As Samson regained strength, he tore against his chains and brought the giant stone blocks of the temple of Dagon crashing down, killing himself and all the Philistines that stood around him. A woman in the audience screamed in fear for the actors and everyone else who watched the scene of destruction unfold. Behind the curtain of the San Francisco Opera House, up-and-coming set designer Douglas W. Schmidt smiled and high-fived one of the carpenters who had built the now-crumbling temple.
That was 1980, and Mr. Schmidt’s creative genius has been in high demand by directors from Broadway to London ever since. But after 60 years of award-winning set design, he is settling into retirement in West Marin, splitting his time between San Francisco and Stinson Beach. In a recent conversation in his Stinson home, he reflected on his career.
Mr. Schmidt first knew that he wanted to work in theater when, as a child, he saw the magician Harry Blackstone Sr. in his hometown of Cincinnati. He was enthralled by the magic of the stage, and he started his own magic show for friends and neighbors. His parents, Amy Jean Murdoch and Robert Schmidt, expected him to join the family medical supply business, but his eccentric grandmother loved Broadway and urged Douglas to explore it.
In high school, he said he became “the de facto designer for all school shows.” He acted at times, too, but found that his true calling was making sets.
Mr. Schmidt attended Boston University because it promised opportunities to work in theater. His prolific work ethic was on display even then: By the second semester of his junior year, he had designed sets for six different regional shows.
“Boston University had a real, Broadway-style theater,” he said. “I learned all the mechanics of making a show. I don’t even think we had a computer in the theater, but technology moved glacially into the theater, so at the time it was still state-of-the-art.”
Those early lessons and hard work paid off, and Mr. Schmidt designed his first Broadway show, “The Time of Your Life,” in 1969. He went on to design almost 60 Broadway shows, winning Drama Desk Awards’ 1974 Outstanding Set Designer for his work on “Over Here!” and “Veronica’s Room.” The artistry and technical engineering of his sets earned him a reputation as one of the best in the business.
Mr. Schmidt remembers when composer Stephen Sondheim praised the sets he designed for the 2002 revival of “Into the Woods” as some of the most beautiful he had ever seen. Both “Into the Woods” and “42nd Street,” whose sets he also designed, won Best Revival of a Musical at the Tony Awards and, for both, his work was nominated for Best Scenic Design. He also won Hewes Awards for scenic design in 1973 and 1977 for his work in “Enemies,” and “Agamemnon.”
“While it’s great to get all of the recognition, the awards are the icing on the cake, not the cake itself,” he said. “The cake is the work and the collaboration, and actually getting the show that you’ve worked hard on onto the stage.”
Director Jack O’Brien, a three-time Tony winner and the director of successful shows such as “Hairspray” and “The Full Monty,” worked with Mr. Schmidt many times over the course of their careers, and they built a lasting bond.
“[Douglas] and I have probably collaborated on more plays, musicals and events than with anyone else, and still, every new encounter reveals another facet of his talent equally profound, beautiful and memorable,” he said. “The industry owes him a debt of gratitude and the creation of a standard of excellence rivaled by literally no one else in the country.”
Though Mr. Schmidt enjoyed a successful career, he also remembers some real low points. When “Frankenstein” was made in 1981, it was the most expensive Broadway show in history, at an estimated $2 million, and a part of that went toward his elaborate sets. The New York Times described it as “a very expensive Broadway flop” when it closed before showing a second time.
Yet even in such a colossal failure, Mr. Schmidt’s set-designing ability was impressive. A scathing review of the musical in the Times still called out Mr. Schmidt as a bright spot in the mess that was Frankenstein, describing him as “first-rate” and lauding his ability to transform the huge stage of the Palace Theater into so many different settings.
With him through all those ups and downs was Mr. Schmidt’s lifelong partner, artist Stephen Martin. Mr. Martin was part of the Hog Farm Collective, the hippie community led by Wavy Gravy that provided security at Woodstock. (Mr. Martin has kept up his ties with Hog Farm, even going to Wavy Gravy’s recent birthday bashes.)
The two met in 1976 through a mutual friend, when Mr. Schmidt was working on a show in San Francisco. They became a couple in 1980 and were married in 2013. Mr. Schmidt had been planning a move to the West Coast for a long time, but worried that leaving New York would make him lose relevance. His relationship with Mr. Martin solidified his choice. He continued his successful career in San Francisco, occasionally traveling back to New York to work with some of his favorite collaborators.
Mr. Schmidt officially retired just before the pandemic, after his last show, “All my Sons,” ran on Broadway in 2019. Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Martin live in a picturesque Marin home, with their two dogs Sandy and Cushion. “Our world is definitely getting smaller,” Mr. Martin said. “We don’t do much anymore, and I know that [Douglas] misses it.”
He does, however, manage to stay busy with local projects, including designing sets for the Stinson Beach Community Center’s annual Halloween haunted house. He’s still making the audience scream 60 years later.