URTA @ Design Showcase East
This years Key Note Speaker is WENDALL HARRINGTON

Ms. Harrington was awarded Lifetime Recognition by the Knights of Illumination in 2019.
She received the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and American Theatre Wing awards for The Who’s Tommy. Her Broadway credits also include: All The Way, Grey Gardens, Putting It Together, The Capeman, Ragtime, Company, Driving Miss Daisy, The Will Rogers Follies, The Heidi Chronicles, My One and Only and They’re Playing Our Song. Work in opera includes: Werther, The Grapes of Wrath, Nixon in China, A View from the Bridge, The Photographer and The Magic Flute. For Miami City Ballet: The Firebird,The Fairy’s Kissand George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®. For Alexei Ratmansky: Cinderella, Pictures at an Exhibition, Firebird, Anna Karenina, Seranata Ratmansky. For Doug Varone: Ballet Mecanique, The Nutcracker and for Houston Ballet, Sylvia. Wendall is the head of the Projection Design concentration at the Yale School of Drama.
Saturday, 5/9/2020 5 pm ET--Wendall Harrington, projection designer
She received the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and American Theatre Wing awards for The Who’s Tommy. Her Broadway credits also include: All The Way, Grey Gardens, Putting It Together, The Capeman, Ragtime, Company, Driving Miss Daisy, The Will Rogers Follies, The Heidi Chronicles, My One and Only and They’re Playing Our Song. Work in opera includes: Werther, The Grapes of Wrath, Nixon in China, A View from the Bridge, The Photographer and The Magic Flute. For Miami City Ballet: The Firebird,The Fairy’s Kissand George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®. For Alexei Ratmansky: Cinderella, Pictures at an Exhibition, Firebird, Anna Karenina, Seranata Ratmansky. For Doug Varone: Ballet Mecanique, The Nutcracker and for Houston Ballet, Sylvia. Wendall is the head of the Projection Design concentration at the Yale School of Drama.
Saturday, 5/9/2020 5 pm ET--Wendall Harrington, projection designer
Round Table Discussion
Creating the new musical Knoxville
with Frank Galati & Robert Perdziola
Creating the new musical Knoxville
with Frank Galati & Robert Perdziola

Frank Galati has been a member of the Steppenwolf ensemble since 1985. Frank won two Tony Awards for his adaptation and direction of Steppenwolf's production of The Grapes of Wrath on Broadway and was nominated for a Tony Award in 1998 for directing the musical Ragtime. Although he is known primarily as a director of epic plays and musicals (Steppenwolf's Homebody/Kabul, Broadway's Ragtime) he is an equally adept actor (Steppenwolf's The Drawer Boy, The Tempest) and adaptor (Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay for The Accidental Tourist.) he directed his adaptation of Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore at Steppenwolf in 2008. His productions at the Goodman Theatre, where he was an associate director from 1986-2008, include She Always Said Pablo, The Winter’s Tale, The Good Person of Setzuan and Cry the Beloved Country.and Mr. Galati is a professor emeritus in the department of performance studies at Northwestern University. He now is an artistic associate at Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida where his adaptation of James Agee's novel A Death in the Family is set to open in April. His adaption of Kafka on the Shore, which premiered at Steppenwolf will open in Zagreb, Croatia on May 22, 2020. Frank is also currently working on a new musical called Knoxville with Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.

ROBERT PERDZIOLA studied costume and scenic design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Upon graduation he moved to New York City and worked as an assistant designer and scenic painter. In 1985, Mr. Perdziola became the resident scenic assistant designer at the Metropolitan Opera working on models and designs for designers Gunther Schneider Seimssen and Franco Zeffirelli.
In 1987, Mr. Perdziola made his professional design debut with the Santa Fe Opera, creating sets and costumes for Shostakovich’s The Nose. In the same year he worked with an art historian to reconstruct Nicholas Roerich designs for Le Sacre du Printemps with the Joffrey Ballet. His own design credits now include Il Pirate and Capriccio for the Metropolitan Opera, and numerous opera designs for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Opera Boston, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Curtis Institute of Music, Glimmerglass Opera, and the Jacobs School of Music. He has designed many and various productions of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Cosi Fan Tutte, seen in the United States, Europe, and Japan. For Opera Australia in 2008, he designed Arabella at the Sydney Opera House.
