Faculty
Lap Chi Chu
Head of Lighting Design; Professor
Lap Chi Chu is an award winning Lighting Designer for theater, dance and opera. He recently designed the Broadway production of Camelot and The Coast Starlight at Lincoln Center Theater.
He has designed over 50 world premieres of new plays, including Sara DeLappe’s The Wolves at Playwright’s Realm and the Lincoln Theater Center in New York, Lynn Nottage’s Mlima’s Tale at the Public Theater, Suzan-Lori Parks’ Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1,2 & 3 at the Public Theater, American Repertory Theater and Mark Taper Forum, Rajiv Joseph’s Archduke and Describe the Night at the Mark Taper Forum and the Atlantic Theater Company/Alley Theater respectively, Matthew Lopez’s Somewhere at the Old Globe, Hammaad Chaudry’s An Ordinary Muslim at New York Theater Workshop, Qui Nguyen’s Poor Yella Redneck at South Coast Rep, Jen Silverman’s Dangerous House at the Williamstown Theater Festival, and Anna Ziegler’s Actually at the Geffen Playhouse.
Other selected credits include Morning Sun at Manhattan Theatre Club, Mother of the Maid, featuring Glenn Close at the Public Theater, The Way She Spoke, featuring Kate Del Castillo for Audible.com, Richard III at the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington DC, and Martyna Majok’s Queens at La Jolla Playhouse.
Chu is the recipient of multiple awards including an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design, the Lucile Lortel Award for Best Lighting Design (Mlima’s Tale). He is also the recipient of a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Angstrom Award for Career Achievement in Lighting Design and an Ovation Award for Best Lighting Design (The Convert).
Chu was most recently Head of Lighting Design at California Institute of the Arts, where he taught for 19 years. He has also guest taught lighting at Hangyang University in Seoul, South Korea.
Chu earned his M.F.A. from New York University and B.S. from Northwestern University.
Feature Stories and News
"Lap Chi Chu Talks About His Lighting Design for The Coast Starlight and Camelot"