Stephanie Kerley Schwartz
At age 3, I began experimenting with materiality by carefully painting the inside of a bathroom drawer with toothpaste. I was always making things. Drawing things. Sewing things. Paper dolls, shoe-box dioramas, doll clothes. As a teenager in my bedroom “studio,” I taught myself calligraphy, and tried to become ambidextrous like my hero, Leonardo da Vinci.
Despite having lived for 30 years in Los Angeles, I consider myself a New Yorker with roots in the Central Plains. Born in Oklahoma, my family eventually landed in the woods of suburban New York in the early 1970’s. I’ve also spent significant time in Maine, Vermont, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon, New Mexico, New Orleans, South Dakota, and Texas, which often causes me to ponder what it means to be “American”. These geographic wanderings contribute to my design practice, adding nuance to the idea of place.
Follies, designed by Boris Aronson, was my first Broadway show. The proscenium surrounding the vast stage was a glorious ruin – was this fancy theatre in a state of disrepair? As the show washed over me, I realized that the decay was part of the story. I was hooked.
I attended SUNY College at Purchase, earning a BFA in Theatre Design in three intense years. The school was brand new – the Design/Tech program small but mighty. Opera designer Franco Colavecchia, and Kristine Haugan folded us in to their professional practices. Kristine taught me rigor, and Franco pushed us to find artistic freedom on stage. In New York, I saw Mabou Mines, Richard Foreman, Shakespeare in the Park.
In New York City, I designed small shows and assisted on large projects- Robert Wilson operas, Broadway musicals, Woody Allen movies. For several years, I was the Dyer/Craftsperson at The NY Shakespeare Festival costume shop helmed by the Maestro, Milo Morrow. I consider this my graduate training, working alongside designers like Theoni Aldredge, Santo Loquasto, and Julie Taymor. Assisting designer Sally Jacobs on projects directed by Joe Chaikin taught me to pare down to the essence.
I married a Californian and moved to Los Angeles to start my film career, immediately discovering I was pregnant. I raised my kids and learned to write, publishing short stories and designing for theatre. The Los Angeles theatre scene exploded over the years and I have designed well over a hundred productions, mentoring students and assistants, in particular, hiring and recommending young women starting out. I’m passionate about how the arts, theater in particular, can address issues of Climate Change and have produced events and designed scenery with that in mind.
