2011 Tony Awards for Best Scenic Design

Last night was the 65th Annual Tony Awards. As longtime readers of this blog know, there is no Tony Award for props, whether it’s props design or prop mastering (actually, there is very little recognition of the craft and labor of backstage theatre overall, but I digress). Instead, I will look at the Tony Award winners for Scenic Design, which encompasses the world of props.

Congratulations to Scott Pask, designer of The Book of Mormon, for his Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Musical. Scott is the designer for both Shakespeare in the Park shows this year, which began preview performances just this past week. I couldn’t find his acceptance speech online anywhere, so in lieu of that, here is a video in which he talks about the scenic design of The Book of Mormon.

You can also read a great feature on Playbill about the design of Book of Mormon, featuring a number of photographs of the sets as well as the scenic models.

The winner for Best Scenic Design of a Play went to Rae Smith for War Horse. I highlighted some video of the horse puppets from this show back in 2009 when it was still on the West End. It’s worth watching again, because the puppets are really, really cool. The link also has some information on the puppets’ creators, Handspring Puppet Company, which incidentally, won a Special Tony Award last night as well.

Her acceptance speech is online, though I can’t seem to embed it. You can browse to it from the Tony Awards video gallery though.

One thought on “2011 Tony Awards for Best Scenic Design”

  1. I love the Book of Mormon. I have read the Bible and the Book of Mormon many times and they have given me a special gift – a belief in Jesus Christ, who I know to be the Son of God. This play will soon be forgotten, but the Book of Mormon will live on as Another Testament of Jesus Christ in the hearts of millions. Look to the life of Jesus Christ and you can see the true path to happiness is serving God and serving others – which is what our missionaries, and missionaries of many other religions do.

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