Herbert Senn

Set designer

By VARIETY STAFF

Set designer Herbert Charles Senn, whose handiwork appeared on Broadway as well as the Opera Company of Boston and the Cape Playhouse on Cape Code, died at home in Yarmouthport, Mass., Aug. 13 after a brief illness. He was 78.

He and his collaborator of six decades, designer Helen Pond, who survives him, designed such Broadway shows as "What Makes Sammy Run?," "Roar Like a Dove," "Oh, Coward!" and revivals of "Showboat" and "The Boys From Syracuse" (they also designed for latter's London run).

Ilion, N.Y., native was raised on a farm, was drafted into the Army, where he served as a medical technician, and later graduated from Atlantic Union College. He then enrolled in the design program at Columbia U., where he met Pond, a fellow design student. They worked together on student productions, then moved up to Off Broadway shows.

They later become principal designers for the Opera Company of Boston, where over the course of 30 years they designed more than 50 operas, including "Aida," "Mass," and the American premieres of "War and Peace" and "Russlan and Ludmilla."

Starting in 1956, Senn and Pond -- affectionately known as "H & H" -- also spent 35 summers designing for the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Mass., designing at least 10 shows each summer. They also designed productions for the New York City Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York's Lincoln Center and the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey and traveled the globe with the Theater Guild's "Theatre-at-Sea" cruises.

Another famous designing gig was the Boston Ballet's "The Nutcracker," with its vast Christmas tree; the production has remained a holiday fave for the company since 1978.

In 1993, Senn and Pond became the first recipients of the Elliot Norton "Robert Edmund Jones" prize for outstanding Boston designer. Two years later, they received the Balletic Medal of Honor in 1995. That same year, they retired from the Cape Playhouse and reduced their workload elsewhere, but never fully left the field.

Besides Pond, Senn is survived by two cousins and others.

Donations may be made to: Yarmouth New Church Preservation Foundation Inc., P.O. Box 237, Yarmouthport, MA 02675; or to Hospice and Palliative Care of Cape Cod, 270 Communication Way, Bldg. No. 3, Hyannis, MA 02601.