the late Fred Ebb of such groundbreaking musicals as The Vineyard’s THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS, CHICAGO, and CABARET, and the gifted young playwright and librettist Greg Pierce, whose play SLOWGIRL premiered to acclaim at LCT3 last season. The Vineyard has been developing THE LANDING with them and a core company of actors over the past two years, including a developmental lab production last season.
John Kander and Greg Pierce recently spoke with THE GRAPEVINE about the inspiration behind THE LANDING, their methods of collaboration, and what they are learning from one another.
How did you meet?
GREG PIERCE: We both went to Oberlin College, at different times. John came back to Oberlin and became a mentor to a handful of students who were moving to New York to pursue careers in theatre. I was lucky enough to be one of those students, and so when I came to New York, John and I would get together occasionally. I would come to readings and workshops of his pieces, and he was reading my short stories and plays. We were good friends for about ten years before we started working together.
When or how did you decide to collaborate with one another?
JOHN KANDER: It was gradual. There are writers that speak to you and make you want to read more and more of what they’ve written, and that was Greg almost from the first thing I read. I really admired and felt a connection to what he was writing almost immediately. After THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS and a number of other big shows, I started thinking about doing a piece that would be in a form so small that you could do it in your living room. I called Greg and asked if he wanted to work on it together.
How did you embark a method of working together? Did you have an instant collaborative chemistry or did it evolve more slowly?
JK: It was pretty instant, I must say! When we started, we were finding out about each other, but I think I knew pretty much right away that we would be able to work together. Once we decided we wanted to try to do this, we sat down together and started playing a game I call “what if”: you’re in the room making up a story together and you say, what if this happened, or what if that happened, what if there’s a mother and a little kid, and so on. We discovered very fast that we were both good “what if” players, and we began building a story in just that way. As a matter of fact, it’s what we continue to do today, and we’ve just started writing our third show, so I think it’s working for us.
GP: I didn’t know what to expect in terms of our collaboration: I had never written a musical before, and John has written 20,000, so I thought of him as knowing a lot more than I do. But, what I found was, from the beginning, we would put an idea out, and the idea would exist in the room separate from us, and separate from our resumes or our experiences. Suddenly it was just this thing that was evolving, and that was really exciting to me. It’s always been like that in terms of our collaboration; it’s always felt very equal and been about how to improve the idea and the story, not about who’s doing what.
THE LANDING is made up of three pieces, “Andra”, “The Brick”, and “The Landing”. The first, “Andra” is the first piece you wrote together. Can you talk about what inspired it?
GP: The idea of wanting to create a very small chamber piece came before anything. We were also both very interested in the idea of a narrated piece, so that there’s almost a “once upon a time” or storybook quality. When we were writing ANDRA, we very early hit on the idea of stars, and specifically how the same stars mean different things to different people. John talked about how much a certain star meant to him while he was at sea, during the War. From there we played with the idea of someone teaching someone else about stars, and how passions can be contagious.
Did you conceive of an evening of three pieces from the start?
GP: No… we started working on “Andra” and it very quickly became a one-act. Then we got excited about the idea of creating an evening of pieces, that were tied together loosely, thematically. Aspects of all three stories were inspired by their narrators. We knew we wanted to play around with various kinds of third person and first person narrators, so once we figured out who was telling the story, the what and the why often followed.
JK: Once we wrote “Andra”, we had four characters — a man, a slightly younger man, a woman, and a boy — and we knew we wanted these four people to do the whole evening. With the next two stories, we would start with an idea we were interested in, and find the characters from these four types. Thematically, I think in each of the three stories, people get what they want, and it doesn’t turn out to be quite what they expected.
You’ve been developing this piece at the Vineyard since early in its process, and three of the four actors – David Hyde Pierce, Julia Murney, and Paul Anthony Stewart – and the music director, David Loud, have been part of that process from early on. Can you talk about the experience of developing this piece with them?
GP: It has been amazing… developing this piece with the same people and having a room where we could truly be collaborative, and where everyone just really respects each other and wants to make something great. And then the time between workshops and the lab to take what we’ve learned and work on it.
