Set Design for Grease

Theatrical set designer Derek McLane ’80 shows how his work progresses — from initial sketches on a yellow legal pad through the musical’s finished sets...

From The March-April 2008 Issue

Theatrical set designer Derek McLane ’80 shows how his work progresses — from initial sketches on a yellow legal pad through the musical’s finished sets...

Theatrical set designer Derek McLane ’80 shows how his work progresses — from initial sketches on a yellow legal pad through the musical’s finished sets — and discusses some of his surprising, diverse sources of inspiration: the endless rows of lockers he remembers from high school; a Life magazine photograph of a drive-in movie theater; the colors in 1950s advertisements; and that era’s fascination with nuclear power.

For more on McLane, see "Storytelling Spaces," in this magazine's March-April issue.

 

Published in the March-April 2008 print issue under the headline “Set Design for Grease,” in the section.

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