Jennifer Tipton (born September 11, 1937 Columbus, Ohio) is a lighting designer. She has designed for dance, theater and opera.In 1958, she graduated from Cornell University. 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, 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. 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.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.”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.In September 2008, she won a MacArthur Grant.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."
She was awarded the 1980 Drama Logue Award for Outstanding Achivement in Lighting Design for "Billy Bishop Goes to War" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
2
She was nominated for a 1990 Joseph Jefferson Award for Lighting Design for "The Winter's Tale", at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
3
She was nominated for a 1988 Joseph Jefferson Award for Lighting Design for "Landscape of the Body", at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
4
She was nominated for a 1981 Joseph Jefferson Award for Lighting Design for the play, "Plenty", at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
5
She was nominated for a 1979 Joseph Jefferson Award for Lighting Design for the play, "Two-Part Invention", at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
6
She was awarded the 1977 Joseph Jefferson Award for Lighting Design for the play, "The Landscape of the Body", at the Academy Festival Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
7
She is Principal Lighting Designer for the Paul Taylor Dance Company.
8
She teaches a course on stage lighting at the Yale University School of Drama.
9
Has twice won Broadway's Tony Award as Best Lighting Designer: in 1977 for a revival of "The Cherry Orchard" and in 1989 for "Jerome Robbins ' Broadway." She has also been nominated in the same category two other times: in 1981 for "Sophisticated Ladies" and in 1991 for "La Bête."
10
She was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1991 (1990 season) for Outstanding Achievement for lighting of the American Ballet Theatre production of "In The Upper Room".
Camera Department
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Metropolitan Opera HD Live
2008-2015
TV Series lighting designer - 5 episodes
Great Performances
2000-2013
TV Series lighting designer - 4 episodes
Die Zauberflöte il Flauto Magico
2011
lighting designer
Don Giovanni
2010
lighting designer
Great Performances: Dance in America
1985-2004
TV Series lighting designer - 2 episodes
Hansel and Gretel
1998
TV Movie lighting designer
Manon Lescaut
1997
TV Movie lighting designer
Breakfast with the Arts
1997
TV Series lighting designer - 1 episode
Don Quixote (Kitri's Wedding), a Ballet in Three Acts