Moulin Rouge! The Musical (2019), one of two Broadway musicals for which Justin Townsend has received a TONY award nomination for lighting design. Photo by Matthew Murphy Tony-nominated theater professor Justin Townsend. Photo by Matthew Murphy The TONY Awards released its nominations in mid-October, and Justin Townsend, international lighting designer and associate professor for performance in the Theater Department, was nominated twice for Best Lighting Design of a Musical for his incredible work on Jagged Little Pill and Moulin Rouge! The Musical—both also nominated for Best Musical. Townsend is nominated along with Bruno Poet for Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. A ceremony date has not been announced. Townsend, who has been teaching classes including Lighting Design, Stagecraft, Stage Design Concepts, and Research Problems in Theater since 2017, is no stranger to Broadway. His lighting designs include American Psycho (TONY nomination, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and Henry Hewes Award), The Humans (TONY nomination, Drama Desk Award), The Nap, Little Foxes, Present Laughter, Casa Valentina, A Night with Janis Joplin (NAACP Theatre Award), Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Other Place, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Hewes Nomination, Outer Critics Circle Nomination). His off-Broadway work includes Joan of Arc: Into the Fire; Here Lies Love (Drama Desk Award); Vietgone; Pretty Filthy; Mr. Burns, a Post Electric Play; Odyssey; Venus; and Unnatural Acts (Lucille Lortel Award nomination). Townsend also won the Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design in 2014. Townsend designed the lighting for the 2015 revival of the Pulitzer-prize winning play Fool for Love (1983) by actor and playwright Sam Shepard. Towsend collaborated with Grammy-winning recording artist Drake to design a 50-foot replica of the top of the Toronto’s iconic CN Tower for the 2017 OVO Fest in that city. Jagged Little Pill, a musical based on an album by musician Alanis Morissette, received 15 TONY award nominations, one of which is Professor Justin Townsend’s for lighting design. Photo by Matthew Murphy Townsend won the 2016 Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle awards for Outstanding Lighting Design for a Musical for American Psycho. Photo by Matthew Murphy Here Lies Love, a rock musical by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim about the life of the former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos, premiered off-Broadway at the Public Theater in New York City in 2013. Photo by Matthew Murphy
