Acclaimed creative director David Korins ’99 has spent his career creating unforgettable experiences. As a scenic designer, he’s crafted the worlds for 29 Broadway productions, including the Tony Award-winning musicals Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and Beetlejuice.

Beyond Broadway, Korins was the production designer for the 91st and 94th Academy Awards and Grease: Live!, for which he received an Emmy Award. He has collaborated with artists like Bruno Mars, Mariah Carey, and Lady Gaga and designed immersive experiences including “Immersive Van Gogh.”

“It’s not lost on me that I spend my life making things that ultimately are going to get thrown out,” Korins says during a visit to UMass Amherst. “We trade in the currency of impermanence with what I do.”

Yet the newly named David Korins Design Studio is anything but impermanent. 

Located in the Arts Bridge on the fourth floor of the Bromery Center for the Arts, the studio offers dedicated space where students can bring ideas to life and prepare for future careers in theater and design. 

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“David Korins is a remarkable example of what a UMass education in the arts can produce,” says College of Humanities and Fine Arts Dean Maria del Guadalupe Davidson. “This studio bears his name not only to honor his extraordinary achievements, but to inspire the next generation of designers and storytellers who will work within these walls. His commitment to craft, collaboration, and bold creative vision is exactly the spirit we want to cultivate here.”

From Student to Storyteller

Korins understands firsthand the impact a university can have on a young artist. His theatrical journey began at UMass Amherst, where he discovered a passion for scenic design under the mentorship of Professor Emeritus of Scenic Design Miguel Romero and Professor Emerita of Lighting Design Penny Remsen.

“I got really lucky with extraordinary professors,” he says. 

One such professor arranged for acclaimed lighting designer Donald Holder to speak on campus shortly after Holder won the 1998 Tony Award for The Lion King. As a student in the audience, Korins saw Holder as someone whose career seemed worlds away from his own.

Yet, years later, Korins and Holder worked together on the 2025 Broadway revival of Ragtime. Today, their joint credits also include Yellow Face, Falsettos, and Annie.

Korins tells students, “I grew up to become his peer and collaborator in what felt like one second. So, I was you yesterday.”

Paying It Forward

When UMass approached Korins about naming a design studio in his honor, he initially had reservations. “Not because I don't love UMass,” Korins says. “I was uninterested in this kind of attention.”

His perspective shifted during a conversation with fellow alum Laura Bailey ’03 and her parents Doug and Sara Bailey P’03.

“Doug said to me, ‘Listen, this is how this works. People do things for you and then you do things for others.’ When Doug said that to me, it made me realize that something like this can be substantial.”

David Korins ’99

Korins’s commitment to mentorship and creativity resonated with the Bailey family, whose added generosity, together with Korins’s own gift, helped make the studio possible.

“He developed a passion for giving back—or paying it forward, as David would say,” Doug explains. “You don't give back to the people who did something for you. You give forward to the next generation of students so they can have the same opportunities you enjoyed. David was energized by that idea and that's what made this philanthropic partnership possible.”

Sara was equally impressed by Korins’s humility.

“A lot of people reach high places in their careers and lose sight of everyone who helped them along the way,” she says. “I respect that David gives credit to everyone in his company, everyone throughout his career. He believes there’s no real David Korins Design without a team. That made him feel like a very special person to me.”

The Bailey family shares a deep appreciation for the arts.

Laura earned degrees in theater and English before becoming a script supervisor in film and television. Sara studied dance from childhood under Boston Ballet founder E. Virginia Williams, while Doug, an MIT graduate, developed a lifelong passion for ballroom dance that inspired the family’s support of arts spaces at both MIT and UMass Amherst.

Well before the design studio, the family established the Laura Bailey Costume Shop, a makerspace where theater students collaborate to design and build costumes for campus productions. They later sponsored the rehearsal studio located between the costume shop and the new design studio.

“For us, what inspired all of this was Laura’s love for the Department of Theater,” Doug says. “We saw these spaces fulfilling a real need.”

Laura believes that spaces like the costume shop and design studio matter because they prepare students for real-world experiences by mirroring the collaborative environments that they will encounter after graduation.

“Having updated makerspaces helps replicate real-world conditions for students just discovering their love for a craft,” she says. “These are the kinds of spaces where they can learn and create.”

A Lasting Legacy

Together, Korins and the Bailey family envision the studio as a place where students can move ideas from concept to creation, refine their craft, and build the confidence to pursue careers in theater and design.

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During the studio's dedication, the Bailey family toured the space and found tables covered with student projects, a reminder that the room’s true purpose lies in the work created there. 

“A room is just a room,” Doug said. “The magic is what happens inside.”

For Korins, that magic begins with curiosity.

"Being curious and trying to find your own innovative path into storytelling has been my way. I hope that this room will be a container of curiosity. I hope students can just go in there and be super weird. That’s how I got to do what I do.”

David Korins ’99

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