His ballet designs include Pillar of Fire, Spectre de la Rose, for American Ballet Theatre and various works for Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Miami City Ballet. In 2016 he designed Alice in Wonderland for the Finnish National Ballet. In 2018, for American Ballet Theatre he reconstructed sets and costumes for Harlequinade, working with Alexei Ratmansky, seen in New York, Los Angelos, and Washington, DC. In the theatre, his work is often seen at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, FL, Shakespeare Theatre in DC, and the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA.
Mr. Perdziola is the recipient of 3 Helen Hayes Awards (13 nominations), and an Irene Sharaff Award in 2000.
In 2019 he designed costumes for Grand Hotel at the Signature Theatre, The Seasons for ABT, and sets and costumes for Giselle for the Bolshoi Ballet.
Currently he is working on La Boheme for Veroza Opera in Japan, Madame Butterfly for Boston Lyric Opera, a new ballet for Finnish National Ballet, and Knoxville, a new Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, Frank Galati musical at the Asolo Repertory Theatre. Robert has been a part of the board of the Tobin Theatre Arts Fund since 2000, whose mission is to honor theatre design as a distinct and worthy art form.
Sunday, 5/10/2020 5 pm ET--Director and Designer Frank Galati & Bob Perdziola discuss Knoxville
In 1987, Mr. Perdziola made his professional design debut with the Santa Fe Opera, creating sets and costumes for Shostakovich’s The Nose. In the same year he worked with an art historian to reconstruct Nicholas Roerich designs for Le Sacre du Printemps with the Joffrey Ballet. His own design credits now include Il Pirate and Capriccio for the Metropolitan Opera, and numerous opera designs for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Opera Boston, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Curtis Institute of Music, Glimmerglass Opera, and the Jacobs School of Music. He has designed many and various productions of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Cosi Fan Tutte, seen in the United States, Europe, and Japan. For Opera Australia in 2008, he designed Arabella at the Sydney Opera House.
His ballet designs include Pillar of Fire, Spectre de la Rose, for American Ballet Theatre and various works for Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Miami City Ballet. In 2016 he designed Alice in Wonderland for the Finnish National Ballet. In 2018, for American Ballet Theatre he reconstructed sets and costumes for Harlequinade, working with Alexei Ratmansky, seen in New York, Los Angelos, and Washington, DC. In the theatre, his work is often seen at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, FL, Shakespeare Theatre in DC, and the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA.
Mr. Perdziola is the recipient of 3 Helen Hayes Awards (13 nominations), and an Irene Sharaff Award in 2000.
In 2019 he designed costumes for Grand Hotel at the Signature Theatre, The Seasons for ABT, and sets and costumes for Giselle for the Bolshoi Ballet.
Currently he is working on La Boheme for Veroza Opera in Japan, Madame Butterfly for Boston Lyric Opera, a new ballet for Finnish National Ballet, and Knoxville, a new Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, Frank Galati musical at the Asolo Repertory Theatre. Robert has been a part of the board of the Tobin Theatre Arts Fund since 2000, whose mission is to honor theatre design as a distinct and worthy art form.
Sunday, 5/10/2020 5 pm ET--Director and Designer Frank Galati & Bob Perdziola discuss Knoxville
Key Note Closing Speakers
The Collaborative Process in designing Jagged Little Pill
with Justin Townsend lighting designer & Ricardo Hernandez scenic designer.
The Collaborative Process in designing Jagged Little Pill
with Justin Townsend lighting designer & Ricardo Hernandez scenic designer.

