The Road Back: The Design Conference

Managing Director Sara Young walks us through some Design Conference stats.

APT recently held our 2026 Design Conference, an annual ritual that started more than three decades ago. Over five days from March 13-17, we brought together directors, designers, artisans and specialists to meet (and meet, and meet some more) and plan how to bring the designs on paper to life on stage.

As always, I was amazed at the level of detailed conversations between the participants (ex: “this character’s hair should be a little looser than I’ve pictured it in the rendering”) and also the creative problem-solving that occurred in nearly every meeting I attended (ex: how to get an actor wearing a 3-foot-tall headpiece onstage without hitting the scenery or the audience. Sorry, no spoilers allowed).

But perhaps more than anything, it’s the scale of the event that surprises me every year. This year, about 85 people participated. A few were on Zoom if other conflicts kept them from coming in person, but the majority were here in real life. It’s special and rare for artists working on different plays at a theater company to be able to interact. The conference began as a function of our rotating repertory season — all the plays open around the same time so it makes sense that meetings are also clustered — but it’s also an intentional decision which helps further deepen the ties in the APT community.

Perhaps most of all, I’m amazed by the scale of the event — it takes so many people to make what we see on stage who in turn spend so much time working on it. The Design Conference shows us a small portion of that.

To give you an idea, here is a list of the roles of the people included and the subjects of the meetings they attend.

Positions Represented:

• Directors (8)
• Scenic Designers (8)
• Costume Designer (8)
• Sound Designer/Composer (8)
• Lighting Designer (4)
• Production Stage Manager and Stage Managers (5)
• Choreographer
• Movement Directors (2)
• Voice and Text Coaches (7)
• Assistant Directors (4)
• Assistant Costume Designers (4)
• Production Manager and Associate
• Technical Director and Assistant
• Properties Director and Assistant
• Costume Directors (2)
• Drapers and Associate Drapers (7)
• Wigs and Make-Up Director
• Crafts Supervisor
• Painter/Dyer
• Milliner (hat maker)
• Props Artisan
• Scenic Artists (2)
• Lighting Supervisor
• Sound Supervisor
• Artistic Director and Associates (3)
• Stage Operations Supervisor
• Company Management Team (2)

That's a grand total of 86 people.

Meetings per Production:

• Set Build
• Scenic Follow-Up
• Costume Build
• Costume Follow-up
• Costume Pull
• Costume Build Follow-up
• Props Build
• Sound
• Lighting
• Paint
• Overall Design Meeting
• Composer
• Artistic
• Stage Management
• Movement
• Wig Priority

That's up to 16 meetings per production.

And here are some Design Conference definitions to add context.

• Design Meetings: An overview of all departments. Typically, it involves the director and all designers for that production.
• Build Meetings: A much more in-depth meeting to discuss each element — piece of scenery, costume, etc — in detail and draft a game plan on how it will be constructed. The designer and production shop staff are in attendence.
  
• Costume Pull: A chance for the costume designer and assistant to look at APT's on-site costume stock and select pieces that might be used in their design.
  
• Follow-Up Meetings: Some departments have a second meeting with the corresponding shop staff to discuss changes that took place in other meetings during the conference. A final check-in before construction begins.
  
• Overall Design Meetings: A dedicated time for the director and entire design team to confer about the status of each design element and answer questions. This meeting is also usually attended by other specialists like the stage manager, voice and text coach, movement director and one or more APT artistic staff members.
  
• Artistic: A one-on-one meeting for each production director with Artistic Director Brenda DeVita.
  
• Wig Priorities: A time to figure out which plays actors will be wigged for and which plays actors might style their own hair. Lead by the Wig and Make-Up department.
  
• Specialty Meetings: And some meetings are scheduled for when a play has specific elements incorporated into the show for planning. For example:
  • Blood and Weapons in Sueño
  • Stage Rigging in Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea
  • Dramaturgy for Casey and Diana
  • Music Touch Base for The Two "Gentlemen" of Verona