Luke Hegel-Cantarella works primarily as a theatrical stage designer. He has designed over fifty productions including work for the theater, opera and ballet. Theaters he has worked at include the Atlantic Theater Company, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Prince Music Theater, Wolftrap Opera Company, TheaterWorks, Barrington Stage Company, Two River Theater Company, Hartford Ballet, Adirondack Theater Festival, Curtis Institute of Music, and the Yale Repertory Theater. Current work includes, Blackbird at The Repertory Theater of St. Louis and La Traviata for the Peabody Institure. In addition, Luke was the Art Director for Season 2 of the hit FX drama, Dmages, staring Glenn Close. Other Film and Television credits include work on Julia & Julia, Synecdoche, NY, State of Play, and The Accidental Husabnd. Luke was the associate designer for the recent Broadway production of Dracula, designed by Heidi Ettinger.

In the summer of 2008, Luke was named the new head of Set Design at the University of California, Irvine. As head of this program, he is in charge of recruitment , mentoring and instruction of graduate M.F.A. design students. For more information on his teaching, please visit: www.drama.arts.uci.edu.

An accomplished fine artist as well, Luke’s paintings have been exhibited at the Around the Coyote Festival (Chicago) and the Union League Gallery (Chicago) which presented his series of paintings, the Potsdam Project. His installation entitled the Flocktree was exhbited in Athens, Georgia and received funding from the Ideas for Creative Exploration.

He received his M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama. He received his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University. In addition Luke has studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Students League, and The Drawing Center.

Awards include a Joseph Jefferson Citation (Best Set Design – Stalag 17), nomination for a Kevin Kline Award, Donald S. Oenslager Award for Excellence in Set Design, Oenslager Fellowship, and a grant from Ideas for Creative Exploration. Luke was finalist for the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers.