Scott Pask
Encyclopedia
Scott Pask is an American
scenic design
er. He has worked primarily on stage productions in the United States, on Broadway
and Off-Broadway
, and in regional theatre, as well as in the United Kingdom. He won the Tony Award
for his work on The Pillowman, The Coast of Utopia and The Book of Mormon.
with his twin brother Bruce. Pask earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Arizona
and a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University
. Bruce is a noted stylist and men's fashion director at T: The New York Times Style Magazine.
credits include Les Liaisons Dangereuses
, Urinetown
, The Coast of Utopia
, The Vertical Hour
, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me
, Kiki and Herb
: Alive on Broadway, The Wedding Singer
, La Cage aux Folles, Amour
, Sweet Charity
, Little Shop of Horrors, Take Me Out, Nine
, The Pillowman
, and A Steady Rain
. He made his Metropolitan Opera
debut with his design for Benjamin Britten
's Peter Grimes.
Pask designed the original production of The Pillowman and its subsequent UK tour for the National Theatre
. Additional credits include On an Average Day (West End) and Tales From Hollywood (Donmar Warehouse
) both directed by John Crowley; Bash (Almeida Theatre
, New York, Los Angeles, and Showtime); Albert Herring
(Opera North
U.K); The Underpants, The Bomb-itty of Errors, The Donkey Show (NY, London, Edinburgh, Cambridge), Slanguage, The Gimmick, Love's Fowl, The Beginning of August, Refuge. Also: Baltimore Center Stage, Alliance Theater, South Coast Repertory
, Seattle Rep, The Old Globe, ACT, Yale Repertory Theater, Walker Arts Center, Lincoln Center Festival, Spoleto, BAM and Williamstown. He also designed the original scenic design for the debut of Johnny Baseball at the American Repertory Theatre Spring 2010.
Of his work, Ben Brantley
in The New York Times
wrote: "Scott Pask’s exposed-wall set is the perfect playground for a world in which imagination (aided by chemical substances) provides the décor." in reference to Hair. Pask has said of his work "I do love abstracted places, especially one where I can fill it with so much texture,"
Pask designed the holiday snow globes for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
for 2005 and 2009.
He has been nominated for the Tony Award
for Scenic Design of a Musical for Pal Joey (2009); Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Play for Les Liaisons Dangereuses (2008). He won the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Musical for The Book of Mormon (2011), and Best Scenic Design of a Play for The Coast of Utopia (parts 1,2, and 3) (2007) and The Pillowman (2005). He won the Drama Desk Award
, Outstanding Set Design of a Play, for Les Liaisons Dangereuses and The Coast of Utopia.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
scenic design
Scenic design
Scenic design is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers have traditionally come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but nowadays, generally speaking, they are trained professionals, often with M.F.A...
er. He has worked primarily on stage productions in the United States, on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
and Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
, and in regional theatre, as well as in the United Kingdom. He won the Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for his work on The Pillowman, The Coast of Utopia and The Book of Mormon.
Early life and education
Pask was born and raised in Yuma, ArizonaYuma, Arizona
Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. It is located in the southwestern corner of the state, and the population of the city was 77,515 at the 2000 census, with a 2008 Census Bureau estimated population of 90,041....
with his twin brother Bruce. Pask earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
and a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. Bruce is a noted stylist and men's fashion director at T: The New York Times Style Magazine.
Career
His BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
credits include Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Les Liaisons dangereuses is a French epistolary novel by Choderlos de Laclos.Les Liaisons dangereuses may also refer to:* Les liaisons dangereuses , a 1959 film adapted by Claude Brulé and directed by Roger Vadim...
, Urinetown
Urinetown
Urinetown: The Musical is a satirical comedy musical, with music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, and book by Kotis. It satirizes the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, and municipal politics...
, The Coast of Utopia
The Coast of Utopia
The Coast of Utopia is a 2002 trilogy of plays: Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage, written by Tom Stoppard with focus on the philosophical debates in pre-revolution Russia between 1833 and 1866...
