Bio

Susan Hilferty has designed set and costumes for over 400 productions across the globe. Recent designs include Parade (Broadway), Funny Girl (Broadway), Swept Away (Berkeley Rep), Hamlet (St. Anne’s Warehouse and Gate Theatre, Dublin), Richard Nelson’s What Happened?: The Michaels Abroad (Loewe Theatre), and A Bright Room Called Day, (Public Theatre). Her many Broadway designs include Wicked (Tony, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk awards and Olivier nomination), August Wilson’s Radio Golf, Present Laughter (Tony nomination), Hands on a Hardbody, Spring Awakening (Tony nomination), Lestat (Tony nomination), Annie (2013 Revival), Into the Woods (Tony and Drama Desk nominations; Hewes Award), and Frank Wildhorn’s Wonderland. Her designs for opera include Rigoletto, La Traviata, and the upcoming Aida for the Metropolitan Opera and Manon at LA Opera and Berlin Staatsoper. Hilferty has designed over a hundred off-Broadway productions including Richard Nelson’s Apple Family Plays, August Wilson’s Jitney and Athol Fugard’s Boesman and Lena.

She works with such well-known directors as Athol Fugard (the South African writer with whom she works as set and costume designer and often as co-director on over 45 productions since 1980), Yaël Farber, JoAnne Akalaitis, Laurie Anderson, Arin Arbus, Christopher Ashley, Anne Bogart, Jonathan Butterell, Oskar Eustis, Robert Falls, Frank Galati, Garry Hynes, David Jones, Selina Cartmell, Moisés Kaufman, Tony Kushner, Mark Lamos, James Lapine, Michael Longhurst, Richard Nelson, Des McAnuff, Marion McClinton, James MacDonald, Emily Mann, Joe Mantello, Michael Mayer, Neil Pepe, Bartlett Sher, Rebecca Taichman, Robert Woodruff, Doug Wright, and the late Garland Wright.

Hilferty also designs for Film, Dance (Alvin Ailey), the Circus (Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey) and Concerts (Taylor Swift SPEAK NOW World Tour). Hilferty’s many awards include the USITT Lifetime Achievement Award, Irene Sharaff Award for Lifetime Achievement, an OBIE for Sustained Excellence in Design, the Lilly Award and the Ruth Morley Design Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women. Hilferty is also on faculty in the Department of Design for Stage and Film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, having served as chair for 25 years.