Bold Strokes and Finesse: The Stage Designs of John Ezell

August 18 – November 10, 2012

Scenic Designer John Ezell (American) has created stage designs for well-known and little-seen plays by notable American dramatists, including Eugene O’Neill, Thornton Wilder, and George Abbott. His productions have been seen in such prestigious venues as the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Known for his experimental use of polystyrenes and vacuum-formed thermoplastics, among others, his designs respected the playwright’s textual components while infusing his own sense of eclecticism, scholarship and art history.  

Ezell is the recipient of nine Critics’ Circle Awards, the Award for Experimental Television Art at the International Non-Commercial Television Festival in Milan, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Award for Excellence. Ezell is the Hall Family Foundation Professor of Design at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Bold Strokes and Finesse was originally curated by Gene Emerson Friedman, assistant professor of scenic design at the University of Missouri and debuted at the 2007 State Expo in Phoenix. Ezell’s visit is sponsored in part by the UW Theatre & Dance’s Guest Artist Series (part of the Eminent-Artist-in-Residence endowment funded by the Excellence in Higher Education Endowment through the Wyoming State Legislature).

Images: 

Left: John Ezell (American), The Mystery of Edwin Drood By Rupert Holmes based on the novel by Charles Dickens, 2004-2005, directed by Victoria Bussert, choreographed by Janet Watson, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, courtesy of the artist

Right: John Ezell (American), Death of a Salesman By Arthur Miller, 1998, directed by Steven Woolf, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, courtesy of the artist

Funded in part by FMC Corporation, UW Department of Theatre and Dance, and UW Art Museum Gala Funds.