Luke Cantarella

Luke Cantarella joins the faculty at UCI drama this year having relocating from New York City where he has been active in the theater community for the past eight years. At UCI, Luke becomes the head of the Set Design program and will teach classes on design, drafting and model-making, and collaboration. In addition, he will oversee set design production work in the Drama department and be in charge of recruitment of new students.

Professionally, Luke has worked in many venues and mediums across the country. His Off-Broadway credits include the world premieres of Make Me a Song: The Music of William Finn at New World Stages, Human Error at the Atlantic Theater Company, the Obie-award winning production of Junie B. Jones at the Lucille Lortel Theater and Cam Jamsen at the Lambs Theater. Other New York credits include Her Majesty the King at HERE, Norman and Beatrice for Synapse Productions, and Noir choreographed by Noemie LaFrance for the 2004 Whitney Biennial.

Regionally, Luke's work has been seen at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, TheaterWorks (Hartford), the Berkshire Theater Festival, Barrington Stage Company, the Adirondack Theater Festival, Yale Repertory Theater, the American Theater Company, Roadworks Productions, the Royal George Theater, the Prince Music Theater, and the Repertory Theater of St. Louis where his 2007 design for The Bomb-itty of Errors was nominated for Kevin Kline Award. Other awards include a Joseph Jefferson Citation for Stalag 17, a nomination for a Joseph Jefferson Citation for The Lights.

Luke has a deep and abiding interest in music-theater. His musical designs include 50th anniversary productions of West Side Story at Barrington Stage Company and Pal Joey at the Prince Music Theater. He had designed operas for the Wolftrap Opera Company, Curtis Institute of Music, and New England Conservatory of Music. In addition, he has designed ballets for Dance Connecticut and the Eastern Connecticut Ballet.

TV and Film credits include work on the feature films Julie & Julia, Pink Panther 2, State of Play, Synecdoche, NY, and The Accidental Husband. In addition, Luke was Art Director for the second season of the hit FX drama Damages starring Glenn Close and William Hurt.

Upcoming projects for the 2008-2009 season include Art at the Two River Theater Company, Blackbird at The Repertory Theater of St. Louis, La Traviata for the Peabody Institute, Human Error at City Theater (Pittsburgh) and Bryan Reynold's new play Eve's Rapture directed by Robert Cohen at the Hayworth Theater.

Prior to coming to UCI, Luke has worked at many different colleges and universities as a guest designer including Fordham University, The University of Hartford, The American University in Cairo, and Bard College. Luke holds a B.S. in Theater from Northwestern University and a M.F.A. in Set Design from the Yale School of Drama. Luke's work can be seen at www.lukecantarella.com.