Michael Curry (born March 19, 1958) is an American production designer who lives in Portland, Oregon. He is also the owner and President of Michael Curry Design Inc. in

Scappoose, Oregon Scappoose is a city in Columbia County, Oregon, United States. It was named for a nearby stream, which drains the southern part of the county. The name "Scappoose" is of Native American origin, and is said to mean "gravelly plain."

, which was started in 1986. Curry works widely in technical development with such renowned entertainment companies as Cirque du Soleil, the Metropolitan Opera, London's

Royal National Theatre The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...

, Walt Disney Theatrical and theme parks worldwide. He works regularly with directors such as Robert Lepage, Nicholas Hytner, Julie Taymor and William Friedken. He has also worked with production designers such as George Tsypin and the late Mark Fisher. Curry has been the recipient of many distinguished awards from his peers, including various awards for his puppet and costume work on Broadway, Olympic ceremonies and his continuing creations and work in the field of visual effects and puppetry design. He owns and operates Michael Curry Design Inc., which designs and creates live-performance oriented dimensional characters and productions, such as those seen by worldwide audiences in the 1996, 2002, 2010 and 2014 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, in the 2000 & 2012 Super Bowl, and New York City's epoch 2000 millennium event.

Olympic work

2002 Winter Olympics

Curry shared an Emmy Award with influential Trinidadian Carnival designer Peter Minshall for costume/performance designs created for the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

. The first notable American event following the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

, the ceremony blended light, puppets, and story.

Epcot

At Epcot, in Disney World, Curry created 120 towering puppets, which he titled the '' Tapestry of Nations'' (would later become Tapestry of Dreams), that paraded around the lake when sunset arrived. This parade featured the largest speaker system in the world, featuring 416 speakers and 137 amplifiers. The parade ended in March 2003 in its Tapestry of Dreams form. The puppets themselves have occasionally been brought out for special events.

Theatrical work

Curry works often in theatre, collaborating with the best in the industry. He has worked on Broadway, at The Metropolitan Opera, and at the Royal National Theatre to name a few. He also works as a conceptual and technical consultant in the live performance industry.

''The Lion King on Broadway''

Curry was made famous not only by the Olympic ceremonies he designed, but also for his puppet co-design with Julie Taymor in the highly acclaimed musical, '' The Lion King''in 1998. In 2014 ''The Lion King'' has become the highest-grossing musical in history.

''The Magic Flute - Metropolitan Opera - Directed by Julie Taymor''

L'Amour de loin
- Metropolitan Opera - Directed by Robert LaPage''

2017 New Production Award for L’Amour de loin at The Metropolitan Opera with Robert Lepage (scenic and costume design) – International Opera Awards

''Finding Nemo''

Curry designed the puppets used in '' Finding Nemo – The Musical'' at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

''Rivers of Light''

Curry is production designer for the night-time show at Disney's Animal Kingdom, ''

Rivers of Light ''Rivers of Light'' was a nighttime show at Disney's Animal Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort. Located in the park's Discovery River lagoon between Discovery Island and Expedition Everest, the show featured water fountains, mist screens ...

''.

''Frozen – Live at Disneyland Resort, Frozen on Broadway
Frozen Disney Cruise Lines
'

Curry designed the puppets that are used in the musical '' Frozen – Live at the Hyperion'' at Disney California Adventure.
Frozen on Broadway
an
Frozen Disney Cruise Lines

Cirque du Soleil

Curry has designed on five Cirque du Soleil shows. ''

Kà ''Kà'' is a show by Cirque du Soleil at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. ''Kà'' describes the story as "the coming of age of a young man and a young woman through their encounters with love, conflict and the duality of ''Kà'', the fire that ...

'' (directed by Robert Lepage at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, and '' LOVE'' (directed by Dominique Champagne at the MGM Mirage, also in Las Vegas). He also designed the illusions for ''Cirque du Soleil and Criss Angel at the LUXOR 2009''. Curry was the scenic and puppet designer for Cirque du Soleil's Michael Jackson's Immortal World Tour.

Center for Puppetry Arts

Three major pieces by Curry are on permanent display at the

Center for Puppetry Arts The Center for Puppetry Arts, located in Atlanta, is the United States' largest organization dedicated to the art form of puppetry. The center focuses on three areas: performance, education and museum. It is one of the few puppet museums in the ...

in Atlanta, Georgia - an interactive full-body puppet of a praying mantis, a animatronic original by Curry called the ''Trashcan Phoenix'', and a user-controlled animatronic puppet of

Xelas The Transformer is a pre-eminent spirit-being in many traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America and among some Interior peoples in the same part of the continent. Often appearing as more than one being, and ...

, a

shapechanger In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shape-shifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or having inherited the ...

from Native American mythology.http://www.puppet.org/museum/permanent.shtml Center for Puppetry Arts - Permanent Exhibit

Awards

* Emmy Award for the 2002 Olympics Opening Ceremony in Salt Lake City * Emmy Award for 1996 Olympics Opening Ceremony (Outstanding Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program) *1998 Tony Award for Best Costume Design for '' The Lion King'' (shared with Julie Taymor) *

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. Fo ...

for ''The Lion King'' ( Outstanding Puppet Design) *

for ''Disney's Frozen'' (Outstanding Puppet Design) * Top 100 Honoree by Irish America Magazine, 2000 * Cannes Film Festival, Performance Pieces, Art Director (Best Fiction, Short) * The American Theater Wing Designer Award for The Lion King * Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, (Distinguished Achievement) 2000 Mask & Puppet Design, Co-Designer with Julie Taymor, ''The Lion King'' * Entertainment Design and Theatre Crafts International, 1999 EDDY Award (Puppet Designer) * Featured Artist, Prague Quadrennial (2007) * Risorgiomento Creativity Award (for lifelong creativity and risk taking in the fields of technical and Artistic Design), 2001

References

External links

Official Website

Company Profiles-Michael Curry Design Inc.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curry, Michael Living people Puppet designers People from Scappoose, Oregon Artists from Portland, Oregon Place of birth missing (living people) Animatronic engineers 1967 births Tony Award winners Drama Desk Award winners Emmy Award winners