Jennifer Tipton
| Jennifer Tipton | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 11, 1937 Columbus, Ohio |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Thomas Skelton |
| Alma mater | Cornell University |
| Known for | lighting designer |
| Awards | The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, MacArthur Fellows Program |
Jennifer Tipton (born September 11, 1937 in Columbus, Ohio) is a lighting designer. She has designed for dance, theater and opera.
Life
In 1958, she graduated from Cornell University.[1] While performing as a dancer and rehearsal mistress, she noticed the importance of lighting, and studied dance lighting with Thomas Skelton, becoming his assistant.[2]
Her first lighting design for Broadway was in 1969 for Our Town, and her most recent in 2013 for The Testament of Mary. Among her many awards and nominations, she won the 1977 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design for lighting Andrei Serban's production of The Cherry Orchard and the 1989 Tony Award for lighting Jerome Robbins' Broadway. She also has won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design twice.
She is known for her designs for dance and is the principal lighting designer for the Paul Taylor Dance Company.[2] Choreographers she has worked with include Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jiri Kylian, Dana Reitz, Jerome Robbins, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Dan Wagoner and Shen Wei.
Tipton has designed lighting for the American Ballet Theatre since A Soldier’s Tale (1971). She designed the lighting for Baryshnikov's production of The Nutcracker, both for the stage and for television.[3]
In 2001, Tipton was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to “a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.”[4]
In January 2008, Tipton designed a large lighting display for the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. It was her first non-theatrical installation.[5][6]
In September 2008, she won a MacArthur Grant.[7]
She has served as Professor (Adjunct) of Design at the Yale School of Drama since 1981. Tipton trained many lighting designers, including Donald Holder, Christopher Akerlind, Michael Chybowski, M.L. Geiger and Robert Wierzel. 2006 Tony award winner Howell Binkley assisted her for many years.
A 1991 biographical article in The New York Times stated: "There are perhaps a dozen lighting designers in the country who work steadily enough to support themselves by their art, and maybe half a dozen who are acclaimed and in demand. Among these is Jennifer Tipton, characterized most often for the impeccability of her taste and a certain precision and cerebral quality to her work -- which have earned her two Tony awards, among other prizes during her 25 years in the theater."[8]
Stage work (selected)
- Spectral Scriabin - 2010 - a "piano theatre" collaboration with pianist Eteri Andjaparidze
- La Bete - 1991 - Tony Award Best Lighting Design nominee
- Jerome Robbins' Broadway - 1989 - Tony Award Best Lighting Design winner and Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lighting Design winner
- Long Day's Journey Into Night - 1989 - Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lighting Design winner
- Worstward Ho - 1987 - Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lighting Design nominee
- Hamlet - 1986 - Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lighting Design nominee
- Whoopi Goldberg - 1985 - Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lighting Design nominee
- Sophisticated Ladies - 1981 - Tony Award Best Lighting Design nominee
- Lunch Hour - 1981 - Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lighting Design nominee
- Bosoms and Neglect - 1979
- The Cherry Orchard - 1977 - Tony Award Best Lighting Design winner and Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lighting Design winner
- For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf 1977 - Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lighting Design winner
References
- ↑ Tipton listing news.cornell.edu
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 A Brief History of Stage lighting northern.edu, accessed May 26, 2009
- ↑ Credits American Ballet Theatre.org, accessed May 26, 2009
- ↑ The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, official website.
- ↑ Dalton, Joseph."NIght Light"Times-Union, empac.rpi.edu, January 13, 2008
- ↑ Events empac.rpi.edu, accessed May 26, 2009
- ↑ "Three Yale Affiliates Receive MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grants" opa.yale.edu, October 3, 2008
- ↑ Stone, Elizabeth."THEATER; Through the Lens Brightly With Jennifer Tipton",The New York Times, April 14, 1991
External links
- Articles with hCards
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- 1937 births
- Cornell University alumni
- Living people
- American lighting designers
- Tony Award winners
- Drama Desk Award winners
- Ballet designers
- MacArthur Fellows
- Ballets designed by Jennifer Tipton
- People from Columbus, Ohio
- Bessie Award winners
- Guggenheim Fellows