John, do you tend to write music first and then, Greg, you write lyrics? Or vice versa?
GP: I don’t think we have any one method, really. In the beginning, I was writing lyrics and giving them to you, John. And now we’re doing whatever feels right. I’ll write a lyric or John will come up with a melodic line or a chorus; whoever has a vision for a certain moment. The voice memo function on our iPhones has saved our lives because we can record little things and send them back and forth.
Greg, had you written lyrics before?
GP: When John asked me to write “Andra”, I was not thinking that I would be writing lyrics, because I had never done it before. The original plan was for you to write them, John, because you had written them for CURTAINS and other shows, or we were both gonna do it.
JK: Well, it just turned out he was really good! (laughter)
GP: I find now that it has really influenced my writing. I’m more about economy of words, sounds of words, rhythm.
JK: Well, you write very musically. Which I think is probably one of the things that attracted me to your writing in the first place. I’m a sound man more than a look man. I tend to hear what I’m reading, which is not always an advantage. But I found that when I read Greg’s stories, even before we started writing together, I was hearing them while I was reading them. There was, I think without intention, probably, so much poetry in the writing itself.
How did you approach finding the musical vocabulary of the show?
GP: We were trying to invent a language other than traditional songs and scenes for these pieces. In THE LANDING, sometimes characters will sing a line, sometimes a verse and the song will come back later, and sometimes it’s a complete song. We approached it as, whatever feels right at that moment, and we learned a lot through The Vineyard lab production about what worked and what didn’t. We have really different backgrounds in terms of storytelling in general, but we’re both passionate about things besides traditional musicals — fiction and plays and operas and classical music — as well as traditional musicals. So I think that informed our desire to have a new kind of form.
What was the experience of the lab production like for you?
JK: Well, how about starting with, it was a godsend! The great thing about The Vineyard’s lab is that you not only get to rehearse a piece and then put it in front of an audience, but you can change every night if you want. It’s still a piece of clay and it’s a very luxurious way to work.
GP: I think in the theatre it can be very good to not just have endless amounts of time to experiment, but to really be working towards a goal and then working towards another goal. At the end of the day, people are going to be in the theater watching this and that makes you try hard quickly to make a piece work. We knew we’d have time after the lab to evaluate.
JK: I agree. We learned things about each of the pieces that led us to do a lot of rewriting. But it’s the sort of learning you couldn’t do unless you had the piece in front of an audience.
What is one thing that you’ve each learned from the other?
GP: John has a wonderful way of writing for the joy of it, because it’s a great thing to do with your life and not because it has to be perfect or even produced. So just the plain joy of doing it, which makes it a lot of fun but is also great for the work, because you don’t feel like whatever comes out right now has to work beautifully. It’s like, let’s just keep playing with it until we hit on something that works. So I learned that from John, and it influences a lot of what I’m doing in the rest of my life: jumping in and doing it, the idea that it doesn’t need to be perfect.
JK: Well, that certainly describes the way we work (laughter). Working with Greg has made me think musically in more adventurous ways than I had in the past. As a matter of fact, every once in a while, Greg will write something that will start with a pattern and then go out of the pattern and he will say, I’ll fix that so it fits. Then I’ll find myself saying “no, first let me find some way to make that work”. So he’s led me in a lot of different directions. I’ve learned a lot, I really have. I keep learning.
After a productive period of development, the show is now ready for its world premiere. How are you feeling as we get ready to start rehearsals?
JK: I’m a little scared. (laughter) I’ve said this to Greg many times, but for me, the real fun is writing, and then, being in a rehearsal room. Knowing an audience will actually come see it is always scary. I’ve never done a piece of work that I thought I knew how to do. And it’s not getting any better. But I mean this very sincerely, because you didn’t ask it: having a theatre which is a home, where you know you have place where people will support you and let you mess around in their basement — it means the world to me. I’ve been in this business a long time, and it’s what I always wanted but never had. Now when I have to bring my shoes back into the other world, when a revival is coming up or something like that, I miss The Vineyard, I really do. It’s a perfect place for us.
Photo: John Kander and Greg Pierce. Photo by Jordan Hollender.
