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Howell Binkley
Binkley at the 2016 Tony Awards
Born	25 July 1956 Winston-Salem
Died	14 August 2020 (aged 64) Jacksonville
Resting place	God's Acre Cemetery
Occupation	Designer, lighting design
Awards	Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Musical (70th Tony Awards, 2016) Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Musical (60th Tony Awards, 2006) Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lighting Design (2015)
Website	https://howellbinkley.com
[edit on Wikidata]

Howell Bagby Binkley (July 25, 1956 – August 14, 2020) was an American lighting designer in modern dance and musical theatre. He received the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Musical for Jersey Boys in 2006, and again in 2016 for Hamilton. He died due to lung cancer on August 14, 2020.

Early life and education

Binkley was born on July 25, 1956 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As a teenager, he became interested in theatre, participating in theatre summer camps for three years at the North Carolina School of the Arts. In addition, Binkley picked up jobs unloading trucks at the R. J. Reynolds Memorial Auditorium in Winston-Salem, adjacent to Richard J. Reynolds High School where he attended. He considered studying architecture in college, and applied to architecture programs at multiple state universities in North Carolina, but was not admitted to any of them.

Binkley instead enrolled in the theatre program at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina in 1974. Less than two years into his studies, he left college for two years to work at Opryland as a stagehand. Upon his return to ECU, he studied with The Acting Company during their residency at the university, and left college without graduating to take a full-time job with the company.

Career

Binkley joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company as an associate under lighting designer Jennifer Tipton, who encouraged him to branch out and seek independent work. Binkley and David Parsons collaborated in 1982 to produce "Caught," a six-minute modern dance solo set to music by Robert Fripp. "Caught" depicts a soloist who is only illuminated while in midair, using strobe lights to create the illusion that the soloist is floating.

In 1985, Binkley moved to New York City, and co-founded the Parsons Dance Company. Binkley remained the resident lighting designer of Parsons Dance for decades, creating over 60 designs for works by the company.

Binkley then went on to make his Broadway debut as designer for Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1993, which earned him his first ever Tony nomination. From this success he went on to design and light a plethora of major Broadway shows. In total, he designed 52 shows for Broadway and was nominated for a Tony Award nine times. Over the course of his work in Broadway, he became a frequent collaborator with Hal Prince and director Des McAnuff.

In addition to his work in New York City, Binkley worked across America, including national tours of Applause in 1996; tick, tick…BOOM! in 2003; and Flashdance in 2012. Alongside this, he worked at regional theatres such as La Jolla Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre DC, Old Globe Theatre, the Guthrie Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, and Hartford Stage.

Style

University of North Carolina School of the Arts lighting design professor Norman Coates described Binkley's technique in 2016 as "a dynamic use of color, and he cuts through that color with a purity of white light. ... The dynamic of being able to create the motion in light that matches the motion in the music and dance could be what makes his work so successful."

Death and legacy

Binkley died on August 14, 2020 of lung cancer.

Following his death, lighting equipment manufacturer Rosco Laboratories created a compilation of shows designed by Binkley, highlighting his use of gobos that create patterns in beams of light. Binkley's signature looks often utilized the abstract geometric patterns created by one specific Rosco gobo, catalog number R77760 "Internal Reflections." Rosco renamed the gobo "Binkley Reflections" in his honor in September 2020.

Awards and nominations

References

1. ^ Genzlinger, Neil (September 2, 2020). "Howell Binkley, Who Sculpted Broadway Hits in Light, Dies at 64". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
2. "Tony Award-Winning Lighting Designer Howell Binkley Has Passed Away". Retrieved 2020-08-14.
3. ^ Eddy, Kathleen (February 1, 2004). "Simply Howell Binkley". Live Design. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
4. ^ Felder, Lynn (October 9, 2016). "Howell Binkley, Winston-Salem native, designing his way into the spotlight". Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
5. Upchurch, Michael (October 28, 2007). "PNB's "Caught" in the act of flying — kind of". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
6. Mendoza, Michael (June 29, 2018). "David Parsons creates joy by making his dancers fly; see them Saturday in Dallas". Dallas News. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
7. "Remembering Howell Binkley". The Association of Lighting Designers. August 15, 2020. Retrieved 2020-08-16.
8. Credits as of November 2006 American Theatre Wing
9. Tiller, Chad (September 24, 2020). "BINKLEY REFLECTIONS: A Tribute To Howell". Rosco Spectrum. Retrieved 2024-12-05.

External links

• Howell Binkley at the Internet Broadway Database
• Internet Off-Broadway Database profile
• London Theatre Database profile
• American Theatre Wing's Working in the Theatre Episode on Lighting Design

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