Zane Pihlström is an award winning costume and set designer who has designed in over a dozen leading international European national theaters. Originally, Zane hails from the Pacific North West of the United States.  He was raised in a small Native American reservation town on the Oregon coast. 

 

Zanes exquisitely bold and aesthetically balanced design work, combined with his attention to detail, helps bring the stage to life in each of his projects. 

 

He has decades of experience designing theater, opera, burlesque, nightlife, concerts, dance, circus, private events, and even hospitality and interiors. 

 

He has collaborated for many years with international avant-garde theater director Yana Ross.  Work with Ross includes The Seagull, Cheers to Life, The Dolls House, Heart of A Dog and Uncle Vanya at Göteborgs Stadsteater and Uppsala Stadsteater (Sweden). Macbeth at the Volksbǔhne Am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (Berlin). Rest and Relaxation, The Cherry Orchard, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and Dear Asshole at Schauspiehaus (Zurich) The Seagull at Reykjavik City Theater (Iceland). Our Class, Bambiland and Consider the Lobster at Lietuvos Nacionalinis Dramos Teatras (Lithuania). Euridice at Kansallisteatteri (Helsinki) 

 

Other international work includes sets and/or costumes for The King Stag, 4:48 Psychosis at The Shanghai Theater Academy (China) You, We, Us, All co-produced by deSingel International Arts Campus (Antwerp) and Kampnagel Sommerfestival (Hamburg)

 

For the last twenty years Zane has been the resident designer for Company XIV and has designed over 25 productions.  Company XIV is a Neo-baroque dance and theater company based in New York City.  He continues to collaborate with the founding director of the company Austin McCormick on his intensely physical productions that fuse opera, dance, burlesque and circus.  The productions are inherently dark, sensual, re-imagined versions of classic fairy tails and classic texts. Together Zane and Mr. McCormick have created a decadent company aesthetic whose brand has become a recognizable symbol of quality nightlife entertainment within New York City. Their production of Nutcracker Rouge has been running seasonally for over 15 years and has received Drama Desk Nominations for Best Costume Design and Most Unique Theatrical Experience and best Choreography.  In 2012, Zane and Austin won the Opera America Director/Designer Competition.  Their fully designed proposal for John Adam’s A Flowering Tree was presented at Boston’s conference.  In 2022, Company XIV opened their second sister venue and created a unique branded show fusing magic, intoxicating illusions and seductive cocktails aptly titled Cocktail Magic. This wildly successful production ran for three years and Zane designed the venues interiors along with the magic acts and costumes. 

 

In New York City, Zane has collaborated with Beth Morrison Projects. BMP’s focus is to develop new opera with today’s emerging and established composers.  Zane has designed scenery and costumes for Sumeida’s Song, Song of the Uproar and Binibon. In 2016 Zane designed the costumes for The Ouroboros Trilogy (Boston). This lush fantastical production of a three part opera cycle was presented separately and as a full day, seven hour marathon event. 

 

Also in New York, Zane designed the costumes for the premier production of Tarrell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size at the Public Theater with subsequent tours to The Studio Theater (Washington D.C.) and The Abby (Ireland).

 

Zane has collaborated with opera director Kevin Newbury on many opera productions including The Perfect American at Long Beach Opera and Chicago Opera Theater and La Traviata at Holy City Arts and Lyric Opera (Charleston, SC) Other opera credits include Madame Butterfly at Wolftrap Opera, La Bohème at Yale School of Music, Buried Alive at Fargo Moorhead Opera, Orphée et Euridice at Opera Columbus and Rev. 23 at White Snake Projects.

 

Awards and Recognition: Drama Desk Nom (2014), Bessie Nom (2012), New York Innovative Theater Nom (2011), The Opera America Director/Designer Competition (2012), Donald and Zorka Oenslager Travel Fellowship and award in Stage Design (2005 and 2006), The Michael Merritt Scholarship in 2004.  Zane’s costume sketches and scenic models were exhibited at the Prague Quadrennial in 2007. 

 

Education: MFA, Yale School of Drama.