Wendall K. Harrington, called “the godmother of all projectors” by John Simon in New York Magazine, has been working in the field of projected media for live events since the mid 1970’s. Ms. Harrington has been lecturing on Projection Design for theater since the early 1990s.
Broadway designs include: All The Way, Annie, Driving Miss Daisy, Grey Gardens, They’re Playing Our Song, The Elephant Man, My One and Only, The Heidi Chronicles, The Will Rogers Follies, Having Our Say, Company, Racing Demon, Ragtime, John Leguizamo’s Freak, The Capeman, Putting it Together, and The Who’s Tommy. Off Broadway work includes: Angels in America, Hapgood, A Christmas Carol at the Paramount; Merrily We Roll Along (four times!), and the ill-fated Whistle Down the Wind. Opera design: Werther at the Met, Julie Taymor’s The Magic Flute in Florence, Italy; A View from the Bridge at Chicago Lyric and the Met, Die Gezeichneten and Lucia Di Lammermoore at LA Opera, The Photographer at BAM, Transatlantic, Grapes of Wrath, Rusalka for Minnesota Opera. For ballet: Pictures at an Exhibition, Opera, Cinderella; The Firebird, and Anna Karenina for Alexei Ratmansky; Othello for ABT, Ballet Mechanique for Doug Varone. Concert work includes The Talking Heads’ “Stop Making Sense” and Pete Townshend’s “Psychoderelict” as well as tours for Chris Rock and Simon and Garfunkel. As design director of Esquire magazine, Ms. Harrington was responsible for the re-design and re-launch of the “Men’s Magazine of the 90’s.” Later, as editor-at-large for Esquire, she conceived and edited Randy Shilts’ “My Life on the AIDS Tour,” nominated for a National Magazine Award and published in Best American Essays of 1990.
Ms. Harrington is the recipient of the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the American Theatre Wing Award, the TCI Award for Technical Achievement, The Michael Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration, the Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Projections, USITT Education Award, and named 2015 Players Club Person of the Year.