# Dane Laffrey

Dane Laffrey is an American scenic designer best known for Broadway shows Maybe Happy Ending (2024), Parade (2023), Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (2022) Once on This Island (2017), Spring Awakening (2015), and Fool for Love (2015), and Off-Broadway shows The Christians (2015), Cloud Nine (2015), and Rancho Viejo (2016), and for his visual resemblance to American comedian and television host Jay Leno.

## Early life and education

Laffrey was born in Michigan. He attended boarding school at Interlochen Arts Academy for his junior and senior years of high school. During high school, Laffrey formed a friendship with Michael Arden and their longtime creative collaboration was born. In 2002, he relocated to Sydney, Australia to study design at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. He graduated in 2004.

## Career

Laffrey first served as scenic designer and costume designer on Darlinghurst Theatre Company's production of Some Explicit Polaroids and Griffin Theatre Company's production of The Cold Child in 2006 in Sydney, Australia. He was nominated for a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Set Design for Some Explicit Polaroids that same year. The following year, he again served in both roles for the production of The Colour of Panic at Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia and Det Apne Teater in Oslo, Norway.
In 2007, he relocated to New York City where he began designing sets, costumes, and one time-lighting for multiple Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and regional productions. Notable Off-Broadway productions include Lucas Hnath's The Christians, Dan LeFranc's Rancho Viejo, and Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine. He was nominated for four American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Awards for Off-Broadway productions between 2010 and 2017.
In 2015, he served as the set designer for Manhattan Theatre Club's production of Fool for Love at The Friedman Theatre on Broadway and as both set designer and costume designer for Deaf West Theatre's production of Spring Awakening, performed in American Sign Language, at The Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Broadway. In 2017, he served as set designer for Circle in the Square's production of Once On This Island on Broadway. Laffrey and Michael Arden, the show's director, took a research trip to Haiti which completely transformed his approach to designing the set for the production. Laffrey stated:
   "You cannot begin to describe the effect that trip had on me as a person but also in feeling equipped to responsibly bring this work to Broadway in 2017 in a way that was true to the piece and what it portrays ... Hurricane Maria happened in Puerto Rico and the storms that affected those tiny little islands in the Bahamas. We continued to collect and pull those images because it felt like 'Island' is ultimately dealing with, at its core, how you survive in the face of something like that and the restorative power of storytelling. You feel that connection of the human spirit threaded through all these places."
His design for Once On This Island received widespread positive critical acclaim with multiple media outlets describing it as "a fractured paradisiac vision", "lush [and] immersive", "evocative", "ambitious", and "an aesthetic experience unlike anything else on Broadway."
In 2017, Laffrey was awarded the Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Set and Costume Design.
In 2024, his set design for the Belasco Theatre's production of Maybe Happy Ending left audiences "slack-jawed with awe." The "stunningly executed visual design" mirrors the way humans interact with technology through its “ dazzling iris effects of Dane Laffrey’s sliding-panel" that the New York Times' critic Jesse Green noted as the "the most sophisticated I’ve seen.”
Dane Laffrey almost exclusively collaborates with Michael Arden. As a scenic designer and director, Laffrey and Arden have yet to work on a Broadway show without the other. The duo are also co-founders of At Rise Creative, a Tony Award-winning producing partnership.
Laffrey has served as an advisor for Lincoln Center Theatre's LCT3 and as a guest designer at Yale School of Music, the Juilliard School, New York University, Carnegie Mellon University, Interlochen Arts Academy, Western Sydney University, and the National Institute of Dramatic Art.

