Jennifer Tipton
Encyclopedia
Jennifer Tipton is a lighting designer
Lighting designer
The role of the lighting designer within theatre is to work with the director, choreographer, set designer, costume designer, and sound designer to create an overall 'look' for the show in response to the text, while keeping in mind issues of visibility, safety and cost...

. She has designed for dance, theater and opera.

In 1958, she graduated from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

. While performing as a dancer and rehearsal mistress, she noticed the importance of lighting, and studied dance lighting with Thomas Skelton, becoming his assistant.

Her first lighting design for Broadway was in 1969 for Our Town
Our Town
Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is a character story about an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives...

, and her most recent in 2000 for Wrong Mountain. Among her many awards and nominations, she won the 1977 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design
Tony Award for Best Lighting Design
This is a list of the winners of the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a play or musical, first presented in 1970. In 2005 the category was divided with each genre represented separately.-1970s:* 1970: Jo Mielziner – Child's Play...

 for lighting Andrei Serban
Andrei Serban
Andrei Șerban is a Romanian-born American theater director. A major name in twentieth-century theater, he is renowned for his innovative and iconoclastic interpretations and stagings...

's production of The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...

and the 1989 Tony Award for lighting Jerome Robbins' Broadway
Jerome Robbins' Broadway
Jerome Robbins' Broadway is an anthology comprising musical numbers from earlier shows that were either directed or choreographed by Jerome Robbins. Robbins won his fifth Tony Award for direction of the show....

. She also has won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design is presented by the Drama Desk, a committee of New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors...

 twice.

She is known for her designs for dance and is the principal lighting designer for the Paul Taylor Dance Company
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Paul Taylor Dance Company, is a contemporary dance company, formed by Paul Taylor, an American choreographer of the 20th century. One of the early touring companies of American modern dance, the Company has "performed in more than 500 cities in 62 countries" and still spends more than half of each...

. Choreographers she has worked with include Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...

, Jiri Kylian, Dana Reitz, Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins was an American theater producer, director, and choreographer known primarily for Broadway Theater and Ballet/Dance, but who also occasionally directed films and directed/produced for television. His work has included everything from classical ballet to contemporary musical theater...

, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp is an American dancer and choreographer, who lives and works in New York City.-Early years:Tharp was born in 1941 on a farm in Portland, Indiana, and was named after Twila Thornburg, the "Pig Princess" of the 89th Annual Muncie Fair in Indiana.she spend hours working on it to help her...

, Dan Wagoner and Shen Wei.

Tipton has designed lighting for the American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...

 since A Soldier’s Tale (1971). She designed the lighting for Baryshnikov's production of The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...

, both for the stage and for television.

In 2001 Tipton was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize
The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize
The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize or Gish Prize is 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.” It is one of the richest prizes in the American arts, for example the 2010 winner received...

, 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.”

In January 2008, Tipton designed a large lighting display for the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center
Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center
The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center is a multi-venue arts center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, which opened on October 3, 2008.The director of EMPAC is Johannes Goebel...

 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's...

 in Troy, NY. It was her first non-theatrical installation.

In September 2008, she won a MacArthur Grant
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...

.

She has served as Professor (Adjunct) of Design at the Yale School of Drama
Yale School of Drama
The Yale School of Drama is a graduate professional school of Yale University providing training in every discipline of the theatre: acting, design , directing, dramaturgy and dramatic criticism, playwriting, stage management, sound design, technical design and production, and theater...

 since 1981. Tipton trained many lighting designers, including Donald Holder
Donald Holder
Donald Holder is an American lighting designer in theatre, opera, and dance based in New York. He has been nominated for eight Tony Awards, winning the 1998 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design as well as the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for The Lion King. He won a second Tony in...

, Christopher Akerlind
Christopher Akerlind
Christopher Akerlind is an American lighting designer for theatre, opera, and dance. He won the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for Light in the Piazza and an Obie Award for sustained excellence for his work Off-Broadway.He attended...

, Michael Chybowski, M.L. Geiger and Robert Wierzel
Robert Wierzel
Robert Wierzel is an American lighting designer.Mr. Wierzel is well known for his work in the American regional theatre, with national and international opera companies, museum installations, and dance. For twenty-three years he has been a collaborator with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance...

. 2006 Tony award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

 winner Howell Binkley
Howell Binkley
Howell Binkley is a professional lighting designer in New York City. He received the 2006 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a musical for Jersey Boys....

 assisted her for many years.

A 1991 biographical article in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

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."

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
    Jerome Robbins' Broadway
    Jerome Robbins' Broadway is an anthology comprising musical numbers from earlier shows that were either directed or choreographed by Jerome Robbins. Robbins won his fifth Tony Award for direction of the show....

    - 1989 - Tony Award Best Lighting Design winner and Drama Desk Award
    Drama Desk Award
    The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...

     Outstanding Lighting Design winner
  • Long Day's Journey Into Night
    Long Day's Journey Into Night
    Long Day's Journey Into Night is a 1956 drama in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play is widely considered to be his masterwork...

    - 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
    Sophisticated Ladies
    Sophisticated Ladies is a musical revue based on the music of Duke Ellington.After fifteen previews, the Broadway production, conceived by Donald McKayle, directed by Michael Smuin, and choreographed by McKayle, Smuin, Henry LeTang, Bruce Heath, and Mercedes Ellington, opened on March 1, 1981 at...

    - 1981 - Tony Award Best Lighting Design nominee
  • Lunch Hour - 1981 - Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lighting Design nominee
  • Bosoms and Neglect
    Bosoms and Neglect
    Bosoms and Neglect is a play by American playwright John Guare, first staged in 1979 at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.-Productions:...

    - 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
    For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf
    For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf is a 1975 experimental play by Ntozake Shange. Initially staged in California, it has been performed Off-Broadway and on Broadway, and adapted as a book, a television film, and a theatrical film...

    1977 - Tony Award Best Lighting Design winner

External links

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