Robert Thomson

12th season: Lighting designer of The Merchant of Venice. Stratford: His designs for 28 productions include Cymbeline, Much Ado About Nothing, The Homecoming, Dangerous Liaisons, Rice Boy, Zastrozzi, Krapp's Last Tape, Hughie, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Caesar and Cleopatra, Into the Woods, King Lear, Twelfth Night, King John and The Swanne (all three parts). His numerous Stratford collaborators include directors Jonathan Miller, Jennifer Tarver, Peter Hinton, Christopher Newton, Des McAnuff and Antoni Cimolino. Elsewhere: Mr. Thomson is widely recognized as one of Canada's most prolific and versatile lighting designers for theatre, opera and dance. Resident Lighting Designer for the National Ballet of Canada for 12 seasons. His company projects with choreographer James Kudelka include Swan Lake, Désir, Spring Awakening, The Miraculous Mandarin and Washington Square.  His numerous other company designs include The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Manon and Don Quixote. He designed more than 55 productions for the Shaw Festival over 25 seasons. His credits include a 10-year term as Head of Lighting Design, Picnic, St. Joan, Man and Superman, Lulu, Pygmalion, Cavalcade, Peter Pan and Cyrano de Bergerac. He began his professional career in the late '70s at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, working extensively with founding Artistic Director Bill Glassco. Since then he has worked with a diverse range of Canadian companies, including the National Arts Centre, Canadian Stage, Citadel Theatre, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Charlottetown Festival, Theatre Calgary, Globe Theatre, Pleiades Theatre and Montreal's Centaur Theatre and Segal Centre. Internationally, his designs have been featured at Lincoln Center Theater, Metropolitan Opera, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet. Seattle Opera recently presented his designs for Robert Lepage's award-winning first opera, Bluebeard's Castle and Erwartung. This Canadian Opera Company program has been performed by numerous companies in Canada and around the world, including Brooklyn Academy of Music, Edinburgh Festival, Geneva Opera, Hong Kong Arts Festival and the Melbourne Festival in Australia.  His other Canadian Opera Company credits include the world première of Mario and the Magician and Katya Kabanova. Other opera credits include l'Opéra de Montréal, Pacific Opera Victoria, Calgary Opera, Tapestry New Opera, Opéra de Québec, Vancouver Opera and Opera Lyra. Recent credits include Hedda Gabler (Hartford Stage); Red and La Sagouine (Segal Theatre); Fernando Krapp Wrote Me This Letter and The Cosmonaut's Last Message… (Canadian Stage); Buried Child and Macbeth (National Arts Centre); Krapp's Last Tape and Hughie (Goodman Theatre, Chicago); Private Lives, August: Osage County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and the 13th season of A Christmas Carol (Citadel Theatre); Billy Bishop Goes to War (Globe Theatre); and The Comedy of Errors (Centaur Theatre). Awards: His work is noted for its precision, visual poetry, psychological insight and dramaturgical impact, and his acclaimed designs have garnered a Sterling Award for Edmonton Opera's mounting of the globally acclaimed Bluebeard's Castle and Erwartung, directed by Robert Lepage; four Dora Mavor Moore Awards; and he was recently presented with the prestigious Siminovitch Prize in Theatre for 2012. Training: Mr. Thomson trained at The Studio and Forum of Stage Design in N.Y.C., and has taught at Sheridan College, Ryerson University, Carnegie Mellon University and the National Theatre School of Canada. Et cetera: Member of Associated Designers of Canada and L'Association des professionnels des arts de la scène du Québec.