Triple Crown of Design Winner, Paul Tazewell, Serves the Curatorial Team for the U.S. Submission to the 2027 Prague Quadrennial

Broadway occupies a unique, and perhaps unavoidable, place in the American Theatre story. It is both a destination and an artistic touchstone where designers practice their craft on some of the world's most visible stages and in an unrivaled scale. For the U.S. exhibition at the 2027 Prague Quadrennial, Broadway will serve as one lens through which to explore the innovation and diversity of contemporary American performance design.

To help tell that story, Triple Crown of Design (Tony, Oscar, & Emmy) award winner, costume designer Paul Tazewell was tapped to join the U.S. PQ27 curatorial team to head up that endeavor.

Tazewell joins the project following some of the most remarkable years of his career. In 2025, he became the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for his work on Wicked, adding an Oscar to a long list of honors that includes Tony and Emmy Awards, as well as BAFTA and Drama Desk honors. His designs for productions such as Hamilton, In the Heights, The Color Purple, Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk, and Suffs have helped shape the visual identity of American theatre for three decades.

For the 2027 Prague Quadrennial, Tazewell will lead a special Broadway-focused project developed in collaboration with space designer Silin Chen. Together, they are exploring how Broadway design can be understood as one part of the larger mosaic of American Theatre, highlighting artists, collaborations, and creative processes that have shaped Broadway production in recent years. Their project aims to invite visitors into a more immersive and participatory encounter with Broadway design, reflecting the scale, ambition, and collaborative spirit that define the field.

"Broadway is often seen as the public face of American Theatre," said Artistic Director Rob Eastman-Mullins. "But it is only one fragment of a vast and diverse American theatre biome. A very large fragment, mind you, but still only one piece, and one that has seen inconsistent representation at the Prague Quadrennial over the decades. In my effort to present our American diversity as our American identity, Broadway needs to be included. Paul's extraordinary career and immense talent, and Silin's brilliant artistic eye make them ideal collaborators for exploring how Broadway fits within that larger mosaic of American performance design."

The Broadway project represents one component of the U.S. national exhibition at the 2027 Prague Quadrennial next June, joining a broader exploration of the people, places, and practices that make up contemporary American Theatre.

Information about the U.S. exhibits as well as the portal for submission of work — on Broadway or otherwise — to the U.S. exhibits is still open. Information can be found here.

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