A native of Texas, Joel is an award winning theater designer and has designed numerous plays, musicals, ballets and operas as well as films. Joel was nominated twice for the 2006 Ovation Award for the acclaimed Bluebonnet Court at the Hudson Mainstage and the Sacred Fools production of Gorey Stories. He has recently been nominated twice for the 2007 Ovation Award for his set and lighting designs for Jitney. He was awarded Best Set Design at the NAACP Theater Awards for Blues for an Alabama Sky and Bluebonnet Court and an L.A. Ovation Award and the LA Weekly Theater Award for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. He was recently awarded the Bob Z. Award for Career Achievement in Set Design by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle. He will soon begin production on directing and designing The Miracle Worker at the Hayworth Theater next fall.