Grace

by Craig Wright

Cort Theater

Dexter Bullard, Director

Costumes by Tif Bullard, Lighing by David Weiner, Sound by Darron L. West

2012

Kate Arrington and Paul Rudd

Kate Arrington and Michael Shannon

Kate Arrington, Paul Rudd & Michael Shannon

Michael Shannon, Paul Rudd, Kate Arrington & Ed Asner

Video Interview about the set for Grace: http://www.broadway.com/videos/154410/designer-beowulf-boritt-on-the-stellar-rotation-of-the-grace-set-the-story-behind-his-name/

Playbill Article including a section on Grace: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/171787-Living-for-Design-Beowulf-Boritt-Conjures-Arresting-Scenic-Worlds-for-Chaplin-Grace-and-More

"That sense of the unknown is reinforced by Beowulf Boritt's stunning set -- a backdrop of a heavenly blue sky that shifts from dawn to dusk, against a bland modern living room simultaneously inhabited by a young married couple and their reclusive next-door neighbor."

~Marilyn Stasio, Variety

"The slowly revolving set by the industrious Beowulf Boritt does include an otherworldly vista of cerulean heavens."

~Ben Brantley, New York Times

"Beowulf Boritt's spare, single-apartment set functions as both Steve and Sara's home and Sam's, so that we can witness two sets of action at once."

~Elysa Gardner, USA Today

"Their floor plans are identical, so both appear to occupy the same room at the same time, as a front door and a sliding glass one rotate slowly, with Copernican deliberation, around Beowulf Boritt’s barely suggested living space."

~Scott Brown, New York Magazine

"The scenic design, literally spinning throughout the running time, is by the visionary Beowulf Boritt, who also designed breathtakingly tricky sets for the concurrent Chaplin on Broadway and If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet Off-Broadway." ~Harry Haun, Playbill.com

"Working with designer Beowulf Boritt on a slowly revolving turntable, Bullard pulls off the risky move of staging the action on one unchanging apartment set. The married couple and their neighbor simultaneously occupy a single environment. This cleverly reinforces the key point of people living connected yet separate existences, navigating the same space and dodging – or not – whatever debris gets thrown at them."

~David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

"The beautifully simple set inside of Broadway's Cort Theatre is as deceptive as Grace's one word title: neither are as clear-cut as they might appear. From the first moment of Wright's play, the audience is aware that this stage is going to show us something unusual. Beowulf Boritt's set immediately prepares the audience for the mix of reality and metaphor that comprise the play's contents. The functional Floridian condo furniture sits in front of a surreal moving cloud backdrop, which suggests a large cathedral and a Florida skylight in equal measure. "

~Bess Rowen, Huffington Post

"Beowulf Boritt's simple set of rattan-inspired, unremarkable furniture, free-standing doorways and a ceiling fan reek of anonymous hotel rooms."

~Mark Kennedy, AP

"Elegant set by the ubiquitous Beowulf Boritt."

~Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg News

"Beowulf Boritt's semi-abstract set cleverly has the three main characters occupy the same rattan furnished apartment. The absence of walls. and the bright blue sky instead of a ceiling add to the fluidity of the actors movements in and out of the single space and each other's' separate but increasingly enjoined lives."

~Elyse Sommer, Curtain Up

"Beowulf Boritt's simply ingenious set."

~Linda Winer, Newsday

"Beowulf Boritt’s spare set, which captures the bland soullessness of mid-level Gulf Coast living in a few deft strokes, and allows characters who are meant to be in separate apartments seem to inhabit the same space."

~Adam Green, Vogue

"The set is contained on an oval floorboard that rotates to offer a continuously changing perspective — maximizing its modest floor space while simultaneously making the Cort Theatre feel more intimate. Two households share the living room tableau, often overlapping. It's a keen representation of how the play toys with concepts not only of space, but also time. "

~T. Michelle Murphy, Metro NY

"As made doubly clear by Beowulf Borritt's intermingled set of their adjacent apartments."

~David Finkle, Theatremania

"The suspenseful 100 minute piece is set against the peaceful backdrop of sunny Florida, which is benefited by Beowulf Boritt’s scenic design."

~Progressive Pulse.com

"The “committed Christians” and their neighbor live in adjacent apartments, alternated between thanks to a clever rotating set by Beowulf Boritt."

~Robert Kahn, NBC 4NY

"The action takes place simultaneously in two separate apartments on Beowulf Boritt’s spare and slowly revolving set, yet it’s never confusing and we always know which characters are in which dwelling."

~David Sherwood, Art in NY

"An interestingly designed set by Beowulf Boritt of some rattan furniture with slow moving turntable rotations and a sky; it’s also the apartment of the upstairs neighbor. They all roam about in the same set but they are in separate apartments, which eventually raises questions about just how connected we are to those we seem the closest, yet so far apart." ~Sandi Durell, Examiner

"What is impressive and feels right for a play whose characters teeter somewhere between heaven and hell, is the other-worldly atmosphere that Boritt has created. A huge, bluish, oval-shaped frame provides a sky throughout the play’s action. Door frames are judiciously placed about the stage to leave the movements fluid between the cast members. The ubiquitous bamboo furnishings that manage to hint at the interchangeability of a Florida apartment complex strike just the right note."

~Sandra Bertrand, Galo Magazine

"The set (remarkably designed by Beowulf Boritt) rotates in a circle throughout the play."

~Molly Marinik, theeasy.com

"Beowulf Boritt’s canny set, which stands in for two apartments simultaneously."

~ Kevin Filipski, The Flip Side

"Beowulf Boritt’s slightly dizzying but very clever set is constantly, subtly, rotating; the doors (one to the exterior, one to some sort of patio or balcony) pivot on one turntable and the interiors of the room on another, so perspective and relational geometry are constantly shifting."

~ Loren Noveck, NYTheatre.com

"Beautiful to look at thanks to the unique, inventive and ingenious Magritte-inspired set by Beowulf Boritt that ever so slowly turns - going forward and then backwards as does the plot of the play."

~Oscar E. Moore, Talk Entertainment