Tony Straiges

Tony Straiges (born October 31, 1942) is a scenic designer for the stage and ballet. He has designed the sets for 17 Broadway musicals, plays and specials. His sets "often have a sparse elegance or sense of fantasy about them." Robert Brustein said of Straiges: "Today, he is considered one of the visual poets of the stage." Straiges attended the Yale School of Drama at Yale University.

Career

His first Broadway production was ''Timbuktu!'' in 1978, and recently he designed the sets for '' Enchanted April'' in 2003. He provided the scenic supervision for the 1985 concert version of ''Follies''. Off-Broadway productions include ''Chasing Manet'' at Primary Stages in 2009. His first off-Broadway production was ''Glance of a Landscape'' in 1975, at Playwrights Horizons. He designed the sets for the stage musical ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' at the Irish Repertory Theatre in 2006. He also designed the set for the 1991 Broadway play '' I Hate Hamlet''.

Straiges designed the set for ''Sunday in the Park with George'' (1984), and won the 1984 Tony Award, Best Scenic Design, and Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Set Design for his work. Frank Rich wrote that the set was "fantastic", and "What Mr. Lapine, his designers and the special-effects wizard Bran Ferren have arranged is simply gorgeous."

Straiges designed the set for ''Into the Woods'' (1987), for which he was nominated for the Tony Award, Best Scenic Design and Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Set Design. Frank Rich wrote of the set "The designer, Tony Straiges, transports us from a mock-proscenium set redolent of 19th-century picturebook illustration into a thick, asymmetrical, Sendakesque woods whose Rorschach patterns, eerily lighted by Richard Nelson, keep shifting to reveal hidden spirits and demons."

He has designed for many regional theatres, including Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut (1974–77, 1978–79, and 1981–82)."Straiges biography"
filmreference.com, accessed January 6, 2011 A sample of productions for that theatre included ''The Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahogonny'' (1974), ''Troilus And Cressida'' (1976), and ''Tales From The Vienna Woods'' (1978). His work for Center Stage, Baltimore, Maryland included ''Lady Windermere's Fan'' in 2004 and ''On the Verge, or the Geography of Yearning'' in 1984. He designed for Arena Stage, Washington, DC in 1976-81, including ''The Winter's Tale'' in 1979 and 1982–83, and in 1985 designed ''Women And Water''. He designs for the Alley Theatre, Houston Texas.

He also designs sets for ballet companies, including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre.

A collection of 18 models of Straiges' set designs is in the Ohio State University Library."Tony Straiges Collection"
Ohio State University Library, accessed January 6, 2011

References

External links

*
Tony Straiges designs, 1970-1994
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Internet Off-Broadway Database listingTony Straiges Collection
is held by the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute, The Ohio State University Libraries.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Straiges, Tony
American scenic designers
Living people
1942 births
Drama Desk Award winners
Tony Award winners