Justin Townsend's Broadway credits include American Psycho, The Humans, Casa Valentina, A Night With Janis Joplin, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Other Placeand Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Off-Broadway credits include Here Lies Love (Drama Desk Award and Lucille Lortel Award) and Juan and John at The Public Theater; A Winter’s Tale and Odyssey at Public Works; Pretty Filthy with The Civilians; A Man’s a Man, Galileo and Unnatural Acts at Classic Stage Company; Mr. Burns, a Post Electric Play (Henry Hewes Award) and Milk Like Sugar at Playwrights Horizons; Luck of the Irish and On The Levee at Lincoln Center Theater; Opus at Primary Stages; Beauty on the Vine and Palace of the End at Epic Theatre; Invisible Thread and Lips Together, Teeth Apart at Second Stage. Regional credits include work with Arden Theatre Company, Alliance Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, Bard Summerscape, Boston Court, Center Stage, Cincinnati Play House, Cleveland Playhouse, Folger Shakespeare, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Center Theatre Group, Intiman Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Playmakers Repertory and Portland Center Stage. Mr. Townsend received an Obie Award in 2014 for sustained excellence in lighting design

Ricardo Hernandez
Born in Havana, Cuba, raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Broadway: Indecent (2017 Tony Award Best Play Nomination); The Gin Game (Sets and Costumes - starring James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson); The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (2012 Tony Award Best Musical Revival); The People in the Picture (Studio 54); Tony Kushner’s Caroline, or Change (also Royal National Theater London - 2007 Olivier Award for Best NewMusical/2006 London’s Evening Standard Award for Best Musical); TopDog/UnderDog (2002 Pulitzer Award Best Play-also Royal Court, London); Elaine Stritch at Liberty (also West End’s Old Vic & National Tour); Parade (Hal Prince director, Tony and Drama Desk Nominations); Bells Are Ringing; Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk (also National Tours and Japan); The Tempest.
Recent: Jagged Little Pill; and The White Card written by Claudia Rankine, both directed by Diane Paulus for American Repertory Theater; La Dame aux Camélias (France); Eve’s Song written by Patricia Ione Lloyd; Mlima’s Tale written by Lynn Nottage, both directed by Jo Bonney; Oedipus El Rey written by Luis Alfaro all for Public Theater; Lempicka for Williamstown Theater Festival, and Light Shining in Buckinghamshire for NYTW, both directed by Rachel Chavkin; Admissions written by Joshua Harmon, directed by Daniel Aukin for Lincoln Center Theater; King Lear, A Doll’s House and Strindberg’s The Father (both in repertory), The Skin of Our Teeth, and The Winter’s Tale all directed by Arin Arbus for Theater For A New Audience; The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World and Jesus Hopped the A Train for Signature Theater; Red Speedo written by Lucas Hnath, directed by Liliana Blain Cruz for New York Theater Workshop; Notes From the Field written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith for American Repertory Theater and Second Stage NYC; The Invisible Hand written by Ayad Akhtar, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll for New York Theater Workshop; Lucia di Lammermoor and Don Giovanni directed by Ron Daniels for Santa Fe Opera; Grounded written by George Brant, directed by Julie Taymor for Public Theater; The Library directed by film director Steven Soderbergh for Public Theater; Splendid’s written by Jean Genet, directed by Arthur Nauzyciel for Theatre National de la Colline, Paris France. For Avignon Festival (France): La Mouette (Cour D’Honneur, Palais des Papes); Jan Karski, Mon Nom Est Fiction (Opera Theatre and Teatr Polski, Warsaw). World Premiere of Il Postino (Sets and Costumes) with Placido Domingofor Los Angeles Opera, also at Theatre du Chatelet Paris, Theater an der Wien Vienna, PBS Telecast; World Premiere of Philip Glass’ Appomatox for San Francisco Opera, directed by Robert Woodruff; Abigail’s Party (Oslo National Theater, Norway); The Dead New Adaptation by Frank McGuiness and Othello both for Abbey Theater, Dublin; World Premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s A Coffin in Egypt (Sets and Costumes) for Houston Grand Opera; Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail (Opera de Nice, France); Il Tabarro/I Pagliacci, Sweeney Todd (Opera Theater of Saint Louis); The Lost Highway (Sets and Costumes) directed by Diane Paulus for London’s English National Opera/Young Vic.
