Design Matters with Debbie Millman · Design Matters Media

20th Anniversary celebration with theatre designers David Korins, Ina Mayhew, David Rockwell, Es Devlin, and Dane Laffrey

December 8, 2025·49 min·4 clips

David Korens pitched Hamilton's turntable by linking it to Aaron Burr's cyclical relationship and a hurricane sweeping Hamilton off Nevis.

Theater changes while you watch. Debbie Millman builds this anniversary episode around theatrical and production designers who think about what an audience sees as a room turns into something else. The tone is admiring, but grounded. The excerpt settles in with a designer introduced through Broadway work including Into the Woods, Hairspray, and a new production of Chess. Debbie starts with dates and a small online mismatch around The Rocky Horror Picture Show, then lands on 2000 for her question. He answers from a doorway between careers. He already had a successful architecture studio, but he kept going to theaters with friends and studying the scenery. The move took time. He had studied scenic design, and he knew theater would ask him to prove himself all over again. So he started with sketches. Directors met with him, talked through half-formed ideas, and asked him to picture a show before it fully existed. Over time, he realized the set itself was not the only thrill. The good stuff happened in the changeover, when one state slipped into another and everyone in the room felt it. He describes theater as one of the few art forms where change happens right in front of the audience. That puts real pressure on design. Sets and lighting steer the eye, almost like cinematography, deciding where attention should go next. The episode treats that work as part of the performance, not scenery around it. At its best, theatrical design helps a room hold its breath at the same time.

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