Artist Profile: Doug G. Fitch ’81 on Eclectic Artistry and Defying Boundaries

The terms “polymath” and “multi-hyphenate” can hardly come close to describing Douglas G. Fitch ’81.

Throughout his career, Fitch has worked as an visual artist, actor, architect, puppeteer, set and costume designer, and stage director, along with a detour to culinary school which led to a collaboration with Mimi Oka ’81, creating multi-sensory experiences with food art. He has also made a puppet adaptation of a 15-hour-long operatic tetralogy, played the Clown in Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” in the Adams House Swimming Pool, and designed the interior of violinist Joshua Bell’s apartment.

The Harvard Crimson sat down with Fitch, who graduated summa cum laude from Harvard with an A.B. in Visual and Environmental Studies, to discuss his dizzying artistic career, his Harvard experience, and what he has on his hands now: stage directing as well as set and costume designing for Boston Lyric Opera’s production of “Eurydice,” an opera based on playwright Sarah Ruhl’s retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth.

Before working with some of the boldest operatic and non-operatic theaters nationally and internationally, Fitch had humble beginnings: a homemade puppet theater in his family basement. When he eventually applied to Harvard, he even brought a puppet to his interview.

“The puppet and the interviewer, they had a fantastic time, and I started to feel a little left out,” Fitch said.

Needless to say, his creativity made an impression. Within the first week of his freshman year, Fitch received a call from an unknown number that turned out to be Peter M. Sellars ’80, future theater director and just one year Fitch's senior at Harvard. The unexpected call led to a fruitful, enduring friendship.

“There’s no question that he had an enormous influence in my life. We became great friends. We shared a huge interest in classical music and he had the largest collection of records that I’d ever seen, and would always challenge me and say, ‘Ok, what do you want to hear?’” Fitch said.

Fitch’s favorite haunt on campus was the Carpenter Center, where he built a physical sandbox to construct bespoke chairs for a sophomore tutorial — a project which evolved into his thesis. He also frequented the Graduate School of Design, enjoying the extraordinary atmosphere of architects busy at work.

“[I’d] just walk around and introduce myself and look over people’s shoulders and see what models they were making. It was such an incredible place,” Fitch said.

Although he expected to attend architecture school, he ultimately never went. However, Fitch spoke to the Harvard community’s impact on his identity as a budding artist.

“I think the great thing about Harvard was that it provided a kind of context where you could find words. I mean, you could even share the notion of philosophical concepts without even calling them that. They were just sort of lunch table conversations. And later, you realize that not everybody in the world is gonna be like that,” Fitch said.

And perhaps “artist” is the closest one could ever get to describing what Fitch does now. Fitch explained that he has never viewed his numerous artistic capabilities as a variety of separate skills. Rather uniquely, he views himself above all as a problem solver: one who invents parallel universes to help us see and make sense of the world we live in. Combine this with his conviction for storytelling, and Fitch’s diverse range of talents seem a part of a collective drive to interpret the complexities of reality.

When asked what was next for him career-wise, Fitch simply expressed his desire to continue “working with people who are kind.” A frequent guest lecturer at Yale and New York University, Fitch noted the changes in values within the various industries he straddles.

“The discussion has changed from ‘How do we do the most amazing production’ to ‘What do we do with a set after it comes down? You throw it in the dumpster?’ Is that even interesting?” he said.

Conscious of the inherent wastefulness of the theater and design industry, Fitch expressed his desire to do better, not just in the name of the environment but to honor his commitment to problem solving as well.

Armed with this sensitivity to the shifting landscapes of his artistic milieu, Fitch eagerly attends to his current project, “Eurydice,” which fell into his orbit because of another Harvard alumnus — Matthew A. Aucoin ’12. This is not the first work of Aucoin’s that Fitch is directing; Fitch previously directed Aucoin's operatic piece “The Orphic Moment” in Brooklyn and Salzburg. But “Eurydice” promises a different experience, this time from Eurydice’s perspective. Scaled down from a full-size orchestra to a 20-player ensemble and with the chorus removed, “Eurydice” in Boston will be a far more intimate experience compared to its world premiere at the much larger Los Angeles Opera.

“It’s such an incredible metaphor, this story, for human beings,” Fitch said.

Fitch spoke to the value of collaboration on “Eurydice,” expressing gratitude to Assistant Scenic Designer Jiaying Zhang.

“Maybe it’s the performer in me, but the value of talking about things with somebody is fantastic. Very wonderful, useful, rather than sitting in a room and trying and expecting yourself to come up with all the ideas yourself,” he said.

Talking through his creative process for the show, it is clear his approach is squarely grounded in his rigorous visual arts training. He began with the painstaking work of painting fabric for the costumes before creating a fiber art world for the opera’s characters and considering finer details like transitions between scenes and multi-purpose props and set design.

Add the performers into the mix, and the result is pure magic — the culmination of several months of grueling yet gratifying work.

“I just cannot have asked for a better cast — A cast where nobody is there because this is a job. Everyone is there because they want to just do the best possible thing they can,” Fitch said.

Combined with his tangible and intangible visions for the show, Fitch simply asks audience members to take away “whatever they do.”

“I don't think I would need to tell anybody what they should be feeling because they will feel something,” he said.

Boston Lyric Opera’s production of “Eurydice” runs at the Huntington Theatre from March 1 to March 10.