## Productions
### Broadway productions

| Year | Production | Position | Notes |
| 2015 | Fool for Love | Set Designer | |
| 2015 | Spring Awakening | Set Designer, Costume Designer | |
| 2017 | Once On This Island | Set Designer | Tony Nomination |
| 2022 | A Christmas Carol | Set Designer, Costume Designer | Tony Nomination |
| 2023 | Parade | Set Designer | |
| 2024 | Maybe Happy Ending | Set Designer | |
| 2026 | The Lost Boys | Set Designer | |
| Upcoming | The Queen of Versailles | Set Designer | |

### Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway productions

| Year | Production | Position | Notes |
| 2007 | Bad Jazz | Set Designer, Costume Designer | |
| 2007 | Rag and Bone | Set Designer | |
| 2008 | The Rise and Fall of Annie Hall | Set Designer, Costume Designer | |
| 2009 | Sixty Miles to Silver Lake | Set Designer, Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2009 | American Sadness | Set Designer, Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2010 | The Boys in the Band | Lighting Designer | Nominated: Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design (2010) Nominated: American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award (2010) |
| 2010 | Whida Peru: Resurrection Tango | Set Designer, Costume Designer | |
| 2010 | Five Genocides | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2010 | See Rock City... | Set Designer, Costume Designer | |
| 2010 | Tigers Be Still | Set Designer, Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2011 | Exit | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2011 | The Other Place | Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2011 | Benefactors | Set Designer | |
| 2011 | The Talls | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2011 | The Patsy | Set Designer, Costume Designer | Nominated: American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award (2012) |
| 2012 | The Maids | Set Designer | Nominated: American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award (2012) |
| 2012 | 12 Chairs | Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2012 | Bullet for Adolf | Set Designer | |
| 2012 | Disgraced | Costume Designer | Won: Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2013) |
| 2012 | The Other Josh Cohen | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2013 | Gabriel's Guide to the 48 States | Illustrator | World premiere |
| 2013 | Bad Jews | Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2014 | The Hunters | Set Designer, Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2014 | Arlington | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2014 | I Remember Mama | Set Designer | Nominated: American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award (2014) |
| 2014 | The Few | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2014 | American Hero | Set Designer | |
| 2015 | Iowa | Set Designer | |
| 2015 | King Liz | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2015 | The Christians | Set Designer | |
| 2015 | Cloud Nine | Set Designer | |
| 2016 | The Glory of the World | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2016 | Indian Summer | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2016 | Sell.Buy.Date. | Set Designer, Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2016 | The Harvest | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2016 | Homos, or Everyone in America | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2016 | Rancho Viejo | Set Designer | World premiere Nominated: American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award (2017) |
| 2017 | The Moors | Set Designer | |
| 2017 | Picnic and Come Back Little Sheba | Set Designer | |
| 2017 | Strange Interlude | Set Designer, Costume Designer | |
| 2018 | Apologia | Set Designer | |
| 2018 | Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties | Set Designer | |
| 2018 | Lewiston / Clarkston | Set Designer | |
| 2018 | This Flat Earth | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2018 | Peace for Mary Francis | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2018 | Summer and Smoke | Set Designer | |
| 2019 | Dying City | Set Designer | |
| 2019 | Greater Clements | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2019 | Hercules | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2023 | Spain | Set Designer | World premiere |

