The 2026 Tony Awards nominations, announced on May 5, 2026, gave theatre students another way to look at training paths: not only who performs onstage, but who builds the world around the performance. For this Behind the Curtain follow-up, we focused on the creative and production categories: direction, choreography, scenic design, costume design, lighting design, sound design, and orchestrations.
Nominees and productions were checked against the official Tony Awards nominee list and Broadway Direct. Education and training notes were checked against school alumni pages, artist bios, theatre profiles, Playbill, Broadway.com, BroadwayWorld, official personal sites, and other reputable sources. When a source did not confirm a degree or formal training path, we left that uncertainty in the table.
2026 Tony Creative Nominees at a Glance
| Nominee | Production | Recognition | School or Training Path |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hildegard Bechtler | Oedipus | Scenic design of a play | Studied painting at Camberwell College of Arts before training in stage design at Central Saint Martins in London |
| Takeshi Kata | Bug | Scenic design of a play | Ithaca College, BFA Theatre Arts; Yale School of Drama, MFA. |
| David Korins | Dog Day Afternoon | Scenic design of a play | University of Massachusetts Amherst, class of 1999. |
| Chloe Lamford | Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman | Scenic design of a play | Wimbledon School of Art, theatre design. |
| David Rockwell | Fallen Angels | Scenic design of a play | Syracuse University, BA; Architectural Association School of Architecture, MArch. |
| dots | Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show | Scenic design of a musical | Design collective led by Andrew Moerdyk, Kimie Nishikawa, and Santiago Orjuela-Laverde, all NYU Tisch Design for Stage and Film MFA alumni. |
| Soutra Gilmour | Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) | Scenic design of a musical | Wimbledon School of Art, theatre design. |
| Rachel Hauck | Cats: The Jellicle Ball | Scenic design of a musical | University of California, Los Angeles, BA. |
| Dane Laffrey | The Lost Boys | Scenic design of a musical | Interlochen Arts Academy; National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, design study. |
| Scott Pask | Schmigadoon! | Scenic design of a musical | University of Arizona, Bachelor of Architecture; Yale School of Drama, MFA. |
| Brenda Abbandandolo | Dog Day Afternoon | Costume design of a play | NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Design for Stage & Film: MFA 2010, Awarded Dean’s Fellowship in Design |
| Qween Jean | Liberation | Costume design of a play | Florida School of the Arts at St. Johns River State College study; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, BA; NYU Tisch, MFA Design. |
| Jeff Mahshie | Fallen Angels | Costume design of a play | Parsons School of Design - The New School, BA Fashion and Fine Arts |
| Emilio Sosa | The Balusters | Costume design of a play | Art and Design High School; Parsons Saturday classes; Pratt Institute, fashion design. |
| Paul Tazewell | August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone | Costume design of a play | Pratt Institute study; University of North Carolina School of the Arts, BFA Design and Production, 1986; NYU Tisch, MFA, 1989. |
| Linda Cho | Ragtime Schmigadoon! | Costume design of a musical | Paris American Academy fashion study; McGill University, BA; Yale School of Drama, MFA Design. |
| Qween Jean | Cats: The Jellicle Ball | Costume design of a musical | Florida School of the Arts at St. Johns River State College study; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, BA; NYU Tisch, MFA Design. |
| Ryan Park | The Lost Boys | Costume design of a musical | Carnegie Mellon University graduate. |
| David I. Reynoso | Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show | Costume design of a musical | Boston University College of Fine Arts, class of 2003. |
| Isabella Byrd | Dog Day Afternoon | Lighting design of a play | Houston High School for the Performing and Visual Arts; University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, BFA Theatre Design and Technology. |
| Natasha Chivers | Oedipus | Lighting design of a play | LAMDA training. |
| Stacey Derosier | August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone | Lighting design of a play | BA in Studio Art, Dartmouth College, BA, Studio Art; MFA, NYU Tisch School of the Arts |
| Heather Gilbert | The Fear of 13 Bug | Lighting design of a play | BA from Trinity University in San Antonio; MFA from The Theatre School at DePaul University |
| Jack Knowles | Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman | Lighting design of a play | Royal Central School of Speech and Drama |
| Kevin Adams | Chess | Lighting design of a musical | University of Texas at Austin, BFA. |
| Jen Schriever and Michael Arden | The Lost Boys | Lighting design of a musical | Schriever: SUNY Purchase, BFA Lighting Design Arden: Interlochen Arts Academy, 2001; Juilliard Drama Division, Group 34. |
| Jane Cox | Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show | Lighting design of a musical | University of London theatre study after music study; University of Massachusetts Amherst study abroad; NYU Tisch, MFA Lighting Design, 1998. |
| Adam Honoré and Donald Holder (Lighting Design) and 59 Studios (Projection Design) | Ragtime | Lighting design of a musical | Honoré: University of Oklahoma Helmerich School of Drama, BFA, 2015. Holder: University of Maine, BS; Yale School of Drama, MFA. 59 Studios is a projection design studio, not a school path. |
| Donald Holder | Schmigadoon! | Lighting design of a musical | University of Maine, BS; Yale School of Drama, MFA. |
| Adam Honoré | Cats: The Jellicle Ball | Lighting design of a musical | University of Oklahoma Helmerich School of Drama, BFA, 2015. |