Riccardo Hernández has designed over 250 productions at most leading Regional Theaters and Opera across the US and Internationally. Over thirty productions at New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater: The America Play; One Flea Spare;Stuff Happens; Blade to the Heat (Audelco Award); TopDog/UnderDog; Noise/Funk; Mother Courage(starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline) both directed by George C. Wolfe; (also collaborations with: Diane Paulus, Lear DeDessonet, Jo Bonney, Mary Zimmerman, Daniel Sullivan, Mark Brokaw, Kathleen Marshall, Mark Lamos, Ron Daniels, Graciela Daniele, others), BAM, Lincoln Center, TFANA, Atlantic Theater (collaborations with film director Ethan Cohen), Second Stage (Let Me Down Easy written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith, also PBS Great Performances); NYTW, MTC, MCC, Playwrights Horizons, others.
Regional: American Repertory Theater (collaborations with Diane Paulus, Ron Daniels, Robert Woodruff, Janos Szasz, Arthur Nauzyciel, Robert Brustein, Leonard Foglia, Liz Diamond), Guthrie, Goodman, Taper, La Jolla, Steppenwolf, McCarter, Yale Repertory Theater, others. Opera: Don Giovanni (Diane Paulus director, Chicago Opera); Charles Wuorinen’s Haroun (Mark Lamos director, New York City Opera); Amistad (George C. Wolfe director, Lyric Opera of Chicago); Houston Grand Opera, FGO, Santa Fe Opera, Gotham Opera NYC, others. Also: Festival Automne Paris, Orleans CDN France, Teatro Real de Madrid, Det Norske Teatret, Oslo Norway, MXAT (Moscow Art Theater), Singapore International Festival of Arts.
Numerous Awards and Nominations: OBIE Award Sustained Excellence of Scenic Design; Henry Hewes Design Award Outstanding Scenic Design; Princess Grace Statue Award; Princess Grace Grant, Drama Desks, Connecticut Critics Circle, Helen Hayes, Audelco, American Theater Wing, Boston Elliot Norton Award, Jeff Award, others.
Assistant Professor, Theater Design at Yale School of Drama. 1992 Yale School of Drama.
Keynote Address with Designers Justin Townsend and Riccardo Hernandez discussing their collaboration on Jagged Little Pill
Time: Monday, May 11, 2020 04:50 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Born in Havana, Cuba, raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Broadway: Indecent (2017 Tony Award Best Play Nomination); The Gin Game (Sets and Costumes - starring James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson); The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (2012 Tony Award Best Musical Revival); The People in the Picture (Studio 54); Tony Kushner’s Caroline, or Change (also Royal National Theater London - 2007 Olivier Award for Best NewMusical/2006 London’s Evening Standard Award for Best Musical); TopDog/UnderDog (2002 Pulitzer Award Best Play-also Royal Court, London); Elaine Stritch at Liberty (also West End’s Old Vic & National Tour); Parade (Hal Prince director, Tony and Drama Desk Nominations); Bells Are Ringing; Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk (also National Tours and Japan); The Tempest.
Recent: Jagged Little Pill; and The White Card written by Claudia Rankine, both directed by Diane Paulus for American Repertory Theater; La Dame aux Camélias (France); Eve’s Song written by Patricia Ione Lloyd; Mlima’s Tale written by Lynn Nottage, both directed by Jo Bonney; Oedipus El Rey written by Luis Alfaro all for Public Theater; Lempicka for Williamstown Theater Festival, and Light Shining in Buckinghamshire for NYTW, both directed by Rachel Chavkin; Admissions written by Joshua Harmon, directed by Daniel Aukin for Lincoln Center Theater; King Lear, A Doll’s House and Strindberg’s The Father (both in repertory), The Skin of Our Teeth, and The Winter’s Tale all directed by Arin Arbus for Theater For A New Audience; The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World and Jesus Hopped the A Train for Signature Theater; Red Speedo written by Lucas Hnath, directed by Liliana Blain Cruz for New York Theater Workshop; Notes From the Field written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith for American Repertory Theater and Second Stage NYC; The Invisible Hand written by Ayad Akhtar, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll for New York Theater Workshop; Lucia di Lammermoor and Don Giovanni directed by Ron Daniels for Santa Fe Opera; Grounded written by George Brant, directed by Julie Taymor for Public Theater; The Library directed by film director Steven Soderbergh for Public Theater; Splendid’s written by Jean Genet, directed by Arthur Nauzyciel for Theatre National de la Colline, Paris France. For Avignon Festival (France): La Mouette (Cour D’Honneur, Palais des Papes); Jan Karski, Mon Nom Est Fiction (Opera Theatre and Teatr Polski, Warsaw). World Premiere of Il Postino (Sets and Costumes) with Placido Domingofor Los Angeles Opera, also at Theatre du Chatelet Paris, Theater an der Wien Vienna, PBS Telecast; World Premiere of Philip Glass’ Appomatox for San Francisco Opera, directed by Robert Woodruff; Abigail’s Party (Oslo National Theater, Norway); The Dead New Adaptation by Frank McGuiness and Othello both for Abbey Theater, Dublin; World Premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s A Coffin in Egypt (Sets and Costumes) for Houston Grand Opera; Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail (Opera de Nice, France); Il Tabarro/I Pagliacci, Sweeney Todd (Opera Theater of Saint Louis); The Lost Highway (Sets and Costumes) directed by Diane Paulus for London’s English National Opera/Young Vic.
