Thorn michaels

Thorn Michaels is a Seattle-based lighting designer and associate for theatre, dance and opera.  

She is an adjunct faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, where she teaches lighting design.

Her recent work as a designer includes And So That Happened for 5th Avenue Theatre; Odyssey, O+E, The Tender Land, and Robin Hood for Seattle Opera;  I Do! I Do! and The Book Club Play at Village Theatre; Balloonacy and Brooklyn Bridge at Seattle Children's Theatre; Fire Season, Hand to God, Grounded, and Ironbound (Theatre Puget Sound Gregory Award for Outstanding Lighting Design nominee, 2018) at Seattle Public Theater;  The Revolutionists at ArtsWest; Jane Eyre, Mrs. Caliban, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao at Book-It Repertory Theatre; The Two-Character Play with Civic Rep (TPS Gregory Award for Outstanding Lighting Design nominee, 2015); Strictly Seattle, Made in Seattle, and The Bridge Project with Velocity Dance Center, where she was Resident Lighting Designer from 2015-2018; Onerus with Cafe Nordo; As You Like It and The Tempest with Seattle Shakespeare Company; and A Delicate Balance at Santa Fe Playhouse.

As the 2016-2017 Gilbert Hemsley intern, she spent nine months serving as an assistant lighting designer and assistant lighting supervisor for the Lincoln Center Festival, San Francisco Opera, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, and New York City Ballet. In June 2016, Thorn completed her MFA in lighting design from the University of Washington. 

Thorn is also fluent in Italian and holds a C1 level certification in Italian as a foreign language from the Università per Stranieri di Siena, Italy.

You can read an interview with Thorn from the University of Washington magazine here: https://drama.washington.edu/news/2016/01/11/student-spotlight-thorn-michaels-lighting-design