Wendall K. Harrington

Wendall Keehn Harrington is an American theatrical projection designer and head of projection design at Yale School of Drama, sometimes referred to as 'The Queen of Projections’. She has been considered the nation's leading projection designer for more than three decades.

Credits include over 35 Broadway shows, and numerous awards for her designs.

"In many ways, the modern era of projections on Broadway — and, by extension, in the rest of the theatre — began with Wendall K. Harrington, who designed a number of productions that proved to be technological and aesthetic milestones... It was Harrington's work on the 1992 musical The Who's Tommy that arguably set the stage for the modern projections era."

Many of Harrington's former assistants have gone on to Broadway careers including Zachary Borovay (Rock of Ages), Sage Carter (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest), Michael Clark (Jersey Boys) and Elaine J. McCarthy (Wicked) as well as Hope Hall who went on to serve as the Principal Presidential Videographer and Archive Lead for the Office of Digital Strategy for President Barack Obama.

Early life and education Harrington was born and raised in Queens, NY. In the 1960s she attended Hunter College, studied at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York as a freshman and studied Art history with Leo Steinberg. She began her career apprenticing as a filmmaker on a number of experimental films before transitioning into advertising at Esquire Magazine, and then projection design in 1978. and Grey Gardens.

In 1995, she began designing projections for ballet, notably the American Ballet Theatre's Othello, the San Francisco Ballet production of The Nutcracker, Alexei Ratmansky's Anna Karenina for the Mariinsky Ballet and the New York City Ballet's production of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition

Harrington continued to expand her projections designing experience on various concerts and tours, including Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense, Simon & Garfunkel's Old Friends Tour, two of Chris Rock's comedy tours (Blind Ambition and No Excuses), and John Fogerty's Deja Vu Tour.

Other works In 1978 she founded Luminous! Productions, Inc.

Harrington was also responsible for the re-design and re-launch of Esquire magazine in 1986.

She is on the American Theatre Wing's Tony Award Nominating Committee.

Academic career Harrington began her academic career in 1995 giving seminars in Broadway master lighting classes, which she helped to create, in universities along America's northeastern region, notably New York University, Yale University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Long Island University. From 2005 to 2009, she served as lecturer on Projection for Performance at the Yale School of Drama's Design Department. In 2009 the co-chairs of the Design Department Ming Cho Lee and Stephen Strawbridge, announced that Wendall was to head the departments new projection concentration. The program began in the fall of 2010 and is one of the first graduate theatre training programs of its kind in the United States.

Awards and nominations Year Title Award Category Result 1993 The Who's Tommy Drama Desk Award Outstanding Set Design Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Projection Design American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award 1997 Steel Pier Drama Desk Award Outstanding Scenic Design of a Musical 1998 Ragtime Drama Desk Award Outstanding Scenic Design of a Musical 2005 League of Professional Theater Women Ruth Morley Design Award 2014 National Theatre Conference Person of the Year 2015 USITT Distinguished Achievement Award in Education 2019 USITT Distinguished Achievement Award in Digital Media 2024 Tony Awards Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre

1980 Multi -Image Murders AMI International Gold Award for Best Concept and Script

1984 50 Who Made a Difference (IFPA Gold Award, The Gold Hugo from Chicago International Film Festival and First Place, Gold Camera from the US Industrial Film Festival)