Riccardo Hernández has designed over 250 productions at most leading Regional Theaters and Opera across the US and Internationally. Over thirty productions at New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater: The America Play; One Flea Spare;Stuff Happens; Blade to the Heat (Audelco Award); TopDog/UnderDog; Noise/Funk; Mother Courage(starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline) both directed by George C. Wolfe; (also collaborations with: Diane Paulus, Lear DeDessonet, Jo Bonney, Mary Zimmerman, Daniel Sullivan, Mark Brokaw, Kathleen Marshall, Mark Lamos, Ron Daniels, Graciela Daniele, others), BAM, Lincoln Center, TFANA, Atlantic Theater (collaborations with film director Ethan Cohen), Second Stage (Let Me Down Easy written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith, also PBS Great Performances); NYTW, MTC, MCC, Playwrights Horizons, others.
Regional: American Repertory Theater (collaborations with Diane Paulus, Ron Daniels, Robert Woodruff, Janos Szasz, Arthur Nauzyciel, Robert Brustein, Leonard Foglia, Liz Diamond), Guthrie, Goodman, Taper, La Jolla, Steppenwolf, McCarter, Yale Repertory Theater, others. Opera: Don Giovanni (Diane Paulus director, Chicago Opera); Charles Wuorinen’s Haroun (Mark Lamos director, New York City Opera); Amistad (George C. Wolfe director, Lyric Opera of Chicago); Houston Grand Opera, FGO, Santa Fe Opera, Gotham Opera NYC, others. Also: Festival Automne Paris, Orleans CDN France, Teatro Real de Madrid, Det Norske Teatret, Oslo Norway, MXAT (Moscow Art Theater), Singapore International Festival of Arts.
Numerous Awards and Nominations: OBIE Award Sustained Excellence of Scenic Design; Henry Hewes Design Award Outstanding Scenic Design; Princess Grace Statue Award; Princess Grace Grant, Drama Desks, Connecticut Critics Circle, Helen Hayes, Audelco, American Theater Wing, Boston Elliot Norton Award, Jeff Award, others.
Assistant Professor, Theater Design at Yale School of Drama. 1992 Yale School of Drama.
Keynote Address with Designers Justin Townsend and Riccardo Hernandez discussing their collaboration on Jagged Little Pill
Time: Monday, May 11, 2020 04:50 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Who We Are
The University Resident Theatre Association was founded in 1969 with the mission of supporting excellence in professional training of theatre artists, ensuring the continued renewal of the American theatre.
Since that time, URTA has grown to include many programs and services, all working toward that same goal. Whether it’s maintaining the highest quality standards for our member universities, helping to match potential students with the MFA program best suited to their needs, facilitating engagement of professional artists at universities, or expanding our offering of continuing education programming to students, faculty and professional artists, URTA is setting the stage for emerging theatre artists, superior theatre training, and professional advancement!
Since that time, URTA has grown to include many programs and services, all working toward that same goal. Whether it’s maintaining the highest quality standards for our member universities, helping to match potential students with the MFA program best suited to their needs, facilitating engagement of professional artists at universities, or expanding our offering of continuing education programming to students, faculty and professional artists, URTA is setting the stage for emerging theatre artists, superior theatre training, and professional advancement!