Meet The 2006 Live Design Master Classes Speakers

The faculty for the 2006 Live Design Master Classes, to be held May 19-24 at the NYU campus in New York City, consists of well-known Broadway designers in the fields of lighting, set, projection, and audio design as well as industry experts from leading manufacturers. Their accolades and experience are varied, meet the speakers below.

BLMC

JULES FISHER–CREATIVE CONSULTANT
Creative consultant for the BLMC since its debut 11 years ago, Jules Fisher has lit more than 150 Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, as well as film, ballet, opera, television, and concert tours. He, with partner Peggy Eisenhauer, recently lit Chita Rivera, A Dancers Life on Broadway and Dessa Rose for Lincoln Center. They also provided the theatrical lighting on the film version of Mel Brooks’ The Producers and most recently the musical numbers in the soon-to-be-released film Dreamgirls. Fisher has had a record 18 Tony nominations and received eight Tony awards for lighting design for: Assassins (2004), Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk (1996); Jelly’s Last Jam (1992); The Will Rogers Follies (1991); Grand Hotel (1990); Dancin’ (1978); Ulysses in Nighttown (1973); and Pippin (1972). He earned Drama Desk Awards for Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk; Jelly’s Last Jam; Grand Hotel; and Frankenstein. Fisher and Eisenhauer are partners in the studio, Third Eye, which conceives and designs lighting for all forms of entertainment.

PEGGY EISENHAUER is partner to world-renowned lighting designer, Jules Fisher. They have been in collaboration for over 21 years. In 2004, they received the Tony Award for Assassins, and in 1996 for Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk. In 1998, she received dual Tony nominations for Ragtime and Cabaret, and in 2000 received a second dual Tony nomination for A Wild Party and Marie Christine, followed by a 2001 nomination for Jane Eyre. Their lighting designs on the film Chicago, in collaboration with cinematographer Dion Beebe, were honored with a 2003 Academy Award nomination for Cinematography. Their theatrical lighting is featured in the films Marci “X” and School of Rock, The Producers, and the upcoming Dreamgirls, to be released in December.

CHRISTOPHER AKERLIND won a Tony, Drama Desk, Hewes Design, and Outer Critics Circle Award for his lighting design of The Light In the Piazza. He also recently designed Rabbit Hole at the Manhattan Theatre Club. His current Broadway projects include Shining City and Awake and Sing! Akerlind has designed more than 400 productions at theatre and opera companies across the country and around the world. Recent Broadway credits include A Touch of the Poet; In My Life; and Seven Guitars. Previous designs for Lincoln Center Theatre include Belle Epoque and The Lights. Akerlind is also the recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design and the Michael Merritt Award for Design and Collaboration.

HOWELL BINKLEY is currently represented on Broadway by Bridge & Tunnel, Jersey Boys, and Avenue Q. Previous Broadway credits include Steel Magnolias, Dracula, Golda’s Balcony, Hollywood Arms, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Minnelli on Minnelli, Full Monty, Parade, Kiss Of The Spider Woman, Taking Sides, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, High Society, and Grease. Off-Broadway: Landscape of The Body, Sinatra at Radio City, Batboy, and Radiant Baby. His designs have been seen regionally at La Jolla Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre, The Alley, Old Globe, Guthrie, Goodman, Seattle Rep. He designed six musicals for The Sondheim Celebration at The Kennedy Center. Dance: Alvin Ailey, ABT, and The Joffrey Ballet (Billboards). Binkley co-founded The Parsons Dance Company for which he has designed over sixty pieces. He is a five-time Helen Hayes Award recipient and was awarded the 1993 Laurence Olivier Award and the Canadian Dora for Spider Woman.

BEVERLY EMMONS has designed for Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theatre, dance, and opera in the US and abroad. Her Broadway credits include Annie Get Your Gun, Jekyll & Hyde, The Heiress, Passion, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Hapgood, High Rollers, Stepping Out, The Elephant Man, The Dresser, and Doonesbury. Her lighting of Amadeus won a Tony award. Off-Broadway, she worked on the Vagina Monologues and with Joseph Chaikin, Meredith Monk, and Jack Hofsiss, among others. She has regularly designed lighting for Robert Wilson; most notably in America, Einstein on the Beach, and Civil Wars Pt .V. She has been awarded six Tony nominations, the 1976 Lumen Award, 1984 and 1986 Bessies, and a 1980 Obie for Distinguished Lighting.

