Scenic designer David Gallo says Broadway pushes designers to work faster as they age, forcing them into catch-up mode. He separates real artistic differences from procedural ones and argues that all contributors should shape ideas from start to finish, not just execute shortcuts handed down by producers and directors.
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All I'm looking for is collaboration. I'm looking for a constant, I think, evolution of an idea, and that is important to me. And what I've found is that you get older and everybody starts to do work faster, that you are called in to make up the difference sometimes. Well, you're the set guy, you gotta sort of do this part of it, and I find that a little tricky. I really like everything to be part of all of us. Beginning, middle, to end. Especially like a Broadway production where the norm is to let the artists sort of sort it out and then bring it back to the producers, which is important because they're the ones that are financing it, they're the ones that hope to make a profit, that sort of thing. To me, just the biggest one is that we weren't talking about most things kind of longer. You know, that ideas I think get misunderstood very rapidly, and even by the people who should be the most in charge of utilizing them. We've cut to the chase. I shouldn't say here, stand here and sit here and say negative things, but we've cut to the chase a little too much on a lot of stuff. It's not artistic differences, it's just procedural differences. I consider my job to provide the producer and the playwright and the director what they ask me for.
