Désir
The Taming of the Shrew

Robert Thomson is one of Canada’s most versatile and active theater, opera and dance lighting designers. He previously designed The Taming of the Shrew for ABT. Robert served as Resident Lighting Designer for The National Ballet of Canada for twelve seasons. His company projects with choreographer James Kudelka include Swan Lake, Spring Awakening, The Miraculous Mandarin and Washington Square. His numerous other company designs include The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, and Manon. This summer he returns to Canada’s prestigious Stratford Shakespeare Festival for an eighth season to design Zastrozzi and Rice Boy. His other Stratford projects include The Taming Of The Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Caesar and Cleopatra and King Lear both starring Christopher Plummer, Krapp’s Last Tape and Hughie starring Brian Dennehy, Into the Woods, Measure For Measure, Twelfth Night, The Odyssey and Pentecost.

He designed Robert Lepage’s award-winning international opera hit Bluebeard’s Castle and Erwartung. This mixed program has been produced by numerous companies in Canada and around the world including Brooklyn Academy of Music, Geneva Opera, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Melbourne Festival in Australia and most recently for Seattle Opera and Opera de Quebec. His other Canadian Opera Company credits include the world premiere of Mario and the Magician and Katya Kabanova. He has designed for Canada’s renowned repertory company, the Shaw Festival for twenty-four seasons. His credits include a ten-year term as Head of Lighting Design, that included the lighting for Picnic, St. Joan, Man and Superman, Cavalcade and Cyrano de Bergerac.

Thomson’s recent credits include Jonathan Miller’s Tony Award nominated production of King Lear starring Christopher Plummer for Lincoln Center Theater on Broadway, The Taming of the Shrew for Boston Ballet and Ballet West, Macbeth and Buried Child for Canada’s National Arts Centre, The Shadow, a new Canadian opera for Tapestry New Opera Works in Toronto, The Rocky Horror Picture Show for CanStage and the Citadel Theatre’s productions of The Wizard of Oz, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Peter Pan and A Christmas Carol.

Over his 30-year career Thomson has received numerous awards including a Sterling Award for Edmonton Opera’s mounting of the Bluebeard’s Castle and four of Canada’s coveted Dora Mavor Moore Awards. Thomson is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada.