Featured Artist of the Month - SUSAN HILFERTY
DID YOU KNOW?
Proceeds from Susan's work on BDEX go to the Susan Hilferty Scholarship Fund at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. These scholarships are awarded to third year design students. To donate please visit here.
Spotlight on SUSAN HILFERTY
What was the first production to feature your designs?
Cages by Lewis John Carlino at the Berkshire Theater Festival. Shelley Winters and Nehemiah Persoff were in it! Fun fact: right after that I moved straight to New York City to be Shelley Winters’ personal assistant for 6 months.
What/who inspire you? Any mentors?
I am deeply by inspired by my collaborators. I am very lucky to have created long term relationships with people like Yaël Farber, Christine Jones, Athol Fugard, JoAnne Akalitis, Michael Meyer, Richard Nelson, Michael Arden, and the late Garland Wright.
Do you have a favorite show you have designed for?
I love them all equally!
What is your favorite time period to dress?
It really depends on the text. I am a lover of culture, people, and clothing as a social history, so I get excited about whatever period I am drawing from, as long as it supports the story.
Fun facts to share on your career, life, style?
I rode a Harley Davidson for a decade (and I knew how to repair it!), so I will always have a soft spot in my heart for a really good leather jacket.
Any unique habits/rituals when designing a show?
One of my go-to tools when I am starting work on a new show is to do what I call “story sequencing.” I make a visual representation for every scene in the play or musical. This helps me get my initial visual impulses down. It also serves as a way to stay continually connected to what is happening in the story and onstage as I start to fill in the world with character and detail.Any interesting facts/stories we have missed?
I want to give a shoutout to all of the incredible costume shops and artisans who bring the designs to life. Drapers, milliners, cobblers, printers, painters, dyers, beaders – I couldn’t do it without them!For more information on Susan and her work, please check out her website at www.susanhilferty.com.
Susan Hilferty has designed set and costumes for over 400 productions across the globe. Recent designs include Parade (Broadway), Funny Girl (Broadway), Swept Away (Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep), Hamlet (St. Anne’s Warehouse and Gate Theatre, Dublin), Little Comedies (Alley Theatre), and A Bright Room Called Day, (Public Theatre). Her many Broadway designs include Wicked (Tony, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk awards and Olivier nomination), August Wilson’s Radio Golf, Present Laughter (Tony nomination), Hands on a Hardbody, Spring Awakening (Tony nomination), Lestat (Tony nomination), Annie (2013 Revival), Into the Woods (Tony and Drama Desk nominations; Hewes Award), and Frank Wildhorn’s Wonderland. Her designs for opera include Rigoletto, La Traviata, and the upcoming Aida for the Metropolitan Opera and Manon at LA Opera and Berlin Staatsoper. Hilferty has designed over a hundred off-Broadway productions including Richard Nelson’s Apple Family Plays, August Wilson’s Jitney and Athol Fugard’s Boesman and Lena.
She works with such well-known directors as Athol Fugard (the South African writer with whom she has worked as set and costume designer and often as co-director on over 45 productions since 1980), Yaël Farber, JoAnne Akalaitis, Laurie Anderson, Arin Arbus, Christopher Ashley, Anne Bogart, Jonathan Butterell, Oskar Eustis, Robert Falls, Frank Galati, Garry Hynes, David Jones, Selina Cartmell, Moisés Kaufman, Tony Kushner, Mark Lamos, James Lapine, Michael Longhurst, Richard Nelson, Des McAnuff, Marion McClinton, James MacDonald, Emily Mann, Joe Mantello, Michael Mayer, Michael Arden, Neil Pepe, Bartlett Sher, Rebecca Taichman, Robert Woodruff, Doug Wright, and the late Garland Wright.
Hilferty also designs for Film, Dance (Alvin Ailey), the Circus (Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey) and Concerts (Taylor Swift SPEAK NOW World Tour). Hilferty’s many awards include the USITT Lifetime Achievement Award, Irene Sharaff Award for Lifetime Achievement, Alley Theatre Award for Lifetime Achievement, an OBIE for Sustained Excellence in Design, the Lilly Award and the Ruth Morley Design Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women. Hilferty is also on faculty in the Department of Design for Stage and Film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, having served as chair for 25 years.