Artists
Ken Billington
(Lighting Design) 97 Broadway shows including CHAPLIN, HUGH JACKMAN BACK ON BROADWAY, CHICAGO, THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS, SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM, WHITE CHRISTMAS, [title of show], THE DROWSY CHAPERONE, Lily Tomlin in THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS…, FOOTLOOSE, SWEENEY TODD, the Broadway revivals of BYE BYE BIRDIE, FINIAN’S RAINBOW, SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, ANNIE, HELLO DOLLY, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, MY FAIR LADY and hundreds of touring productions from HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL to FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. Other: SHAMU ONE OCEAN and SHAMU ROCKS for the 3 SeaWorld Parks, JUBILEE!, Bally’s Las Vegas, FANTASMIC! at Disneyland. Awards: Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Lumen (Architecture), Ace (Television).
Colyn Fiendel
(Assistant Stage Manager) Broadway: BIG FISH, LUCKY GUY, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, CHAPLIN, THE ROAD TO MECCA. Off-Broadway: THE LANDING, THE LYONS (Vineyard Theatre); WATER BY THE SPOONFUL, THE LAST FIVE YEARS (Second Stage); THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE GALA (The Public Theatre); NAKED BOYS SINGING! (Original Company). Tours/Tryouts: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, WEST SIDE STORY (Troika ); BIG FISH. Graduate of Purchase College with a BFA in stage management. Proud AEA member. Love to my parents, sister, and Johnny.
Roy Harris
(Production Stage Manager) Broadway: Orphans; In the Next Room, or the vibrator play; Dividing the Estate; and thirteen directed by Daniel Sullivan, including Good People, Morning’s at Seven, The Sisters Rosensweig, and The Heidi Chronicles; The Road to Mecca and Twelve Angry Men, (Roundabout Theatre Company). Off-Broadway: The Landing and The Lyons (Vineyard); Water by the Spoonful, Wings and The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Second Stage); Dying City, The Clean House, Third, and Ten Unknowns (Lincoln Center Theater). Author of five books, most recently More Recipes & Reminiscence and Brunch over Broadway. Proud grandfather of Addi, Amelia, Annie, and Win.
John Monaco
Vineyard Theatre: KID VICTORY, THE LANDING, THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS. Musical coordinator for close to 75 Broadway musicals, guitarist/banjoist for almost 40 Broadway shows. He has had the priviledge of working with Richard Rodgers, John Kander, Jule Styne, Elmer Bernstein, Harvey Schmidt, Philip Springer, George Forrest, Robert Wright, and Stephen Flaherty.
Larry Hochman
(Orchestrations) Broadway: BOOK OF MORMON (Tony, Drama Desk), PIPPIN, BIG FISH, CHAPLIN, SCOTTSBORO BOYS (first produced at the Vineyard), SPAMALOT, ADDAMS FAMILY. 5 Tony Nominations. Television: Composer of Nickelodeon’s “The Wonder Pets!” (5 Emmys). 25 Regional and Off-Broadway shows incl. DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY (Maury Yeston), THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (Marvin Hamlisch). 17 films incl. The Informant! (Marvin Hamlisch) and Disney (Annie, Lady and the Tramp II, Little Mermaid II). Recordings, concerts: Paul McCartney, Eric Idle, Barbra Streisand, Hugh Jackman, Audra McDonald, Barry Manilow, Mandy Patinkin, Boston Pops, San Francisco Symphony, New York Philharmonic. In Memoriam (symphonic poem, publ. E.B. Marks). www.LarryHochman.net
Paul Masse
(Conductor, Piano) Broadway: The Gershwins’ PORGY AND BESS, THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS, AVENUE Q, 42ND STREET (Revival), WICKED, CHICAGO, THE PAJAMA GAME (Revival), GYPSY (2003 and 2008 Revivals), THE PRODUCERS, WHITE CHRISTMAS. Off-Broadway: INNER VOICES (“Borrowed Dust”), THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS, JACQUES BREL…, THE FANTASTICKS. Regional: SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (Denver Center), FIRST YOU DREAM (Kennedy Center/Signature Theatre), THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS (Guthrie). 1st National/LA: WICKED. TV: “The Colbert Report”, “The View”, “The Rosie Show”, “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”. Various Film soundtracks. Original cast albums: The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, The Scottsboro Boys, Noel and Cole. Concert performances at: Avery Fisher Hall, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Joe’s Pub, 54 Below. BFA from New York University.