WENDALL HARRINGTON was the creative consultant for the first annual Projection Master Classes last year. Most recently she designed projections for Grey Gardens, off Broadway. Broadway design credits include: In My Life, The Good Body, Vincent in Brixton, Amy’s View, Putting It Together, Ragtime, Freak, Company, The Will Rogers Follies, The Heidi Chronicles, and They’re Playing Our Song. Opera credits include: The Turn of the Screw with The Royal Danish Opera, A View from the Bridge at the Met, The Photographer at BAM; The Magic Flute in Florence; and Orpheo in Vienna. She has created ballets with ABT, Doug Varone, and The Royal Danish Ballet. On the concert circuit, she designed projection for the Talking Heads, Simon and Garfunkel, Chris Rock, and John Fogerty. She designed and directed the premiere of Snapshots with the Elements Quartet, and the opera Arjuna’s Dilemma. She teaches Projection for Performance at the Yale School of Drama.

BRIAN MACDEVITT’s recent lighting designs–on and off Broadway include–The Wedding Singer, The Color Purple, Absurd Person Singular, Sweet Charity, Good Vibrations, Pacific Overtures, ‘night Mother, and The Pillowman, for which he received the 2005 Tony Award. His previous Tony nominations include Fiddler on the Roof and Henry IV in 2004, Nine in 2002, and he won for Into The Woods in 2001. MacDevitt’s other productions include A Raisin in the Sun, Match, The Retreat From Moscow, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Tartuffe, Morning’s at Seven, The Women, Urinetown, Judgment at Nuremberg, Sex and Longing, Summer and Smoke, Master Class, and Love! Valour! Compassion!

PHILIP ROSENBERG, an associate lighting designer, is currently represented on Broadway with five hit musicals, three of which are designed by Kenneth Posner–the Matthew Broderick/Nathan Lane blockbuster The Odd Couple, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Hairspray–as well as Tony Award-winning The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Spamalot. As associate designer, he has worked with Hugh Vanstone (Spamalot, Bombay Dreams) and Paul Gallo (Never Gonna Dance, Man of La Mancha, Rocky Horror Picture Show, 42nd Street, The Crucible, The Sound of Music, The Civil War). He assisted Peter Kaczorowski on The Producers and Music Man.

CLIFTON TAYLOR recently designed the Broadway productions Hot Feet and The Two and Only, which is opening in September. His design for Frozen received a Lortel nomination. Off Broadway credits include Scattergood, Endgame, The Streets of New York, and Last Easter. Other credits include Opera de Lorraine, Houston’s Alley Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Cleveland Playhouse, Irish Repertory Theater (NY) and the MCC Theater. His work has also been seen in the repertories of the Rambert Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Scottish National Ballet, Ballet de Lorraine, Ballet Jazz de Montreal, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Maggio Danza, Sardono Dance Theatre, and the Ballet Company of Rio de Janeiro among others. This is Taylor’s 11th year on the BLMC Faculty.

BSMC

ABE JACOB–CREATIVE CONSULTANT
Abe Jacob is also known as the “Godfather of Theater Sound Design.” Jacob started his career mixing sound for such 1960s rock stars as Jimi Hendrix; the Mamas and the Papas; and Peter, Paul, and Mary; and designed the sound system for the Monterey Pop Festival. His credits range from Jesus Christ Superstar, A Chorus Line, and Pippin to Chicago, Cats, and Evita. As the audio go-to guy for these and other seminal Broadway shows, he virtually created the sound designer position. He continues to actively design, remaining the in-house sound guru at New York City Ballet and Opera. In the past 15 years, Jacob helped secure a charter for sound designers within IATSE (Local 922). In 1993, he helped the Local achieve its first collective bargaining agreement with the League of American Theaters and Producers. In 1999, he helped merge sound designers with Local One.

ACME SOUND PARTNERS specialize in sound design for theatre and special events; the partners are Tom Clark, Mark Menard, and Nevin Steinberg. They are currently represented on Broadway with The Drowsy Chaperone, Hot Feet, The Light in the Piazza, Spamalot, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Avenue Q. Other Broadway productions include Dracula the Musical, Twentieth Century, Fiddler on the Roof, Never Gonna Dance, The Boy From Oz, Gypsy, La Bohème (Drama Desk Award), Flower Drum Song, Elaine Stritch At Liberty, Bells Are Ringing, A Class Act, Jane Eyre, and The Full Monty. They designed sound for the national productions Irving Berlin’s White Christmas and Disney’s On the Record. They have also worked on numerous theatrical concerts and special events with renowned orchestras at world-famous venues indoors and out, and five summers in Central Park with the New York Shakespeare Festival.

