Alan Hendrickson ('83) Named Henry McCormick Professor in the Practice
July 29, 2020
Alan Hendrickson has been named by Yale University President Peter Salovey and the trustees of Yale University as the Henry McCormick Professor in the Practice of Technical Design and Production. This chair honors Henry McCormick, a Yale College alumnus, industrialist, and civic leader of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
A 1983 graduate of the School of Drama, Alan has been teaching since 1979, and has offered at least a dozen different courses during his career, from “Physics of Stage Machinery” to “Electricity” to “Automation Control” to “Pneumatics and Hydraulics,” and more. His book, Mechanical Design for the Stage (Focal Press, 2007), is evidence of his definitive field leadership in the development and practice of scenic automation. He has presented and taught workshops around the world, and he consults widely on scenery control and dimming system electronics.
Alan’s technical designs have thrilled global audiences in such productions as Aladdin, Nine to Five, Beauty and the Beast, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and The Lion King, to name just a few. At Yale Rep, he has designed and built or advised students on scores of mechanized scenery effects with electric motors and variable frequency drives, a technology he helped to introduce to our profession.
Dean James Bundy said, “Expert in the classroom and the Electro-Mechanical Lab he supervises, Alan brings infectious enthusiasm and warm collegiality to his work—to witness him sharing with students his collection of over 300 books on theater architecture, or leading a cohort to Ashley’s for ice cream at 4PM, is to recognize the humane warmth of great educator, whose teaching and example have been most consequential for generations of alumni, as well as for our art form."