Ian MacNeil (born 1960) is a British

scenic design Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trained ...

er. He won the 1994 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design for '' An Inspector Calls'' and the 2009

Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Musical Tony Award for Best Scenic Design in a Musical is an award for outstanding set design of a musical. The award was first presented in 1960 after the category of Best Scenic Design was divided into Scenic Design in a Play and Scenic Design in a Mus ...

for '' Billy Elliot The Musical''.

Early life and career

The son of

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

and

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Robert MacNeil, he became interested in design at an early age, playing with toy theaters and creating puppet shows with his sister in their yard. "I still remember the pleasure I took in creating those little worlds - complete environments with characters I could manipulate," he recalled in a 1995 interview. MacNeil graduated from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut in 1980 and studied at the Croydon School of Art PBS.org interview
/ref> and later with

Ming Cho Lee Ming Cho Lee (; October 3, 1930 – October 23, 2020) was a Chinese-American theatrical set designer and professor at the Yale School of Drama. Personal life Lee was born on Oct. 3, 1930, in Shanghai, China to Lee Tsu Fa and Tang Ing. Lee, whose ...

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.''New York Times'' interview, May 5, 1994
/ref> He spent a decade designing productions in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

, and

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

before moving to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, where he made his West End debut with '' Death and the Maiden'' in 1991. MacNeil has designed for many London venues, including the National Theatre, the English National Opera, the Almeida Theatre, the

Young Vic The Young Vic Theatre is a performing arts venue located on The Cut, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth. The Young Vic was established by Frank Dunlop in 1970. Kwame Kwei-Armah has been Artistic Director since February 201 ...

, the Lyric Hammersmith, the Barbican Theatre, and the Royal Court Theatre. He has won the

Laurence Olivier Award for Best Set Design The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Set Design is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 197 ...

twice, for ''An Inspector Calls'' and '' Ariodante''. In 1999, MacNeil staged the international tour of the

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promoting the release of their album '' Nightlife''.

Personal life

MacNeil is openly gay. He claims he was aware of his sexual identity by the age of five, but never discussed his feelings with his parents, who were divorced, or the stepmother who raised him. He was twenty when he sent his father a letter revealing his secret. The elder MacNeil was not especially surprised and eventually very supportive. In 1993, Robert MacNeil spoke publicly about his son's homosexuality at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association convention, and in a 1994 episode of ''

The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour ''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of issues and current events. Anchored by Judy Woodruff, the prog ...

'', the two discussed their relationship. "It's terribly important that a public figure say I love my gay son," the younger MacNeil has said. "It needs to be within the sphere of what's everyday and ordinary, and not be gothic." MacNeil and director Stephen Daldry were involved in a relationship for 13 years. They met at an outdoor production of ''Alice in Wonderland'' in Lancaster in 1988 and, after seeing each other sporadically, Daldry decided he wanted to make a commitment. MacNeil was more reticent, but eventually the two settled in a

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Camberwell Camberwell () is a district of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles and a common of which Goose Green is a remnant. This e ...

and began collaborating on theatrical productions.Ian MacNeil at the Internet Broadway Database
/ref>

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Macneil, Ian British scenic designers Tony Award winners Drama Desk Award winners Laurence Olivier Award winners 1960 births Living people Gay artists