George Corrin, Jr. Papers

George C. Corrin Jr.(1922-2015) graduated from East Orange High School in East Orange, New Jersey in 1940. In his junior and senior years at East Orange, Corrin developed stage designs for school plays, work for which he had a natural talent. Upon his graduation, Corrin secured an internship at the Studio Playhouse of Upper Montclair, New Jersey, working under head scene designer Franklin C. Wells. In 1942, Corrin applied to Drama Department of the College of Fine Arts at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. In reply, he received a letter from Henry Boettcher, Head of the Department of Drama, suggesting that “Negro students” did not fit well within the program as it was designed, stating specifically that all drama students were expected to take their turn on stage and that there were not enough parts written in plays that were appropriate for black students. Undeterred, Corrin thanked Boettcher for his concern and arranged a letter writing campaign in which his teachers, employers and mentors petitioned for his acceptance to the program. These letters, combined with Corrin’s grades and talents, won him admission. Corrin started his freshman year in 1942 but was drafted into the army, serving three years in the South Pacific during World War II. Upon discharge he entered Carnegie Tech to major in Stage Production. In 1947, Corrin wrote an essay for the student publication Cano entitled, “On The Nature of Art.” The views he put forth in this brief essay led to discussions among fellow students in the College of Fine Arts and culminated in the first ever “Arts Night” on May 23, 1948. Several arts students formed a committee to plan the event and selected Corrin as their committee chairman. At the time of his graduation in 1949, Corrin was one of nine African American students at CIT.

Upon graduation, Corrin was scheduled to work at Woodstock as an assistant to Alber Heschong. Heschong, however, was hired to be a television producer and recommended that Corrin take his place at Woodstock as Chief Set Designer. At the end of the Woodstock Summer season, Corrin entered the Yale School of Drama where he received an M.F.A. in Drama in 1951. By the time he was 34, Corrin was a scenic designer in the production department of the American Broadcasting Company where he designed the set used for both the Nixon/Kennedy debates and ABC’s coverage of the 1966 National Elections.

After working for thirteen years at ABC, Corrin spent ten years at Teletape Productions, where he continued his work in scene design as well as office design and management of an art department. By 1977, Corrin was working as an independent scene designer and was hired by the likes of Pepsi, AT&T, IBE and Union Carbide. In 1995, Corrin’s work was featured as part of the exhibition, Onstage; A Century of African American Stage Design, at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Corrin passed away in 2015 at the age of 92.