Richard
Pilbrow
Founder and Chairman
Emeritus of Theatre Projects Consultants, he is one of the world's leading
theatre design consultants, a theatre, film and television producer, and
an internationally known author and stage lighting designer. He was the
lighting designer of the Hal Prince hit revival of "Show Boat"
on Broadway (Drama Desk Award, Outer Circle Critics Award-lighting), in
Toronto (Dora Award - Outstanding Lighting) and on tour throughout the
US (NAACP Award for Lighting). His most recent Broadway productions were
"Our Town" starring Paul Newman at the Booth Theatre, subsequently
filmed for PBS and previously at the Westport Country Playhouse; the Cy
Coleman musical "The Life", for which he received a Tony Award
nomination, and the Roundabout Theatre production of Harold Pinter's "Ashes
to Ashes". Other lighting includes "Where's Charley?" (2004),
"Very Good Eddie" (2003) for Goodspeed Summer Musicals, Sir
Peter Hall's 1999 Shakespeare Season at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles
and "On Raftery's Hill" for the Druid Theatre Galway and the
Royal Court Theatre London.
Under his leadership, Theatre Projects has become the pre-eminent theatre
consulting organization in the world, with over 600 projects in 50 countries
to its credit. The team of artistic, management, architectural, design
and technical specialists combine to offer a unique service to those engaged
in the planning and design of theatres, concert halls, and arts centers.
Pilbrow was chosen by Laurence Olivier to be theatre consultant to the
National Theatre of Great Britain. He was also consultant to the Royal
Shakespeare Company at the Barbican Theatre; The Royal Opera House Masterplan,
Covent Garden; and many other significant arts buildings in the North
America, Europe, Hong Kong and the Middle East.
Principal current and recent projects include:
Metropolitan
Kansas City Performing Arts Center, Kansas City, MO
Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, Dallas, TX
Walt Disney Concert Hall (for the Los Angeles Philharmonic), Los Angeles,
CA
Bard College Performing Arts Center, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Schuster Performing Arts Center, Dayton, OH
Aronoff Center for the Arts, Cincinnati, OH
New Amsterdam Theatre Renovation, 42nd Street, New York City
Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, PA
Geary Theatre Renovation for ACT, San Francisco, CA
Ozawa Concert Hall, Tanglewood (for the Boston Symphony), Lenox, MA
Novo Teatro Opera House, São Paulo, Brazil
Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, Cerritos, CA
San Jose Repertory Theatre, San Jose, CA
Calgary Centre for the Performing Arts, Alberta, Canada
Portland Center for the Performing Arts, OR
North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, Charlotte, NC
Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago, IL
Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Chicago, IL
Goodman Theatre, Chicago, IL
Mr. Pilbrow is a pioneer of modern stage lighting in Britain and his work
has been seen in London, New York, Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Moscow. He
was the first British lighting designer to design the lighting for a Broadway
musical, "Zorba". On Broadway he was lighting designer for "Rosencrantz
& Guildenstern Are Dead", "The Rothchilds", and at
Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre, "Four Baboons Adoring The
Sun" (1993 Tony Award nomination).
Published in 1970, his book, STAGE LIGHTING, with the forward by Lord
Olivier, became a standard work in Great Britain and the United States.
A new book, STAGE LIGHTING DESIGN, THE ART, THE CRAFT, THE LIFE, with
forward by Hal Prince, was published in 1997 and revised in softcover
in 2000. The book received a Theatre Crafts International "Lighting
Product of the Year" Award for 1998.
As a theatrical producer, his long partnership with Hal Prince included being the West End producer of such great Broadway hits as: "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum", "Fiddler on the Roof", "Cabaret", "Company", "and A Little Night Music", as well as many other British productions. He was producer of the feature film "Swallows and Amazons", and the TV series "All You Need is Love—the Story of Popular Music" and "Swallows and Amazons Forever".
In 1982, Mr. Pilbrow received an award from the United States Institute of Theatre Technology for "his many years contribution to the art of lighting, as designer, entrepreneur and consultant in both England and America," and an Outstanding Life Time Achievement Award from the USITT in 1999. In 2000 he also received from the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) their annual award for Technician of the Year.
He served as Director-at-Large on the USITT Board from 2000-2003 and again from 2003-2006, and was elected a Fellow of the Institute in 2001.
In
2005 he received the LDI Award Lighting Designer of the Year