Alan E. Schwanke
Scenic Designer
Alan is a Theatrical Scenic Designer, Conceptual Artist, Collaborator & Storyteller.
Currently he is the Assistant Professor of Scenic Design in The Department of Theatre at The University of Alabama Birmingham. He joined the Faculty in the Fall of 2022 where he teaches “Scenic Design” and “Introduction to Theatrical Design”. For the 2022-2023 UAB Theatre Season Alan will design scenery for Sense & Sensibility and Into the Woods for the department.
Some of Alan’s favorite recent collaborations of note include Dreamgirls (Red Mountain Theatre) directed by Vasthy Mompoint, The Play That Goes Wrong (Oregon Cabaret Theatre) directed Valerie Rachelle, the World Premiere of Something In the Game (American Music Theatre Project - Northwestern University) directed by David H. Bell, The Little Foxes (Asolo Repertory Theatre - Sarasota, FL) directed by Frank Galati and Hair (Northwestern University - Evanston, IL) directed by Matt Hawkins.
Alan is also partnered with Tony & Olivier Award Winning Designer Todd Rosenthal as his Scenic Design Associate. Recently we designed Downstate for Playwrights Horizons (Off-Broadway) directed by Pam McKinnon. Upcoming productions include King James for The Manhattan Theatre Club (Off-Broadway) directed by Kenny Leon. Other Associate Design Credits include 2nd Stage Theater on Broadway, The Royal National Theater of Great Britain internationally, The Goodman , The Alliance, Arena Stage, The Guthrie, and the Mark Taper Forum.
Other favorite collaborations include Charm (Northlight Theatre & Steppenwolf Theatre - Chicago, IL) directed by BJ Jones, The Road to Mecca and Buried Child (Profile Theatre – Portland, OR) directed by Artistic Director Adriana Baer, The Conference of the Birds (Willamette University – Salem, OR) directed by Shana Cooper, the world premiere of Shakespeare’s Amazing Cymbeline (Portland Center Stage – Portland, OR) directed by Artistic Director Chris Coleman, the world premiere of Knute Rockne: All American (Theatre at the Center – Munster, IN) directed by David H. Bell, Willy Wonka The Musical (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre – Chicago, IL) directed by Joe Leonardo, and Pippin (Northwestern University Theatre) directed by Dominic Missimi.
Additional Theatre Companies with which Alan has collaborated include Artists Laboratory Theatre (Fayetteville, AR), Artists Repertory Theatre (Portland, OR), Bag&Baggage Productions (Hillsboro, OR), Broadway Rose Theatre (Tigard, OR), Chicago Fringe Opera (Chicago, IL), CoHo Theatre (Portland, OR), Lakewood Theatre Company (Lake Oswego, OR), Marriot Theatre (Lincolnshire, IL), Milwaukee Repertory Theatre (Milwaukee, WI), Oregon Cabaret (Ashland, OR), Poor Theater (Chicago, IL), Portland Playhouse (Portland, OR), Salem Repertory Theater (Salem, OR), Spokane Opera (Spokane, WA), TheatreSquared (Fayetteville, AR), Third Rail Repertory Theatre (Portland, OR), and Western Oregon University (Monmouth, OR).
In the Fall of 2017, Alan was asked to Collaborate with Director & Writer David H. Bell and Producer Rod Kaats of “International Theatre Works” on a Concept for a Visual FX Show that would be implemented into a newly planned theme park in China. The Project was eventually titled Apollo’s Fire and it follows the Indiana Jones-like adventures of explorers called “The Protectors” traveling through antiquity to claim relics that would help replenish Apollo’s Cauldron of Fire and Defeat the Nazi-like forces of the enemy called “Nemesis”. Although the project went through many iterations, it was eventually tabled for (hopefully) a later date. But the experience of creating something completely new and adventurous from scratch was an absolute joy.
Alan is very much interested in exploring more collaborative and adventure themed projects in the near future. Such projects might include Corporate and/or Entertainment Design, Theme Park Show Design, FX Productions Design. Conceptual Renderings of Apollo’s Fire can be found on the main page of this website.
Alan earned his MFA in Scenic Design at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and in 2008 was a participant in both the USITT Young Designer’s Forum as well as Ming Cho Lee’s Clambake Portfolio Review in New York City.
For a complete list of theaters and directors with which Alan has collaborated, please visit the "Resume" portion of this website.
To contact Alan regarding his design work, please visit the "Contact" portion of this website and send him a message.