, The Vertical Hour
The Vertical Hour
The Vertical Hour is a play by David Hare. The play addresses the relationship of characters with opposing views on the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and also explores psychological tension between public lives and private lives. The play received its world premiere at the Music Box Theater on Broadway,...
, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me
Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...
, Kiki and Herb
Kiki and Herb
Kiki and Herb are an American drag cabaret duo. Bond portrays Kiki DuRane, an aging, alcoholic, female lounge singer...
: Alive on Broadway, The Wedding Singer
The Wedding Singer (musical)
The Wedding Singer is a musical with music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, and a book by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy. It is based on the 1998 film The Wedding Singer.-Synopsis:Act 1...
, La Cage aux Folles, Amour
Amour (musical)
Amour is a musical fantasy with an English book by Jeremy Sams, music by Michel Legrand, and lyrics by Didier Van Cauwelaert, who wrote the original French libretto....
, Sweet Charity
Sweet Charity
Sweet Charity is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse starring his wife and muse Gwen Verdon. It is based on Federico Fellini's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria...
, Little Shop of Horrors, Take Me Out, Nine
Nine (musical)
Nine is a musical with a book by Arthur Kopit, music and lyrics by Maury Yeston. The story is based on Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical film 8½...
, The Pillowman
The Pillowman
The Pillowman is a 2003 play by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. It received its first public reading in an early version at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 1995...
, and A Steady Rain
A Steady Rain
A Steady Rain is a play by Keith Huff. With a plot similar to a real-life event involving Jeffrey Dahmer, it focuses on two Chicago policemen who inadvertently return a Vietnamese boy to a cannibalistic serial killer who claims to be the child's uncle...
. He made his Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
debut with his design for Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's Peter Grimes.
Pask designed the original production of The Pillowman and its subsequent UK tour for the National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
. Additional credits include On an Average Day (West End) and Tales From Hollywood (Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...
) both directed by John Crowley; Bash (Almeida Theatre
Almeida Theatre
The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325 seat studio theatre with an international reputation which takes its name from the street in which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diverse range of drama and holds an annual summer festival of...
, New York, Los Angeles, and Showtime); Albert Herring
Albert Herring
Albert Herring, Op. 39, is a chamber opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten.Composed in the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947, this comic opera was a successor to his serious opera The Rape of Lucretia...
(Opera North
Opera North
Opera North is an English opera company based in Leeds. The company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays and the Theatre Royal, Newcastle...
U.K); The Underpants, The Bomb-itty of Errors, The Donkey Show (NY, London, Edinburgh, Cambridge), Slanguage, The Gimmick, Love's Fowl, The Beginning of August, Refuge. Also: Baltimore Center Stage, Alliance Theater, South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely...
, Seattle Rep, The Old Globe, ACT, Yale Repertory Theater, Walker Arts Center, Lincoln Center Festival, Spoleto, BAM and Williamstown. He also designed the original scenic design for the debut of Johnny Baseball at the American Repertory Theatre Spring 2010.
Of his work, Ben Brantley
Ben Brantley
Benjamin D. "Ben" Brantley is an American journalist and the chief theater critic of The New York Times.-Life and career:...
in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote: "Scott Pask’s exposed-wall set is the perfect playground for a world in which imagination (aided by chemical substances) provides the décor." in reference to Hair. Pask has said of his work "I do love abstracted places, especially one where I can fill it with so much texture,"
Pask designed the holiday snow globes for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the theatre community’s response to the AIDS crisis. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the theatre community, on Broadway, Off-Broadway and across the country, BC/EFA raises funds for AIDS-related causes across the United States...
for 2005 and 2009.
Awards and nominations
Pask won the 1999 Lucille Lortel Award and Henry Hewes Award for his work on The Mineola Twins and the 2001 Bessie Award for Verge.He has been nominated for the Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for Scenic Design of a Musical for Pal Joey (2009); Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Play for Les Liaisons Dangereuses (2008). He won the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Musical for The Book of Mormon (2011), and Best Scenic Design of a Play for The Coast of Utopia (parts 1,2, and 3) (2007) and The Pillowman (2005). He won the Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
, Outstanding Set Design of a Play, for Les Liaisons Dangereuses and The Coast of Utopia.