Roger Morgan
Founder and Director of Design

Roger Morgan is a pioneer in the world of theatre design consulting and the Founder of Sachs Morgan Studio where he has directed the department of design for 35 years. Mr. Morgan received his training in scenic design and stage lighting at Carnegie-Mellon University, and he is the Tony Award-winning lighting designer of over 200 plays On Broadway, Off Broadway, and in our country’s finest resident theatres. He became interested in theatre architecture while working as an assistant to the legendary scenic designer Jo Mielziner, who became his mentor. He is co-author of Space for Dance, a book commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts on the design of dance facilities, now out of print and considered a classic in the architectural arena. Mr. Morgan has gained a reputation as that rare designer who is equally at home providing technical theatre systems, architectural programming and space planning, interior design, and architectural lighting.

Mr. Morgan’s lighting design credits include Edward Gorey’s Tony Award-winning Dracula with Frank Langella, in which his partner Ann Sachs played the leading lady; the Sherlock Holmes thriller, Crucifer of Blood for which he won both the Tony and Drama Desk awards; and hundreds of plays and musicals in this country and abroad. He has been a keynote speaker at USITT, the organization that honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award (when he was in his 40’s), and a guest speaker in the Architecture Department at Carnegie-Mellon University, as well as at OISTAT international theatre conferences in England, Italy, and Poland. He and his partner, Ann Sachs, collaborated on an article for the international publication Auditoria, “Everyone Welcome,” about accessibility for the disabled in theatres, an area in which the studio is nationally acknowledged as providing trendsetting solutions.

Roger and Ann have been personal and professional partners since 1970, and enjoy hiking in the Adirondack Mountains. They are the proud parents of two grown children, Abigail, an acupuncturist, and Sam, an architectural photographer.

Ann Sachs
President and CEO

Ann Sachs spent twenty-five years working as a professional actor prior to becoming President and CEO of Sachs Morgan Studio in 1992. She runs the business and Mr. Morgan is the Director of Design. The firm has one foot in the theatre and one foot in architecture, and is nationally recognized for designing theatres that work for their owners, their patrons, and the theatre professionals that use them.

A graduate of Carnegie-Mellon’s Drama Department, Ann’s knowledge of “the business of show business” came as a result of working onstage from 1967-1992, in leading roles on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in our country’s finest resident theatres. Favorite roles include Miss Lucy in Dracula, opposite Frank Langella, and favorite theatre experiences include premieres of plays by Wendy Wasserstein, Jules Feiffer, Gunter Grass and Eugene Ionesco. During the late eighties she collaborated with four other women to write Mama Drama, a play about motherhood published by Samuel French, performed by professional and amateur groups nationwide.

Since 1998 Ann has been a member of the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), an international peer advisory organization for successful women business owners. As a member, she participates in monthly meetings with other women presidents, to brainstorm about business issues in a confidential setting. She also serves as the Chapter Chair of an additional WPO Chapter in NYC.

In 2006 Ann launched an online quarterly publication with useful information related to theatre buildings: Theatre By Design, of which she is the Editor. She founded Theatrical Intelligence™ in 2009, a system that uses theatrical concepts to impact business performance; it’s “the fun part of being smart”. She is currently writing a book on the subject.

Ann and Roger have been personal and professional partners since 1970. They are the proud parents of two grown children, and beaming grandparents of two grandchildren.