| Justin Ellington | August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone | Sound design of a play | Hampton University, Music Engineering & Technology; Georgia State University, Music & Business |
| Tom Gibbons | Oedipus | Sound design of a play | Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, BA Hons, Theatre Sound |
| Lee Kinney | The Fear of 13 | Sound design of a play | Initially went to college for directing but changed his focus to sound design and music |
| Josh Schmidt | Bug | Sound design of a play | University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, BFA Music Composition & Technology |
| Mikaal Sulaiman | Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman | Sound design of a play | University of the Arts, BFA (school closed in 2024) |
| Adam Fisher | The Lost Boys | Sound design of a musical | Started university but decided he was interested in other things and joined the local crew at the Birmingham Hippodrome. |
| Kai Harada | Cats: The Jellicle Ball Ragtime | Sound design of a musical | Yale University (dropped out, plus a long assistant and associate path with sound designer Tony Meola. |
| Brian Ronan | Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show | Sound design of a musical | SUNY Oswego |
| Walter Trarbach | Schmigadoon! | Sound design of a musical | Boston University, Sound Design |
| Nicholas Hytner | Giant | Direction of a play | Trinity Hall, Cambridge, BA. |
| Robert Icke | Oedipus | Direction of a play | King's College, Cambridge, BA English. |
| Kenny Leon | The Balusters | Direction of a play | Clark Atlanta University, BA Political Science, 1978; Southwestern University School of Law attended. |
| Joe Mantello | Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman | Direction of a play | University of North Carolina School of the Arts, BFA Drama, 1984. |
| Whitney White | Liberation | Direction of a play | Northwestern University, BA; Brown University/Trinity Rep, MFA Acting. |
| Michael Arden | The Lost Boys | Direction of a musical | Interlochen Arts Academy, 2001; Juilliard Drama Division, Group 34. |
| Lear deBessonet | Ragtime | Direction of a musical | University of Virginia, BA Political and Social Thought, 2002. |
| Christopher Gattelli | Schmigadoon! | Direction of a musical | Knecht Dance Academy in Levittown, Pennsylvania, with early professional dance work before college is visible in public profiles. |
| Tim Jackson | Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) | Direction of a musical | Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, and a degree in Music from Oxford University. |
| Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch | Cats: The Jellicle Ball | Direction of a musical | Levingston: AMDA training. Rauch: Harvard College, BA English and American Literature and Language, 1984. |
| Christopher Gattelli | Schmigadoon! | Choreography | Knecht Dance Academy in Levittown, Pennsylvania; Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater School |
| Lauren Yalango-Grant and Christopher Cree Grant | The Lost Boys | Choreography | Lauren: NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, BFA Dance Christopher: University of Southern Mississippi, BFA Dance Performance and Choreography. |
| Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons | Cats: The Jellicle Ball | Choreography | Public bios emphasize Ballroom, House, West African, Vogue and community-rooted dance careers rather than a single college credential. |
| Ellenore Scott | Ragtime | Choreography | Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School dance training |
| Ani Taj | Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show | Choreography | NYU Tisch School of the Arts, BFA in Theatre |
| Doug Besterman and Mike Morris | Schmigadoon! | Orchestrations | Besterman: Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, BM. Morris: Berklee College of Music, BM, Commercial Arranging |
| Ethan Popp, Adrianne "AG" Gonzalez, Gabriel Mann and Kyler England | The Lost Boys | Orchestrations | Popp: University of New Hampshire, Music Performance Gonzalez: Berklee College of Music, BA, Music Production & Engineering Mann: unconfirmed England: Berklee College of Music |
| Lux Pyramid | Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) | Orchestrations | No specific college or formal training path found in the public bios checked. |
| Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Wilson, Trevor Holder and Doug Schadt | Cats: The Jellicle Ball | Orchestrations | Lloyd Webber: Westminster School, brief study at Magdalen College, Oxford, then Royal College of Music. Wilson: Ashville College; Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts, Bachelors in Music. Holder: Wesleyan University, BA, Music Schadt: NYU Tisch - BFA, Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music |
| Brian Usifer | Chess | Orchestrations | Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from SUNY Fredonia and a Masters degree in Collaborative Piano from NYU and a Specialist Certificate in Orchestration from Berklee Online |
Nominees verified against TonyAwards.com and Broadway Direct on May 9, 2026. Education details are summarized from verified public bios and school sources, with uncertainty noted in the wording.
What Stood Out
The biggest difference from the acting nominee map is how visible graduate design training becomes. Yale, NYU Tisch, UNCSA, Wimbledon School of Art, UCLA, CCM, University of Arizona, Syracuse, UMass Amherst, Boston University, and Ithaca all appear through design, lighting, costume, or production routes.
The other pattern is that public education details are less consistent for behind-the-table artists than they are for performers. Some creative-team bios list exact degrees. Others focus on credits, apprenticeships, studio work, or community practice. That matters for students because a career in directing, choreography, design, sound, or orchestration may be built from school, mentorship, early assistant work, regional theatre, community dance forms, or all of those at once.
