Design professor named 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 receive $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.
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. Tipton's work on Broadway has garnered her two Tony Awards (Jerome Robbins' Broadway, 1989; The Cherry Orchard, 1977) and an additional two Tony nominations, among many other honors.
Research project to focus on Eastern European theater
Theater magazine, published by Yale School of Drama/Yale Repertory Theatre at Duke University Press, is undertaking a two-year, five-issue research and documentation project on Eastern European theater, supported by a $30,000 grant from the Trust for Mutual Understanding.
The gift allows the editors of Theater to travel to five countries in Eastern Europe -- Georgia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine -- to investigate the post-1989 theatrical advances in each country, with an emphasis on new voices and young artists. This research will subsequently be published in Theater in the form of articles, plays in translation, and interview transcripts. In many cases, this project will be the first English-language documentation and discussion of these contemporary artists. In addition, three of the artists and writers associated with the project will receive one-week residences at Yale to participate in play readings, lectures, symposia, master classes, and other presentations.
"While the sweeping political and cultural transformations in Eastern Europe have been, and continue to be, documented by American journalists and academics, the resulting cultural identity crises have not," says Theater editor Tom Sellar. "Theater artists have responded to these amazing changes with some of the most deeply compelling, groundbreaking productions ever created. But with little written in English about these productions, they remain mere rumors in the international arts community, when they should be widely acknowledged, debated, and studied."
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