Marcus Doshi is an international theatre maker who designs lighting and sets for theatre, opera, and dance, and collaborates with artists and architects on a wide array of non-performance-based work. His work is known for its essentialist point of view, bold visual style, musicality, and dramaturgical integration — all driven by his manifesto: “Good Lighting for the Stage.” He is the author of Towards Good Lighting for the Stage: Aesthetic Theory for Theatrical Lighting Design, published by Routledge.
His work has been seen on and off-Broadway, at most major regional theatre and opera companies, and extensively around the world. He is a frequent collaborator with NYC’s Theatre for a New Audience—where he has designed many shows with director Arin Arbus—and Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company—where he has designed a number of world premieres including Mary Page Marlow, Visiting Edna, Linda Vista, BLKS, and Lindiwe.
On Broadway, Pass Over (also Steppenwolf, Lincoln Center, and Amazon Films) and Linda Vista (also Steppenwolf and Center Theatre Group). Notable productions off-Broadway include The Merchant of Venice, The Skin of Our Teeth, King Lear (2014 Henry Hewes Design Award nomination), Othello (2009 Lucille Nortel Award for Outstanding Lighting Design nomination), and Hamlet (2009 Drama Desk for Best Lighting Design of a Play nomination and 2009 Henry Hewes Design Award nomination) with Theatre for a New Audience, Party People at The Public Theatre (2017 AUDELCO ‘Viv’ Award Nomination), Queens Boulevard (The Musical), The First Breeze of Summer (2008 AUDELCO ‘Viv’ for Best Lighting Design) at The Signature Theatre Co., and projects with Lincoln Center, BAM, New York Theatre Workshop, The Vineyard Theatre, SoHo Rep, and others.
His work for Opera has been seen in the US with Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Minnesota Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Kansas City Lyric Opera, Seattle Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Virginia Opera, Spoletto Festival USA, Lincoln Center Festival, Julliard Opera, and The Greenwich Music Festival where he was principal designer for many years, and internationally with companies such as The Royal Opera House (London), Canadian Opera Company (Toronto), La Monnaie / De Munt (Brussels), Aldeburgh Music (UK), Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (France), and Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia (Valencia).
Other international engagements have included designs for theatre and dance in Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Paris (at La Comédie Française), Marseille, Castres, Venice, Vienna, Sarajevo, Mostar, Tuzla, Tunis, Sousse, Cairo, Beirut, Kuwait City, Mumbai, New Delhi, Phnom Penh, Jakarta, and Sydney.
His extensive regional collaborations include work with Huntington Stage Co., Yale Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, Geva Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Co., Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Dallas Theatre Center, California Shakespeare Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Intiman, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
He is a graduate of Wabash College and the Yale School of Drama, and is a Professor in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern University where he has taught in the MFA design and directing programs since 2012.