From United Scenic Artists Local USA 829:
Our beloved USA 829 Scenic Designer Anna Louizos has passed away at age 69.
Anna was a Tony-nominated designer, artist, mentor, collaborator, and friend to so many throughout the theatre community and beyond. Anna’s generosity, humor, talent, and enormous heart touched so many people. She began her Broadway career as an Associate Scenic Designer on The Red Shoes in 1993, The Scarlet Pimpernel in 1997, and Taller Than a Dwarf and Uncle Vanya in 2000. She also served as an Art Director in film and television, including for multiple episodes of Sex and the City.
Anna’s first Broadway scenic design credit was on the smash hit 2003 production of Avenue Q. She went on to design numerous Broadway productions, including Golda’s Balcony, Steel Magnolias, High Fidelity, Curtains, All About Me, To Be or Not To Be, Baby It’s You, White Christmas, The Performers, It Shoulda Been You, In the Heights, Honeymoon in Vegas, Cinderella, Dames at Sea, Holiday Inn, and School of Rock. For her work on Broadway, she received three Tony Award nominations for Best Scenic Design of a Musical for High Fidelity in 2007, In the Heights in 2008 and The Mystery of Edwin Drood in 2013.
Anna also had an extensive career Off-Broadway, in regional theater, and on international and touring productions. For this work, she received multiple Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel award nominations. Fifteen years ago, Anna founded the Broadway Design Exchange as a place where incredible artists, designers, artisans, and craftspeople of our entertainment community could share their work with the people who love it.
Her extraordinary talent and generosity touched countless people, and her impact on the creative community will be felt for years to come.
Anna is survived by her longtime partner, Robyn Goodman, her brother, Nikolas Louizos, her mother, Dianna Louizos, and her sister, Desi Woltman.
Many people have expressed condolences online, including Lin-Manuel Miranda on Instagram, who said:
I will never forget the first time Vanessa saw the set of In The Heights, tears streaming down her face: “How did you get MY block on that stage?”
It was a refrain I would hear again and again over the course of the run and for the next 19 years, from Washington Heights residents AND people all over the world: That’s MY block. That’s MY home. That was the gift of Anna Louizos, our unforgettable and brilliant set designer and friend.
She passed away yesterday, and our hearts are broken. She built us a set and a home so real that it still reverberates in every production since. She did that again and again over the course of her incredible career.
She and her wife Robyn have a cameo in tick, tick…Boom! as Jonathan Larson’s neighbors. Because when I heard the lyric “don’t forget the neighbors Michelle and Gay, more like a family than a family, hey,” Robyn and Anna immediately popped into my mind.
I’m holding Robyn and her family in my heart and prayers today.
And I’m looking out my window this morning, on the same block where my wife grew up, still in awe that she got it all on that stage. She built our home. Thank you, Anna. Alabanza. Para siempre.
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