Scenic Designer Hannah Beachler on Infusing The Wiz with Black American Culture

The production designer Hannah Beachler has left her visual mark on several landmark works of Black cinema and storytelling in recent years, including Moonlight, the 2015 Rock film Creed, Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Marvel’s Black Panther.

It feels entirely appropriate that Beachler's first-ever theatrical project would be a revival of The Wiz, the historic celebration of Blackness on Broadway, now in its final weeks at the Marquis Theatre. Beachler's process began with researching and immersing herself in Black American culture. “Which I'm very familiar with because it's in almost everything that I do,” she explained to Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek on The Broadway Show. “There's a very distinct culture that has been created since the 1800s here through food, through music, through fashion…”

Check out the video below for the full interview.