Lighting Designer
Jennifer Tipton Named
2008 MacArthur Fellow

Lighting designer JENNIFER TIPTON, Professor (Adjunct) of Design at Yale School of Drama and Lighting Design Advisor at Yale Repertory Theatre, has been named a 2008 MacArthur Fellow by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in recognition of “pushing the visible boundaries of her art form with painterly lighting that evokes mood and sculpts movement in dance, drama, and opera.”

Ms. Tipton will received $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years, which offers the opportunity to accelerate her current activities or take her work in new directions.  The unusual level of independence afforded to MacArthur Fellows underscores the spirit of freedom intrinsic to creative endeavors.

“Jennifer Tipton’s enormous contributions to the American theatre and the performing arts are unparalleled,” says James Bundy, Dean, Yale School of Drama/Artistic Director, Yale Repertory Theatre.  “The entire Yale School of Drama and Yale Rep community celebrate this well-deserved recognition of her extraordinary accomplishments.”

In announcing the 2008 Fellows, The MacArthur Foundation released the following statement:

“Jennifer Tipton is an internationally recognized lighting designer whose distinctive designs have redefined the relationship between lighting and performance.  Tipton has been an importance presence throughout her prolific career in dance, drama, and opera productions of all scales, and she is regarded as one of the most versatile designers working today.  Best known for her work in dance, Tipton’s painterly lighting evokes mood and defines and sculpts movement.  Preferring a small but powerful palette of colors, she pioneered the use of white light in theatre and dance.  In Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room (1986) and Fait Accompli (1983), for instance, her strategic placement of white lights coupled with manufactured fog allowed dancers to enter and exit the performance space from upstage rather than the wings.  The materialize, seemingly out of nowhere, only to disappear into a void, thereby reinforcing the progression of the dance as it advances and recedes, explodes, and implodes.  For both small theatre and Broadway productions, Tipton’s artistry interacts intimately with the work’s physical appearance and emotional resonance.  Her subtle, shifting lighting for Eugene O’Neill’s Moon for the Misbegotten (2005) gave visual support to the play’s delicate balance between vitality and deep sadness; in the final scene, the cleansing warmth of approaching dawn affirms the sense of peace and forgiveness finally achieved by the protagonists.  As a committed teacher, Tipton has influenced a generation of lighting designers, and her dramatic imagination continues to push the visual boundaries of lighting design in new and exciting directions.”

Jennifer Tipton received a BA from Cornell University.  She has designed lighting for numerous dance performances for such companies as the New York City Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, Twyla Tharp Dance, and the Paul Taylor Dance Company, and for theatrical productions at such venues as St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Public Theater, and the Metropolitan Opera, among many others.  Since 1994, she has served as an adjunct professor of lighting design at Yale School of Drama and is Lighting Design Advisor at Yale Repertory Theatre, where her most recent productions include Dance of the Holy Ghosts (2006), Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella (2002), and Richard III (2000).  Her work on Broadway has garnered Ms. Tipton two Tony Awards (Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, 1989; The Cherry Orchard, 1977) and an additional two Tony nominations, among many other honors.