BEOWULF BORITT – SCENIC DESIGNER
It’s October 2016. The World Series was tied. The Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs. In New York, it had been hot. Everyone was watching the national headlines, assuming the upcoming election would break the right way. In Times Square, tourists lined up for shows like “Hamilton” even though they knew they were on a fool’s errand. And just two blocks north on 48th Street, a new show was in tech at the Longacre Theater. “A Bronx Tale” had completed a successful out-of-town tryout in February and the word was good. And yet, there was the Tony-Award winning set designer, Beowulf Boritt, in the alley of the Longacre, beating trashcans with a stick. “Wulfie,” as everyone calls him, was in a t-shirt, covered with New York grime, pummeling the already mercilessly dented trashcans. “I was given a stick and I used it every time I could.” Frustration brought on by a week of slow-moving technical rehearsals? No. Boritt was just giving these props an added layer of “humanity and life.” In fact, Boritt had been beating the set with that same stick every chance he could. “It’s hard to give something the feeling of life when it was made only a few months ago. So I used that stick to hit the scenery, dent the corners, round the edges, leave scuff marks.” In other words, make the set look as authentic as the fire escapes and trash cans in that very alley outside the stage door. (BEOWULF BORITT: THE DIRECTOR’S DESIGNER. By David Thompson)
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Text by David Thompson.