Darren Melchiorre ’00 is the creative director of the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC), which opened last September at the World Trade Center site.
At Muhlenberg, Darren Melchiorre ’00 was a theatre major focused on set design who developed a passion for dance. He moved to New York City after graduation to pursue dance as a career, but “it stopped being fun when it had to be my meal ticket,” he says. He stayed in the city, interning at a Broadway marketing company before working in fundraising for The Public Theatre. He was living and working in New York on 9/11.
Now, he’s the creative director of the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC), which opened last September at the World Trade Center site. Melchiorre and his design team create production art, advertising campaigns and branding initiatives to promote the wide variety of productions (music, dance, opera, theatre, musical theatre and film) the venue is offering.
When the job became available, Melchiorre wasn’t sure how he’d feel working on the site, but he still made the leap: “What [PAC NYC is] trying to do is really exciting, because they’re trying to bring some life back to this area that’s so associated with destruction and terror,” says Melchiorre, who earned a master’s in design in 2007 and has worked primarily in the entertainment and music industries, including as designer for the album art for Melissa Etheridge’s 2021 release One Way Out. “It’s very rare to walk into an opportunity that starts from the ground up, especially a brand new arts organization in New York City.”
Muhlenberg Magazine: What is a typical day like for you?
Darren Melchiorre ’00: For this inaugural season, [PAC NYC] threw everything in the pot because they wanted to see what people would connect with. My work requires a lot of shifting: Now we’re talking about theatre. Now we’re talking about dance. No day is the same.
MM: What’s been the most interesting project you’ve worked on for PAC NYC?
DM: Bill Rauch, our artistic director, is directing Cats: “The Jellicle Ball.” He’s placed Cats in the NYC ballroom scene [the subculture chronicled in the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning]. It’s a reinterpretation of Cats. It’s an interesting challenge because from the get-go, Cats is a very polarizing musical. This is the first time, to my knowledge, an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical has been reinterpreted in the States. Everybody is used to those classics, like Phantom [of the Opera] and Sunset [Boulevard], being a certain way. Our challenge is getting people on board with the concept through the graphics and the campaign.
MM: How do you approach your designs?
DM: The arts industry is changing. Getting people back to the theatre [after the emergency phase of the pandemic] is a challenge. My goal is to help my company take some risks and try different things. Graphic design is often the audience’s first entry into a project, so you’ve gotta grab them. Let’s jolt them with excitement. I want to have people question, “Why are they doing that? That’s really interesting. I want to learn more.”
The Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC), Photo courtesy of pacnyc.org
As a park guide, I host educational programs, lead hikes, help maintain the park’s social media presence and spend all year in this extreme environment.
Darren Melchiorre ’00 is the creative director of the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC), which opened last September at the World Trade Center site.
