Second Fulbright Will Take Drama Faculty Member to Other Side of the Globe

Michael Giannitti, drama faculty member at Bennington College since 1992, has been awarded his second Fulbright Senior Specialist grant. Having used his first award to teach at the National University of Art, Theater and Cinema in Bucharest, Romania, in Fall 2004, Giannitti used this grant to teach lighting design at the New Zealand Drama School in Wellington, New Zealand, for six weeks this summer.

Giannitti, who holds a MFA degree from the Yale School of Drama, was recently named resident lighting designer at the Studio Theater in Washington, D.C., where he has lit many productions and was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award in 1999. He designs lighting for theater and dance performances nationwide, including venues on Broadway, the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, and the Portland Stage. Giannitti’s additional New York City dance lighting credits include The Joyce, Dance Theatre Workshop, Danspace, The Kitchen and P.S. 122 for choreographers Marta Renzi, Susan Rethorst, and Cathy Weis. He has also lit numerous productions for the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts, Trinity Rep in Providence, RI, and Capital Rep in Albany, NY.

As part of his Fulbright this summer, professional lighting designers or other interested practitioners were invited to attend a five-day lighting design master class, run by Giannitti, held in Te Whaea Theatre at the National Dance & Drama Centre, in Wellington.