Beowulf Boritt Set Designer

It’s October 2016. The World Series was tied between 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 Theatre. 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 baseball bat.

“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 bat and I used it every time I could.” Was this 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 bat 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 bat to hit the scenery, dent the corners, round the edges, and leave scuff marks.” In other words, his goal was to make the set look as authentic as the fire escapes and trash cans in that very alley outside the stage door. This attention to detail has made Boritt one of the most sought-after designers in New York. Every element Boritt brings to the stage, no matter how large or small, contributes to the emotion of the story. I  want to convey emotion more than location. Location is important, of course, but that’s secondary to me.
It’s about the emotion of the story. 

DAVID THOMPSON (American writer, playwright, and producer)