Brian MacDevitt

Last updated
Brian MacDevitt
Born
Education Ward Melville High School
Alma mater SUNY Purchase
OccupationLighting designer, professor
Years active1984-present
Awards Tony Award for Best Lighting Design
Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Play
Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Musical

Brian MacDevitt is a lighting designer and educator. He has worked extensively on Broadway and Off Broadway, as well as touring, Regional theatre, and Industrial productions. He won the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design for his work on the 2002 Broadway revival of Into The Woods. He also won the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Play three times and the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Musical once for The Book of Mormon in 2011.

Contents

Early life and education

A Long Island, New York, native, MacDevitt went to Ward Melville High School in East Setauket. Afterwards, he attended SUNY Purchase and graduated with a degree in Lighting Design from the Department of Design/Technology of the Division of Theatre Arts & Film.

Career

After graduation Brian spent a decade honing his craft with Off Broadway and other productions, and also developed a reputation as a teacher of design. He began teaching at Purchase as a visiting professor in 1986. He continued to balance his teaching career while breaking into Broadway in 1994 with What's Wrong With This Picture? Brian started to achieve notice with the Terrence McNally play Love! Valour! Compassion! in 1995. His success continued through the 1990s, and eventually culminated with a Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in 2002 for the revival of Into the Woods . He won again in 2005 for The Pillowman , in 2007 for The Coast of Utopia , sharing the award with Kenneth Posner and Natasha Katz (The three also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for Utopia.)

In fall of 2009, Brian began working as an Associate Professor of lighting design at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he is still teaching. [1] He also designed the revival of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs , Broadway Bound and David Mamet's new play Race . In the 2010 season he designed A Behanding in Spokane , Fences, Armida at The Metropolitan Opera, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown . In 2011 he designed The Book of Mormon, Le comte Ory at The Metropolitan Opera and The House of Blue Leaves . Brian won the Tony in 2009 for his lighting of the play Joe Turner's Come and Gone and again in 2011, for the musical Book of Mormon.

He has had several students go on to also design Broadway productions, including Kenneth Posner, Jeff Croiter, Jason Lyons, and Jen Schriever.

Personal life

He has a large extended family, but by far his favorite first cousin once removed is Thomas MacDevitt.

Productions

Broadway

Touring

West End

Off-Broadway

The Metropolitan Opera

Awards and nominations

Tony Awards

YearCategoryWorkResult
2002 Best Lighting Design Into the Woods Won
2003 Nine Nominated
2004 Henry IV (Parts 1 and) 2) Nominated
Fiddler on the Roof Nominated
2005 Best Lighting Design in a Play The Pillowman Won
2006 Best Lighting Design in a Musical The Color Purple Nominated
2007 Best Lighting Design in a Play Inherit The Wind Nominated
The Coast of Utopia (Part 1 - Voyage) Won
2009 Joe Turner's Come and Gone Won
2010 Fences Nominated
2011 Best Lighting Design in a Musical The Book of Mormon Won
2012 Best Lighting Design in a Play Death of a Salesman Nominated
2018 Best Lighting Design in a Musical Carousel Nominated

Drama Desk Awards

YearCategoryWorkResult
1993 Outstanding Lighting Design Three HotelsNominated
1995 Love! Valour! Compassion! Nominated
2000 An Experiment with an Air Pump Nominated
2001 The Invention of Love Nominated
2004 Henry IV (Parts 1 and) 2) Nominated
2007 The Coast of Utopia (Part 1 - Voyage) Won
2012 Death of a Salesman Won
2018 Outstanding Lighting Design For a Musical Carousel Nominated

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References

  1. "Master Classes". Archived from the original on 2011-08-12. Retrieved 2009-05-26.