DAVID BULLARD is an associate sound designer whose work can be heard in Sweeney Todd and the Tony-award winning The 25th Annual Putman County Spelling Bee on Broadway. Previous Broadway productions include: Gem of the Ocean, Pacific Overtures, Assassins, Topdog/Underdog (plus West Coast tour). Off-Broadway design: The Unexpected Man (Drama Desk Award nomination). His museum work includes America on the Move at the National Museum of American History and Preparation Theatre for National Museum of the American Indian. Television work includes playback for Apprentice Finale III, Blue Collar TV and multi-track record engineer for the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, Reflections with Tim McGraw, and Great Performances’ Pacific Overtures.

RICHARD BUGG from Level Control Systems has designed, built, and performed on modular analog synthesizers. He has toured as a musician and as a live sound engineer, worked as a studio musician and engineer, edited and mastered albums starting with the first generation analog multi-track tape machine, and was an early user of Sound Designer (later known as Pro Tools). As a composer he has had commissions from modern dance companies. Bugg plays an active role in LCS’s design and implementation of control surfaces for theater sound and in the development of the company’s active acoustic system, VRAS.

PETER HYLENSKI is currently represented on Broadway with The Wedding Singer. His previous sound designs include Sweet Charity, Little Women, Brooklyn, the West End production of Ragtime (Olivier Award nomination), Opening Doors, Princesses, Laughing Room Only, Dora the Explorer Live, Ovations!, Spoleto Festival U.S.A. (1999-2002), and Blue’s Clues Live. As Associate Designer: Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity, Fosse, Taboo, Seussical, The Music Man, Follies, and South Pacific. Film credits: re-recording mixer for Search for Life (Hayden Planetarium), SonicVision (MTV2, AMNH), and Passport to the Universe (Futuriscope Planetarium, France). As a studio engineer, Hylenski was responsible for creating the soundtrack for the European and world tours of Fosse, as well as other music and commercial projects.

STEVE KENNEDY was the production sound engineer on such Broadway shows as Cats, Starlight Express, Song and Dance, The Phantom of the Opera, Carrie, and Aspects of Love. His Broadway sound design credits include Jersey Boys, Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, Hairspray, The Producers, Aida, Big, Titanic, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Carousel, and The Who’s Tommy for which he received the Drama Desk Award.

JOHN SHIVERS most recently designed the sound for the Broadway production of Tarzan; his design credits also include Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, Julia Sweeney’s God Said Ha! and various productions with Savion Glover, Dionne Warwick, and Gregory Hines. He is also credited as the associate sound designer/production engineer for Broadway and worldwide productions of Hairspray, The Producers, The Lion King, Aida, Titanic, Big, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Who’s Tommy, Guys and Dolls, and The Buddy Holly Story.

RICK THOMAS is a sound designer, professor of Visual and Performing Arts, and the head of Design and Technology program at Purdue University. His recent productions include The Winter’s Tale at Purdue University in April and Twelfth Night at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Thomas designed and curated the sound for the inaugural World Stage Design exhibition in Toronto in 2005, and the First International Exhibition of Theatre Sound Design and Music Composition at the 2003 Prague Quadrennial. He also composed music for the Indianapolis 500 mile race for ESPN and international syndication. He is a certified sound designer in IATSE Local 1, (New York, NY), chair of the OISTAT Sound Working Group, and a former member of the Board of Directors of USITT.

JON WESTON most recently provided the sound design for The Color Purple on Broadway. His previous Broadway credits include: The Glass Menagerie; Caroline, or Change (AUDELCO award); Nine; Thoroughly Modern Millie; It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues; On the Town; Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk; and Man of La Mancha. Weston’s Off-Broadway, tours, and regional work include: The Boyfriend; Princesses; A Little Night Music (L.A. Drama Critics award); Himself & Nora; The Thing About Men; tick, tick...BOOM!; Bright Lights, Big City; and Blue Man Group. He is currently working on Princesses to open on Broadway in November 2006.

ROBIN WHITTAKER is a director at Out Board, the UK-based suppliers of live entertainment and event production innovations in live surround sound engineering and other technologies. Out Board developed the TiMax line of products, among others. TiMax audio imaging systems provide surround sound animation and reinforcement for theatre, opera, and corporate events.

The Live Design Master Classes are produced by Live Design magazine in conjunction with the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. The BLMC, with creative consultant Jules Fisher, will take place May 22-24 at the Skirball Center–located at 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square South on the NYU campus, which is part of the Helen and Martin Kimmel University Center, which opened in late 2003. The entire BSMC program, led by creative consultant Abe Jacob, including seminars, manufacturers showcases, and cocktail parties, will run May 19 to 21 at the Burrows Theatre at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. For additional information about the 2006 BLMC and BSMC and to register online, visit www.livedesignonline.com/broadwaymasterclasses.