Jennifer Tipton

Jennifer Tipton
Born (1937-09-11) September 11, 1937
Columbus, Ohio
Nationality American
Education Thomas Skelton
Alma mater Cornell University
Awards The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, MacArthur Fellows Program

Jennifer Tipton (born September 11, 1937 in Columbus, Ohio) is an American 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 for 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, Jiří_Kylián, 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)

References

  1. ↑ Tipton listing news.cornell.edu
  2. 1 2 A Brief History of Stage lighting northern.edu, accessed May 26, 2009
  3. ↑ Credits American Ballet Theatre.org, accessed May 26, 2009
  4. ↑ The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, official website.
  5. ↑ Dalton, Joseph."NIght Light"Times-Union, empac.rpi.edu, January 13, 2008
  6. ↑ Events empac.rpi.edu, accessed May 26, 2009
  7. ↑ "Three Yale Affiliates Receive MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grants" opa.yale.edu, October 3, 2008
  8. ↑ Stone, Elizabeth."THEATER; Through the Lens Brightly With Jennifer Tipton",The New York Times, April 14, 1991

External links

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