Last month, more than 100 heavyweights in the British theatre industry sent a petition to the Olivier Awards, the UK's equivalent of Broadway's Tony Awards, calling for a video design award category. The petition states, "We believe that a dedicated video design category would enhance the inclusivity of the Olivier Awards, further reflecting the diverse and evolving nature of the performing arts.” Trailblazing projection and set designer, Elaine J. McCarthy puts it more succinctly, saying, "Projection design is long overdue for a move to the grown ups' table."
On April 12, the Olivier Awards ceremony took place at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This year, video designer Ash J. Woodward, together with scenic designer, Tom Pye, won the Olivier for Best Set Design for Paddington the Musical, while fellow video designer Roland Horvath shared the award for lighting design with Aideen Malone for Into The Woods. The same discipline, two award categories.
Sven Ortel, a professor of practice at Arizona State University and a designer who works on major opera and theatre productions around the world, helped to firmly establish projection design as an important part of live theatre in London and New York. Along with Dick Straker, he brought to life the projections for the groundbreaking production of The Woman In White in 2004/2005. But despite lengthy and high-profile work moving the discipline into the mainstream, in 2012 he was nominated for a Tony Award for scenic design, along with scenic designer Tobin Ost, for Newsies. Ortel commented to Live Design, "After more than 20 years of projections, the case for recognition for designers who contribute meaningfully and noticeably to the enjoyment of Broadway audiences is one of equity among creatives. While the artistic choices a projection designer makes to best serve a given production may differ widely, it is precisely these skills and artistry that deserve recognition to elevate the form further and draw new talent to the profession." Of the petition delivered to the Olivier Awards committee he says, "It shouldn't require petitions or buy-in from colleagues to recognize contributions and artistry that are noticeably and significantly contributing to the overall production."
Projection designer Zak Borovay, who organized his fellow projection designers on Broadway to join the union in 2008 and received the very first union contract for a Broadway show for Rock Of Ages, told Live Design, “When we became our own category in USA829 it was apparent that while we exist at the intersection of lighting and scenery, projection is its own discipline." He asks, "How do judges decide which projections belong to lighting and which belong to scenery? And what about the shows that have projections that are not nominated while the scenery and lighting are? Perhaps in an ideal world there could be a “best production design” award that covered the collaborative efforts of scenery, lighting, and projections combined, since ultimately as designers, our goal is to create a seamless world together onstage."
McCarthy, whose work can be seen on Broadway (including the fourth-longest running show, Wicked), major opera houses of the world from St Petersburg, Russia, to Santa Fe, and is an educator at Yale and other institutions, has watched projection design grow. She says, "Over the thirty years I have been working as a projection designer, we have gone from being a late addition to the design process ('we didn’t budget for projections!') to being front and center in a majority of storytelling in live performance."
Video/projection has gone from big impact but limited moments, think Tal Yarden's design for Salome where the dancer is alone on stage but in her mind, and on the video screen, she is dancing with John the Baptist, to productions which are designed around it. The recent "cine-theatre" hits from Australian writer/director, Kip Williams, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Dracula, include both live and prerecorded video that is so intertwined with the actor onstage that it is almost a performer in its own right. One performer interacting with herself as many different characters in realtime. It can also expand the audience's experience of just one character—inThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time video allows us in to the mind of the lead, Christopher Boone. Finn Ross was honored for Outstanding Projection Design by the Drama Desk Awards for this production, but then won a Tony and an Olivier Award in the scenic design category. Ross wrote a post on Medium arguing that the major awards are significant cultural signals indicating how the theatre community values the discipline and that students and emerging artists deserve to see that the discipline is valued. The addition of a few minutes to an awards show to recognize professionals in this exciting and evolving art form can literally have an impact for years to come.
The Society of London Theatres has this response on the Olivier Awards website: "Changes to award categories have wider implications for the structure and operation of the Olivier Awards, including the voting framework, fairness across categories, and the format of the ceremony. For this reason, decisions about categories must be approached with care." And yet, the Drama Desk Awards have had a category for Outstanding Projection Design since 2008, the Lucille Lortel Awards since 2017. What is taking the Tony and Olivier Awards so long? It's time to join the grown ups' table already!