David Loud
Vineyard Theatre: KID VICTORY, THE LANDING, THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS (also Broadway). Broadway credits include THE VISIT, SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM, CURTAINS, RAGTIME, A CLASS ACT, STEEL PIER, and revivals of PORGY AND BESS, SHE LOVES ME, COMPANY, and SWEENEY TODD. Off-Broadway: THE WORLD GOES ‘ROUND. PBS: “First You Dream.” He originated the role of Manny in Terrence McNally’s MASTER CLASS (starring Zoe Caldwell) and made his Broadway debut in Harold Prince’s original 1981 production of Stephen Sondheim’s MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG. He is a graduate of Yale University and is currently teaching at the Manhattan School of Music.
Nevin Steinberg
(Sound Design) Recent Broadway: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s CINDERELLA (Tony nomination), THE PERFORMERS, MAGIC/BIRD. Recent Off Broadway: FAR FROM HEAVEN. Audio Consultant for Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium. Over thirty Broadway productions as a former founding principal of Acme Sound Partners and five additional Tony nominations for The Gershwins’ PORGY AND BESS, BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO, FENCES, HAIR and IN THE HEIGHTS.
John Lee Beatty
(Set Designer) Since 1976 Mr. Beatty has designed sets for over 100 Broadway productions, including the long-running revival of CHICAGO; the Pulitzer Prize winners DOUBT, PROOF, RABBIT HOLE, TALLEY’S FOLLY and CRIMES OF THE HEART; and noted revivals of A DELICATE BALANCE, THE HEIRESS, and DINNER AT EIGHT. Other productions include: THE BIG KNIFE, THE NANCE, GOOD PEOPLE, VENUS IN FUR, A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, THE ROYAL FAMILY, TIME STANDS STILL, MAURITIUS, LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO, THE MOST HAPPY FELLA, BURN THIS, PENN & TELLER, AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’, THE COLOR PURPLE, THE SISTERS ROSENSWEIG, and FIFTH OF JULY, among others. His long relationships with Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center Theater, Circle Repertory and City Center Encores! have led to Tony, Obie, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk Awards and the Theatre Hall of Fame.
Josh Rhodes
(Choreographer) Josh’s Broadway credits include FIRST DATE and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s CINDERELLA (Outer Critic Circle, Astaire Award, and Drama Desk nominations). On stage and screen he choreographed COMPANY starring Neil Patrick Harris, and SONDHEIM’S 80th BIRTHDAY CONCERT for The New York Philharmonic and PBS. Other stage credits include: BROADWAY: THREE GENERATIONS at the Kennedy Center, ON THE TOWN for the LA Philharmonic, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN starring Patti LuPone at Ravinia, WORKING at the Old Globe, the Broadway Playhouse in Chicago, and the Drama Desk Award winning production at the Prospect Theater in New York, BARNUM at the Asolo Rep (Sarasota Theatre Award), THEY’RE PLAYING OUR SONG starring Jason Alexander at LA’s Reprise, STARS OF DAVID at the Philadelphia Theater Company, ACADEMY at the Maltz Jupiter, 1776 at the Papermill Playhouse, BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO at the Ogunquit Playhouse, CHESS, and DREAMGIRLS at the North Carolina Theatre, CLYDE & BONNIE at the Aurora Theater, BEAUTIFUL GIRLS at the Manhattan School of Music, ALL SINGING ALL DANCING, LEGENDS!, and BROADWAY BY THE YEAR-1954 at Town Hall. As a director, Josh created and directed BROADWAY BARES 20 and 21 in New York, THE FULL MCNALLY at the Westport Playhouse, and PAUL NEWMAN’S DREAM at Avery Fisher, and many 2XIST Fashion shows. His performance credits on Broadway include: FOSSE, BELLS ARE RINGING, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, URBAN COWBOY, MAN OF LA MANCHA, THE BOY FROM OZ, and CHICAGO.
