The DTC’s fantasyland Tempest with set design by Beowulf Boritt. Photo credit: Karen Almond.

The DMN‘s Nancy Churnin has kept up with the many area connections to Tony nominees and winners — from the Dallas Summer Musicals as a show producer to various Booker T grads and even playwright Doug Wright’s behind-the-scenes links. And, of course, there are the wider Texas connections, notably former Pulitzer winner and UT-Austin grad Robert Schenkkan’s win for best drama for his LBJ play, All the Way.

But one of the more unusual coincidences escaped notice.

Three generations of current and former Dallas Theater Center designers were a huge presence in the design categories. It shows a tradition at the DTC of high-quality design. Beowulf Boritt, of course, won for best set design for a play with Act One (it was his second Tony nom) — and Boritt has been a favorite designer of DTC artistic director Kevin Moriarty, notable for his steam factory Christmas Carol and his fantasy island setting for The Tempest. But in addition, Christopher Barreca — who was former artistic director Richard Hamburger’s go-to guy for scenery — won for best scenic design of a musical, in this case, Rocky, his first nomination. Perhaps Barreca’s most elaborate show at the DTC was his highly cinematic treatment of the playwright Eric Overmyer’s noir-ish Dark Rapture. He also won a DFW Theater Critics Forum Award for his Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the DTC.

Finally, Natasha Katz won for the lighting design of The Glass Menagerie. Katz was former artistic director Adrian Hall’s house lighting designer. Her great work was on Hall’s adaptation of All the King’s Men. And this was her fourth Tony Award.