What To Expect

How does the environmental design—the space a scene takes place in—shape what an audience sees, feels and understands... often without a single word to accompany it?

Join Emmy nominated production designer Alan E. Muraoka for a conversation about using environment, space, objects and visual cues to engage your audience and create a lasting impression. Drawing from his work across film, television, theatre and opera, Alan will explore his creative process, the value of iteration, what designers can learn through discarded drafts and the many ideas that never make it to the screen.

Reflecting on our evolving industry, Alan will also disucss the role of the designer today and why human taste, judgment and creative intention are becoming more essential than ever as the future of design unfolds.

About Our Guest

Alan E. Muraoka has worked in the entertainment industry as a production designer and art director for film and television as well as a theatrical set designer, having been honoured with 2 Emmy nominations and 3 Art Directors’ Guild Award nominations. Splitting his time between New York and Los Angeles, Alan initially starting his career as an assistant set designer in New York on the Broadway productions of “On Your Toes,” “The Tap Dance Kid,” “The Three Musketeers,” “Smile,” “Jerry’s Girls,” and the ballets “Bournonville Variations” for choreographer Peter Martins and “Ives Songs” for Jerome Robbins, both at the New York City Ballet.

Alan has had the privilege of working on productions of operas by America composers, most notable, Ned Rorem's “Our Town” and Jake Hagee's “Dead Man Walking” for Central City Opera, Ricky Ian Gordon's “Orpheus and Eurydice” for Long Beach Opera, Tobias Picker's “Therese Raquin” and Philip Glass's “Fall of the House of Usher” for Long Beach Opera and Chicago Opera Theater and the world premiere of Stewart Copeland's “The Invention of Morel” for Chicago Opera Theatre. More recent work included new productions of John Corigliano's “The Ghost of Versailles” at Chautauqua Opera and the world premieres of Nathan Wang's “The Wreck of the Miranda” and Henry Mollicone's “Moses” for LA Opera. In addition to opera, Alan’s has worked on non-operatic theatre productions at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego Virginia Stage Company, The Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ productions of “Little Shop of Horrors” and “The Chinese Lady.” And most recently, a revival of “The Roommate” for Arizona Theater Company, directed by Marsha Mason.

Known for his work on independent feature film, production design credits include “Dirty Girl”, “BaadAsssss!”and ”Edmond” and the television series “Maron.” . Art direction credits include “Little Miss Sunshine”, “Ghost World”, “Ace Ventura-Pet Detective”, “Washington Square”, “Liberty Heights”, “Passenger 57” and the television series “NYPD Blue.” Alan is currently completed production designing for the television series “New Amsterdam” for NBC/Universal.

In addition to design, Alan has been invited as a guest speaker and educator in design at various colleges and universities including, University of Southern California, Yale University, New York University, Marlboro College and Universities of California at Los Angeles and Irvine.

Alan earned his BA in Music and Art History from Yale University and MFA in Theatrical Design from New York University.

He is a Member of United Scenic Artists L.829, Art Directors Guild L.800, Opera America where he is currently serving on the National Opera Center Board of Directors, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences where he serves on the Production Design Branch executive committee.

Code of Conduct

By registering to attend this event, you agree to abide by AIGA Chicago Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct may be found here. https://www.aiga.org/code-of-conduct