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Rob Eastman-Mullins

Professor, Design & Production

Rob is a performance designer for Wake Forest University Theatre & Dance, designing scenery, lighting, and costumes. Designs at Wake include Macbeth (selected for exhibition at World Stage Design 2022 in Calgary and inclusion in the United States’ exhibition at the 2019 Prague Quadrennial), Urinetown, Julius Caesar, The Crucible, Far Away, Waiting for Godot, King Lear, Embers & Stars: The Story of Petr Ginz, She Loves Me, City of Angels, The Gondoliers, Doubt, She Loves Me, The Grapes of Wrath, Eurydice, The Threepenny Opera, and the Spring and Fall Dance concerts.

Rob has worked as a freelance scenographer (scenery, lighting, and costumes) for such venues as Syracuse Opera, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, New Theatre (FL), Florida Studio Theatre, Triad Stage, Mosaic Theatre (FL), the Fletcher Opera Institute, BoarsHead Professional Theater, Carolina Ensemble Theatre, Fredericksburg Theatre Company, Hapgood Theatre (CA), Festival Stage (NC), and the NC Shakespeare Festival. He also served as art director for the PBS feature film China.  A fan of designing for new works, Rob was a long-standing Company Member with Miami’s New Theatre and has designed for premieres with playwrights such as Jeff Baron, Catherine Bush, Melinda Lopez, John Strand, Shirley Lauro, Vanessa Garcia, Ricky J. Martinez, and Will Fancher. His work has been seen on a national tour of Turkey and exhibited in Prague, Calgary, Toronto, Seoul, Cardiff, Los Angeles, Virginia, and Winston-Salem.

Rob has interests in international Theatre and its communities. He is currently serving as the Artistic Director for the United States’ 2027 submission to the Prague Quadrennial. In 2024, he was tapped for the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization’s ad hoc brainstorming group examining intellectual property in the live arts. He has served on the jury for the Alexandria International Theatre Festival and conducted workshops at the Kampala International Theatre Festival. Rob served as the Chair of the Performance Design Commission and co-Chair and co-Founder of the Space Design Sub-commission for OISTAT (International Organisation of Scenographers, Theatre Architects, and Technicians), on the Scene Design Commission for USITT as the Vice-Chair to International Activities, and is an International Associate with the Society of British Theatre Designers. He was an Associate Curator for the U.S. submission to the 2023 Prague Quadrennial and has research interests in World Theatre, developing the THE 274 course in World Theatre. Rob has enjoyed taking students to the Czech Republic to study theatre, architecture, and to attend the Prague Quadrennial.

An avid motorcycle enthusiast Rob has been supporting and riding with the Long Reach Long Riders charity ride since 2013. He enjoys traveling, playing competitive darts, and watching motorsports, darts, & soccer (BVB! Echte liebe.). He shares a house with his wife Andrea, son Ian, daughter Dana, and dog Gobo.

Courses Taught Regularly
Introduction to Design & Production
Scene Design
World Theatre
Design & Production for Dance
Stagecraft

Courses Taught Occasionally
Introduction to Theatre
Scenic Art for the Theatre
Lighting Design
Costume Design
FYS: But Is It ART?
History of Architecture & Décor (the Graduate School)

Courses Never Taught
Scent Design
The Plays of Rumer Willis

Degrees
MFA (Scenic and Costume Design), North Carolina School of the Arts
BLS (Theatre & Theatre Management), Mary Washington College

Rob Eastman-Mullins