Walter Bobbie
(Director) Walter Bobbie has directed on and off-Broadway. His credits include GOLDEN AGE, VENUS IN FUR, SCHOOL FOR LIES, WHITE CHRISTMAS, THE SUBMISSION, SAVANNAH DISPUTATION, NEW JERUSALEM, HIGH FIDELITY, THE MARRIAGE OF BETTE AND BOO, SWEET CHARITY, THE OTHER WOMAN, TWENTIETH CENTURY, FOOTLOOSE, DURANG DURANG, FOR WHOM THE SOUTHERN BELLE TOLLS, CHICAGO, A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING, as well as Encores! FIORELLO, TENDERLOIN, GOLDEN BOY, NO NO NANAETTE, and the Carnegie Hall concerts of SOUTH PACIFIC and CAROUSEL. He served as Artistic Director of City Center’s Encores! and sits on the Executive Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. Mr. Bobbie is also an actor whose theatre credits range from the original GREASE through HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN FILM, I LOVE MY WIFE, CAFÉ CROWN, ANYTHING GOES, GETTING MARRIED , DRIVING MISS DAISY, ASSASSINS, GUYS & DOLLS, POLISH JOKE, and last season’s ON YOUR TOES at Encores! Mr. Bobbie is the recipient of the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Tony Awards.
Paul Anthony Stewart
Broadway: THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE (Roundabout Theatre Company), FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, CYRANO THE MUSICAL. Off-Broadway: HARBOR (Primary Stages), DREYFUS IN REHEARSAL. Regional: RIDE THE TIGER (Long Wharf Theatre), TWELFTH NIGHT (Westport Country Playhouse), THE LAST FIVE YEARS (Berkshire Theatre Festival), FUNNY GIRL (Drury Lane), MARRY ME A LITTLE (Dorset Theatre), CRIME & PUNISHMENT (Cleveland Playhouse), CHANGES OF HEART (Mark Taper Forum), QUILLS (Geffen Playhouse), HELLO AGAIN (LA Premiere), PERA PALAS (Long Wharf Theatre), THE GAME OF LOVE AND CHANCE (Huntington Theatre), CHILDREN OF EDEN (American Premiere). TV: “Guiding Light” (Emmy nomination), “Blue Bloods”, “Damages”, “Law & Order”, “Dream On”, “The Hunger”, “The Inheritance” (Hallmark Movie), “First Time Out”, “Loving”. FILM: “Somewhere in the City”, “Shadows and Fog”. Princeton Graduate.
Frankie Seratch
Frankie’s most recent projects include the lab performance of the new musical BULL DURHAM, and the readings of MILLIONS and SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE. Favorite roles include playing Kerry Butler’s son in the NYMF production of PANDORA’S BOX, and Jem in The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. In addition to theatre, Frankie is a very accomplished voiceover artist, working steady recording TV/Radio commercials, theme songs, audio books, and video games. Thanks to my family and friends who support all my adventures, John Shea at Frontier Booking, and especially Steve Irlen at Inspired Artist Management.
David Hyde Pierce
Broadway: Kander & Ebb’s CURTAINS (Tony Award), VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE (Tony nomination), LA BETE, ACCENT ON YOUTH, SPAMALOT, THE HEIDI CHRONICLES, BEYOND THERAPY. Off-Broadway: CLOSE UP SPACE, ELLIOT LOVES, ZERO POSITIVE, THAT’S IT FOLKS!, THE MADERATI, THE AUTHOR’S VOICE, HAMLET, MUCH ADO, THE CHERRY ORCHARD. Film: The Perfect Host, Down with Love, Full Frontal, Wet Hot American Summer, A Bug’s Life, Treasure Planet, Wolf, Nixon, Sleepless in Seattle, Little Man Tate, Crossing Delancey. TV: “The Powers That Be”, “The Outer Limits”, “Titus”, “Frasier” (Emmy, SAG Award). As director: Anselmi & Hargove’s musical IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU, George Street Playhouse; THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, Williamstown Theatre Festival.
