For over 25 years, I have been designing lighting for plays, operas, ballets, musicals, circuses, rock concerts, fashion shows, trade shows, corporate events, avante garde puppet shows….any live event that requires stage lighting.
Starting as a teenager in Evanston, with a home built lighting system (par 38’s and rotary dimmers!), I worked for every local band and theatre company I could get my hands on.
I was very fortunate to have two theatrical gurus in my home town: Bruce Siewerth, who brought a literary, classical sense to my work; and Byrne Piven, who taught me about improvisation and romanticism. Later, I trained with Michael Orris Watson at the North Carolina School for the Arts, followed by two years studying with Roger Williams College in London.
In my early Chicago years, I was a member of two storefront ensemble theatres
(First Stage, and The Human Medium Ensemble -- both long gone) and worked with countless small theatres of the time.
This was followed by a few years in Milwaukee, lighting shows for several of the great regional theatres based there. There was a moment when I had lit a show for every performing arts company that had ‘Milwaukee’ in their name! That was also where I began designing corporate shows, for Acme and Johnson Wax, among others.
In 1994 I returned to Chicago, lit the first two production of Christopher Moore’s “Pope Joan” and have been based there ever since.
As a theatrical lighting designer I have worked with many performing arts companies around the country, including The Arkansas Rep, American Inside Theatre, Ballet Memphis, Broward Stage Door, First Stage Milwaukee, The Joffrey Ballet, The Madison Rep, Milwaukee Opera, Milwaukee Rep, Next Act Theatre, Skylight Opera, and Virginia Musical Theatre.
In Chicago I have designed for The Apple Tree, Bailiwick, Center Theatre, Lifeline Theatre, Light Opera Works, Northwestern Opera, Opera Piccola, The Organic, Red Moon, Steppenwolf, Valerie Alpert and Dancers, and Victory Gardens; to name but a few.
I have served as guest artist at several colleges, including Barry University, Carroll College, Center College, Roosevelt University, and the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.
As a Lighting Designer for the corporate world, I have designed several hundred shows for such production companies as: Acme Corps, Automated Lighting Design, AV One, August Jackson, Canavan Scenic and Lighting, Creative Technologies, Exhibit Lighting Group, Frost Lighting, Intelligent Lighting Creations, LSAV, The Merchandise Mart of Chicago, Planet One Creative, PSAV, RSVProductions, SCS Lighting, Sound Investments, Soundz AVL, SUN Lighting, Upstaging, USAV, and many others.