Schools and Training Programs That Appear More Than Once
| School or Training Program | Nominees | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Yale School of Drama / Yale University | Takeshi Kata, Scott Pask, Linda Cho, Donald Holder, Kai Harada | Yale shows up most clearly in graduate-level design and sound paths. |
| NYU Tisch School of the Arts | dots, Qween Jean, Paul Tazewell, Jane Cox | The Tisch thread runs through design, costume, and lighting MFA training. |
| University of North Carolina School of the Arts | Joe Mantello, Paul Tazewell | UNCSA appears on both the drama and design-production sides of the nominee map. |
| Wimbledon School of Art | Chloe Lamford, Soutra Gilmour | A repeated UK theatre-design route in the scenic design categories. |
| University of Oklahoma Helmerich School of Drama | Adam Honoré | OU appears through lighting, including a repeated nomination for Honoré this season. |
| Interlochen Arts Academy | Michael Arden, Dane Laffrey | Interlochen connects a director-lighting co-nominee and a scenic designer from the same creative orbit. |
This table groups repeated training references. It does not rank programs or imply that each nominee completed the same kind of credential.
Design Schools, Apprenticeships, and Nonlinear Paths
For students interested in production and creative leadership, the useful takeaway is not that one school owns the pipeline. It is that the backstage categories reward many kinds of preparation. Architecture appears through David Rockwell and Scott Pask. Dance-studio and early professional work appear through Christopher Gattelli. Ballroom and House culture sit directly inside the Cats: The Jellicle Ball choreography story.
Formal training still matters, especially for design-heavy careers where portfolio development, production practice, and mentorship can compound quickly. But the table also shows why students should read bios with care. A bio may confirm an MFA, a BFA, a conservatory route, a school attended without a completed degree, or no public education detail at all. Those are different facts, and the differences are part of the story.
Schools to Explore on stageready
Yale University
Yale appears repeatedly through design, lighting, and sound paths in this nominee map. Takeshi Kata, Scott Pask, Linda Cho, Donald Holder, and Kai Harada all connect to Yale or Yale School of Drama training.
New York University
NYU Tisch is one of the strongest repeat names in the creative categories. The dots designers, Qween Jean, Paul Tazewell, and Jane Cox all connect to Tisch design or graduate study.
University of North Carolina School of the Arts
UNCSA shows up in both performance and production pathways. Joe Mantello is a School of Drama alumnus, while Paul Tazewell came through Design and Production before graduate study at NYU.
Carnegie Mellon University
Ryan Park gives Carnegie Mellon a direct costume-design connection in this year's production-category map. The school remains one of the places students compare when they want theatre design and production training inside a major university.
University of Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music
Isabella Byrd connects the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music to the lighting side of the list through her BFA Theatre Design and Technology path. CCM appears here as a design-and-technology route, not only as a performance school.
University of California - Los Angeles
Rachel Hauck's UCLA path puts a public university theatre route into the scenic design categories. Her work on Cats: The Jellicle Ball sits beside conservatory and MFA-trained designers in the same season.
University of Arizona
Scott Pask's Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Arizona is a useful reminder that theatrical design paths can begin in architecture. He later added an MFA from Yale School of Drama.
Syracuse University
David Rockwell's route began in architecture at Syracuse before graduate study in London. His Fallen Angels nomination sits in a group where architecture, design, and theatre training overlap.
University of Massachusetts - Amherst
David Korins brings UMass Amherst into the scenic design group. His path is one of several public-university examples in a list that also includes UCLA, the University of Arizona, University of Texas, and University of Oklahoma.
Boston University
David I. Reynoso, nominated for costume design of Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show, is a Boston University College of Fine Arts alumnus. His path adds another university-based design route to the creative team map.
Ithaca College
Takeshi Kata's BFA from Ithaca College precedes his Yale MFA and current work as a scenic designer and educator. That sequence is a clean example of undergraduate theatre arts training leading into specialized graduate design study.
Northwestern University
Whitney White studied at Northwestern before completing MFA actor training through Brown/Trinity Rep. Her path shows how directing can grow from a mix of liberal arts, performance, music, and graduate theatre work.
Brown University
Brown appears through Whitney White's Brown/Trinity Rep MFA training. In this creative-team post, graduate theatre training sits beside design degrees, architecture study, dance studios, and early professional apprenticeships.
AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts
Zhailon Levingston gives AMDA a directing connection in the Cats: The Jellicle Ball nomination. His route is a reminder that performance training and community-centered artistic practice can both feed a directing career.
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Source Note
Nominee names, productions, and categories were checked against TonyAwards.com and Broadway Direct. Education entries were cross-checked against official school alumni pages where available, then artist websites, Playbill, BroadwayWorld, Broadway.com, university profiles, theatre bios, interviews, and reputable arts publications. When sources disagreed, were incomplete, or did not confirm a degree, the table uses cautious language instead of forcing the path into a cleaner story.
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