### Regional productions

| Year | Production | Position | Notes |
| 2008 | Reckless | Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2009 | Giant | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2010 | Hurricane | Set Designer, Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2012 | God of Carnage | Set Designer | |
| 2012 | Così Fan Tutte | Set Designer, Costume Designer | |
| 2012 | Hamlet | Set Designer | |
| 2012 | My Wonderful Day | Costume Designer | |
| 2013 | Grace, or the Art of Climbing | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2013 | Single Girls Guide | Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2013 | Clybourne Park | Set Designer, Costume Designer | |
| 2013 | Fly By Night | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2013 | When the Lights Went Out | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2013 | The Few | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2013 | A Civil War Christmas | Set Designer, Costume Designer | |
| 2014 | The Legend of Georgia McBride | Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2014 | The Christians | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2014 | Brownsville Song | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2014 | Fool for Love | Set Designer | |
| 2014 | The Wolfe Twins | Set Designer, Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2014 | Uncle Vanya | Set Designer | |
| 2014 | Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | Set Designer | |
| 2014 | The Last Five Years | Set Designer | |
| 2014 | The Theory of Relativity | Set Designer, Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2015 | Spring Awakening | Set Designer, Costume Designer | Nominated: Ovation Award for Best Scenic Design (Large Theatre) (2015) |
| 2015 | Be More Chill | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2015 | Dot | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2015 | The Glory of the World | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2015 | Legacy | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2015 | The Christians | Set Designer | |
| 2016 | 4000 Miles | Set Designer, Costume Designer | |
| 2016 | Swimmers | Set Designer, Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2016 | Future Thinking | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2016 | I Remember Mama | Set Designer | |
| 2016 | I Was Most Alive with You | Set Designer, Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2016 | The Chinese Room | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2016 | My Fair Lady | Set Designer, Co-Costume Designer | |
| 2016 | Collective Rage... | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2016 | Romeo and Juliet | Set Designer | |
| 2016 | Merrily We Roll Along | Set Designer, Costume Designer | |
| 2017 | We're Gonna Be Okay | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2017 | Recent Alien Abductions in Puerto Rico | Set Designer | |
| 2017 | All the Roads Home | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2017 | The Roommate | Set Designer | |
| 2017 | Benny and Joon | Set Designer, Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2018 | Zoey's Perfect Wedding | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2018 | Sell.Buy.Date. | Set Designer, Costume Designer | |
| 2018 | Dave | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2018 | Annie | Set Designer, Co-Costume Designer | |
| 2018 | Dangerous House | Set Designer | |
| 2018 | Quack | Set Designer | |
| 2018 | A Christmas Carol | Set Designer, Costume Designer | Ovation Award for Best Scenic Design (Large Theatre) (2019) |
| 2019 | Benny & Joon | Set Designer, Costume Designer | |
| 2019 | Good Boys | Set Designer | |
| 2019 | Wink | Set Designer, Costume Designer | World premiere |
| 2019 | Ghosts | Set Designer, Costume Designer | |
| 2019 | Witch | Set Designer | Nominated: Ovation Award for Best Scenic Design (Large Theatre) (2020) |
| 2019 | Little Shop of Horrors | Set Designer | |
| 2020 | Maybe Happy Ending | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2024 | Highway Patrol | Set Designer | World premiere |
| 2024 | The Queen of Versailles | Set Designer | |

### International productions

| Year | Production | Position | Notes |
| 2006 | Some Explicit Polaroids | Set Designer, Costume Designer | Sydney, Australia Nominated: Sydney Theatre Award for Best Set Design (2006) |
| 2006 | The Cold Child | Set Designer, Costume Designer | Sydney, Australia |
| 2007 | The Colour of Panic | Set Designer, Costume Designer | World premiere Sydney, Australia and Oslo, Norway |
| 2009 | The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone | Set Designer | World premiere Tokyo, Japan and Osaka, Japan |
| 2022 | Guys and Dolls | Set Designer | Tokyo |
| 2024 | Hercules | Set Designer | Germany |
| 2025 | Hercules | Set Designer | London |

### Television productions

| Year | Production | Position | Notes |
| 2013-14 | The Roast | Set Designer | 262 episodes |

## Awards and nominations

In 2023, Laffrey was nominated for a Tony Awards for his scenic design for Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol
In 2018, Laffrey was nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his scenic design for Once On This Island
In 2017, Laffrey was awarded the Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Set and Costume Design.
In 2006, he was nominated for a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Set Design for Some Explicit Polaroids (2006). In 2010, he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for The Boys in the Band (2010). In 2015, he was nominated for an Ovation Award for Best Scenic Design (Large Theatre) for Spring Awakening. He also has received multiple nominations for the American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award, including for The Boys in the Band (2010), The Patsy (2012), The Maids (2012), I Remember Mama (2014), and Rancho Viejo (2017).