Bio
Alan E. Muraoka has worked in the entertainment industry as a production designer and art director for film and television as well as a theatrical set designer, having been honoured with 2 Emmy nominations and 3 Art Directors’ Guild Award nominations. Splitting his time between New York and Los Angeles, Alan initially starting his career as an assistant set designer in New York on the Broadway productions of “On Your Toes,” “The Tap Dance Kid,” “The Three Musketeers,” “Smile,” “Jerry’s Girls,” and the ballets “Bournonville Variations” for choreographer Peter Martins and “Ives Songs” for Jerome Robbins, both at the New York City Ballet.
Alan has had the privilege of working on new productions of operas by America composers, most notable, Ned Rorem's “Our Town” and Jake Hagee's “Dead Man Walking” for Central City Opera, Ricky Ian Gordon's “Orpheus and Eurydice”, Tobias Picker's “Therese Paquin” and Philip Glass's “Fall of the House of Usher”and the world premiere of Stewart Copeland's “The Invention of Morel” for Chicago Opera Theater and Long Beach Opera. More recent work included new productions of John Corigliano's “The Ghost of Versailles” at Chautauqua Opera and the world premieres of Nathan Wang's “The Wreck of the Miranda” and Henry Mollicone's “Moses” for LA Opera. In addition to opera, Alan’s has worked at The Old Globe Theater in San Diego Virginia Stage Company and currently at The Denver Center for the Performing Arts
Feature film production design credits include “Dirty Girl”, “BaadAsssss!”and ”Edmond”. Art direction credits include “Little Miss Sunshine”, “Ghost World”, “Ace Ventura-Pet Detective”, “Washington Square”, “Liberty Heights”, and the television series “NYPD Blue.” Alan was most recently production designing for the television series “New Amsterdam” for NBC/Universal.
Alan earned his BA in Music and Art History from Yale University and MFA in Theatrical Design from New York University. In addition to design, Alan has been invited as a guest speaker on design at various colleges and universities including, University of Southern California, Yale University, New York University, Marlboro College and University of California at Los Angeles and Irvine.
Alan is a member of United Scenic Artists L.829, Art Directors Guild L.800, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
As of 2024, Alan is serving on the Production Design Branch Executive Committee for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as Opera America’s National Opera Center Board of Directors.
Photo Credit: Brian Hutchison