Julia Murney
Julia Murney last appeared on Broadway as Elphaba in WICKED after playing the role on the national tour for which she received an Acclaim Award. Other New York credits include LENNON, Andrew Lippa’s THE WILD PARTY (Drama Desk nomination), FALLING (Drama Desk nomination), THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, A CLASS ACT, SAVED, CRIMES OF THE HEART, QUEEN OF THE MIST, CLOSER THAN EVER, and TIME AND AGAIN (Lucille Lortel nomination). She’s been seen regionally all over the U.S. and has performed in concerts at Carnegie Hall, Joe’s Pub, 54 Below, Feinstein’s, The Kennedy Center, Caramoor, Town Hall and Birdland. Among her TV credits are “30 Rock”, “Sex and the City”, “Brothers and Sisters”, “Ed”, “NYPD Blue”, all three Law and Orders and about a gazillion voiceovers. juliamurney.com.
John Kander
Vineyard Theatre: KID VICTORY and THE LANDING with Greg Pierce, THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS and FLORA THE RED MENACE with Fred Ebb. Theatre: A FAMILY AFFAIR with James and William Goldman. With Fred Ebb: CABARET (Tony Award), ZORBA, THE HAPPY TIME, 70 GIRLS 70, CHICAGO, THE ACT, WOMAN OF THE YEAR (Tony Award), THE RINK, KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (Tony Award), STEEL PIER, CURTAINS, and THE VISIT. Movies and television material with Fred Ebb: “Liza with a Z” (Emmy Award) and HBO’s “Liza Minnelli’s Steppin Out” (Emmy Award); Cabaret; Funny Lady (Academy Award nomination, Best Song); Lucky Lady; New York, New York; and Chicago The Movie (Academy Award nomination, Best Song). Film scores: “An Early Frost,” “Breathing Lessons,” “The Boys Next Door,” Kramer vs. Kramer, Blue Skies Again, Places of the Heart.
Greg Pierce
Greg Pierce’s first collaboration with John Kander, THE LANDING, premiered at the Vineyard Theatre. His play SLOWGIRL was the inaugural play of Lincoln Center’s Claire Tow Theater (LCT3). It was subsequently produced by Steppenwolf Theatre and the Geffen Playhouse. His play HER REQUIEM was also produced by LCT3. He wrote the libretto for the opera FELLOW TRAVELERS, based on the novel by Thomas Mallon, (composed by Gregory Spears) which premiered at Cincinnati Opera. Other plays include THE QUARRY (with composer Randal Pierce, Vermont Stage Company), and THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE, based on the novel by Haruki Murakami, (Edinburgh International Festival, Singapore Arts Festival, The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival). He has been commissioned by Lincoln Center Theater, Second Stage Theatre, Vermont Stage Company, and Manhattan Theatre Club. He is currently working on two new projects with John Kander.
Michael Krass
(Costume Design) Vineyard Theatre: THE LANDING, THE LYONS, MARY ROSE, BEAUTIFUL CHILD, EIGHT DAYS (BACKWARD), ANTIGONE IN NY, AMERICA DREAMING, HIT THE LIGHTS. Broadway: MACHINAL (Tony nomination); THE LYONS, AFTER MISS JULIE; THE CONSTANT WIFE (Tony nomination); TWELVE ANGRY MEN; YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN; RECKLESS, THE REHEARSAL (Drama Desk nomination), HEDDA GABLER, A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE; many more. Off-Broadway: world premieres by Edward Albee, John Guare, Nicky Silver, Kenny Lonergan, David Rabe, Christopher Durang, Alfred Uhry, Theresa Rebeck, Elaine May, Keith Bunin. Downtown NY: built for collapse, THE SERPENT (Daniel Kramer), HADESTOWN (Rachel Chavkin), etc. Dance: BalletTech. Regional: The Guthrie, Arena Stage, The McCarter, Old Globe, La Jolla, ten summers at The Hangar, twelve summers at Williamstown. Film: Campbell Scott’s HAMLET. Opera: PELLEAS AND MELISANDE in St. Petersburg, Russia. Teaching: eighteen years at NYU undergrad, now the grad school at Brown.