Elaine J. McCarthy

Elaine J. McCarthy
Born (1966-05-11) May 11, 1966
Woburn, Massachusetts
Occupation video designer

Elaine J. McCarthy is an American projection and video designer for theater and opera. While known for her projection work, she has also designed both sets and projections.[1]

She was born in Woburn, Massachusetts May 11, 1966 and grew up in nearby Arlington, Massachusetts. She is the sister of cinematographer Stephen McCarthy [2]

McCarthy is married and lives in Connecticut.[3]

Education

Intending to study Political Science, McCarthy initially attended Catholic University in Washington, D.C. but subsequently left to pursue other interests. She eventually enrolled at New York University where she earned a B.F.A. from the Tisch School of the Arts, Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film & Television.[1]

Career


Early career

McCarthy held an administrative job in the early years of the MIT Media Lab, where she learned about computers. “I was exposed to the most bleeding-edge technology and everybody in that environment had a point of view to add, whether you were a tenured professor, or, like me, a glorified secretary — it was all part of the mix. That was my first exposure to a barrier-free environment.” This experience led her to the MIT Community Players which was her first exposure to the idea of theater as a potential career. After that she worked with an experimental theater company, the Pilgrim Theater Research and Performance Collaborative. While stage managing for them at the Edinburgh Festival it became clear to her that she wished to pursue a career in theater. She eventually worked her way to New York City working as a design assistant to noted projection designer Wendall K. Harrington through whose studio many of today's top projection design practitioners have passed. This is where she saw her varied interests in technology, art, design, photography, architecture, film and theater come together in one discipline, projection design for theater.”[4]

She has since gone on to work with a diverse group of notable directors including Leonard Foglia, Michael Greif, James Lapine, Joe Mantello, Michael Mayer, Mike Nichols, Jack O'Brien, Tim Robbins, Peter Sellars, Julie Taymor and John Tillinger.[5]

Broadway

She has many Broadway productions to her credit including After the Fall (2004 revival), Good Vibrations, The Green Bird, Judgement at Nuremberg, the Tony Award nominated productions of Man Of La Mancha (2002 Revival) [1] and Wicked,[6] as well as the Tony Award winning productions of Into The Woods (2002 Revival), Assassins (2004 Revival) and Spamalot.[7]

Opera

She designed projections for Tan Dun's adaptation of The Peony Pavilion at the Wiener Festwochen[8] as well as Tchaikovsky´s Mazeppa [9] and Prokofiev's War and Peace,[10] both co-productions of the Kirov Opera at the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. She recently designed Alfredo Catalani's La Wally[11] and Tchaikovsky's rarely performed Iolanta[12] for The Dallas Opera.

In August 2015 McCarthy designed projections for the world premiere of the new opera Cold Mountain composed by Jennifer Higdon with a libretto by Gene Scheer at the Santa Fe Opera.[13]

Recent and planned projects

McCarthy is currently working on the world premiere of Jake Heggie's new opera It's A Wonderful Life for the Houston Grand Opera December 2016. The production will be directed by Leonard Foglia with Sets by Robert Brill, Lighting by Brian Nason and Costumes by David C. Woolard.[14]

In the Fall of 2015 McCarthy returned to the Dallas Opera to design projections for the world premier production of Great Scott, a new opera by Jake Heggie and Terrance McNally directed by Jack O'Brien with Sets and Costumes by Bob Crowley and Lighting by Brian MacDevitt .[15]

McCarthy is a frequent collaborator with Director Leonard Foglia. She designed projections for his Off-Broadway production The Stendhal Syndrome;[16] his Broadway productions Thurgood,[17] and The People in the Picture;[18] and his production of the Opera's Dead Man Walking[19] for the New York City Opera as well as the World Premiere productions of Moby-Dick [20] and Everest[21] for the Dallas Opera and El Pasado Nunca se Termina for the Lyric Opera of Chicago for which she designed both Sets and Projections. “What Elaine is able to do,” he says, “is to use my ideas as a departure for her own creativity. She will take my ideas and lift it out to a level I could never have imagined. It's what I pray every designer will do.”[1]

McCarthy is currently an Adjunct Instructor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Awards

McCarthy was nominated for the American Theater Wing's Henry Hewes Design Award in 2009 for Notable Effects[22] for Frequency Hopping produced by the Hourglass Group at the 3LD Arts & Technology Center in New York City for which she designed both the scenery and projections.[23]

In 2003 she was awarded an Entertainment Design Magazine Eddy Award for Projection Design Excellence[24]

McCarthy was twice chosen as a Runner Up for Best Video Design for Entertainment Today's Ticketholder Award. First in 2007 for the Center Theatre Group's World Premier production of Lisa Loomer's play Distracted at the Mark Taper Forum [25] for which she designed both Sets and Projections and again in 2010 for Thurgood at the Geffen Playhouse.[26]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 David Johnson, "The Next Generation of Projection Design", Live Design, May 1, 2003
  2. ↑ Stephen McCarthy at the Internet Movie database
  3. ↑ Hannah Kate Kinnersley, "Re:Sources–Elaine J. McCarthy" Live Design, August 1, 2004
  4. ↑ Steven McElroy, "From Afterthought to Essential", New York Times, May 18, 2008
  5. ↑ Elaine J. McCarthy at the Internet Broadway database
  6. ↑ Anita Gates, "The Screen’s Now Setting Many a Stage" New York Times, March 2, 2010
  7. ↑ David Barbour, "The Prevalence of Projections", American Theatre Magazine, December 2011
  8. ↑ "The Peony Pavilion (1998)"
  9. ↑ Ellen Lampert-Greaux, "Still Life: Russian Roulette", Live Design, April 1, 2006
  10. ↑ "War and Peace", Metropolitan Opera Archives
  11. ↑ Olin Chism "Review: Dallas Opera hits a double", Star-Telegram, January 31, 2013
  12. ↑ Catherine Womack "The Dallas Opera Sheds Beautiful Light on the Rarely Performed Iolanta", D Magazine, April 13, 2015
  13. ↑ "2015 SANTA FE OPERA SEASON ANNOUNCED: World premiere of Cold Mountain by Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Higdon; five new productions; three “firsts” planned" santafeopera.org
  14. ↑ "It's A Wonderful Life" Houston Grand Opera
  15. ↑ "About Great Scott" jakeheggie.com
  16. ↑ Charles Isherwood, "Review: ‘The Stendhal Syndrome’" Variety, February 16, 2004
  17. ↑ Frank Rizzo, "Review: Thurgdood" Variety, May 14, 2006
  18. ↑ Ben Brantley, "The People in the Picture" New York Times, April 28, 2001
  19. ↑ Charles Isherwood, "Review: Dead Man Walking", Variety, September 19, 2002
  20. ↑ Steve Smith, "A Role for the Roiling Sea as Ahab Hunts His Whale", New York Times, May 2, 2010
  21. ↑ Heidi Waleson, "Tragedy Makes for the Peak of Drama", Wall Street Journal, Feb 3, 2015
  22. ↑ Henry Hewes Design Awards Notable Effects
  23. ↑ "Frequency Hopping". Hourglass Group. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  24. ↑ Sarah Rushton-Ried, "EDDY Awards presented at special ceremony in New York", Lighting and Sound International, July 4, 2003
  25. ↑ Travis Michael Holder "Ticketholder Awards 2007", Entertainment Today, January 11, 2008
  26. ↑ Travis Michael Holder "The 20th Annual Ticketholder Awards 2010", Entertainment Today, January 25, 2011

External links

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