ABSTRACT
Michael Curry’s office sits on the “clean” side of his complex outside Portland, Oregon. A window over his executive-style desk faces the Sauvie Island Wildlife Area. Via FaceTime you can see the cloudy afternoon sky stretching out over the parking lot to the tree line beyond. Meanwhile, I am sitting in the lakeside offices of Northwestern University where the sun has already set. Curry admits it is a blessing of the digital age to work so close to the wilderness: “I don’t think twenty years ago I could have come to a rural area and [remained] connected to the world stage … but because, really, we’re working in Europe, Asia, [and] the U.S. eventually I find that it matters less where you’re at.” His international reputation is backed by multiple awards; highlights include two Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Puppet Design for Disney’s Frozen and The Lion King, a Risorgimento Creativity Award for “lifelong creativity and risk taking in the fields of technical and artistic design,” and two Emmy Awards for his work on the Olympic Opening Ceremonies and a third for Best Masks, Costumes, and Body Sculpture for the televised opera Oedipus Rex. The facility for Michael Curry Design encompasses three buildings over sixty-five thousand square feet that were “designed specifically for what we do” by the man himself. Curry estimates the average employee has been with the company for ten years. He credits the retention rate to the improved quality of life in this location compared to the “revolving door” in his former New York workshop. Longevity allows him to “rely on a knowledgeable core group of consistent 160collaborators.” His journey from studio artist to award-winning theatrical designer and company manager has been driven by a constant pursuit of both excellence and equity, honoring the stories that he tells while carving out space for his own artistic vision.
