An instigator of space, bodies, and ideas who wears his heart on his sleeve and the sky on his arm - while working in lighting design, scenic design, curation, installation art, and education - Mark is a Vermont based artist who has a fascination with how people use and inhabit space. He lights mostly dance - as people talk too much as it is.
Since 1990 Mark’s designs have been seen on 4 continents; in 10 countries, and 26 U.S. states.
In New York City his credits include off-Broadway at LaMaMa E.T.C. & The Pearl Theatre Company, as well as designs at The Apollo Theater, P.S. 122, Dance Theater Workshop, Brooklyn Academy of Music (Dance Africa & Next Wave Festival), Ohio Theater/Ice Factory Festival, The Joyce Theater, Flea Theater & HERE Arts Center.
In the United States Mark’s credits include Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, CAP UCLA, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Andy Warhol Museum, The Lincoln Theater/9:30 Club (Washington, DC), Michelle Ellsworth, DancePlace, David Dorfman, Daniel Nagrin, Zak Winokur, Camille A. Brown, Phantom Theater (Vermont), American Repertory Theater, Dana Reitz, Jessica Lang, Dance For Life (Chicago), Rennie Harris Grassroots Project, Speakeasy Stage Company, Northlight Theatre, David Cromer, The Orchard Project, Elena Demyanenko, David R. Gammons, Kyle Abraham, River North Chicago Dance Company, Lost Nation Theater, Carolina Theater (Durham), Chien-Ying Wang, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Joe Goode, Stonington Opera House/Opera House Arts, Keith A. Thompson, Athenaeum Center for Thought & Culture, Lorraine Chapman: The Company, Spencer/Colton Dance, Penobscot Theatre, Actor's Shakespeare Project, 7 Stages, SummerStages Dance, Edisa Weeks, Variety Playhouse (Atlanta), Berklee Performance Center, Peter Bingham, Yvonne Rainer, Theater At Monmouth, Pilobolus, New England Youth Theatre, Kimmel Center for the Arts, Big Ears Festival, Gesel Mason, Helanius Wilkins, Dark Water Theater Company, Revolution Hall (Portland), Boston Playwright's Theater, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Portland Stage Company (Maine), Gloucester Stage Company, Harris Theater for Music & Dance (Chicago), Boston Center for the Arts, Orpheum Theatre/PhoenixStages, Stay Awake! Theater, Fox Theater (Oakland), Fitzgerald Theater (St.Paul), Naples Philharmonic Center, Thalia Hall (Chicago), Dance Chicago, Fusebox Festival, & Seattle Theatre Group/Moore Theatre.
Internationally his credits include Canada’s Luminato Festival; Australia’s Melbourne Festival; Spain’s Primavera Sound Barcelona; Poland’s International Dance Theaters Festival; the United Kingdom's Brighton Festival, Brighton Dome, Barbican Centre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh International Festival, Sadler’s Wells (West End), Colston Hall (Bristol), Philharmonic Hall (Liverpool); Ireland's National Concert Hall, Italy's Ravenna Teatro and Colombia's Festival Imberoamericano de Teatro.
From 1998 to 2018 working in Philadelphia (lived there 1998-2011) he designed over 275 projects with and for venues & artists including Reactionaries (for which he was co-director with Bethany Formica), Headlong Dance Theater, New Paradise Laboratories, Iron Gate Theater, Christ Church Neighborhood House, Danny Hoch, National Constitution Center, Trocadero Theater, Point Breeze Performing Arts, The Union League of Philadelphia, The Rotunda, CEC Meeting House Theater, Arts Bank, Pig Iron Theater Company, Prince Music Theater, Rennie Harris Puremovement, no more masterpieces, Drake Theater, Lenape Regional Performing Arts Center, Delaware Theatre Company, Arden Theater Company, Off-The-Grid Festival, Walnut Street Theatre, Nichole Canuso Dance Company, Andrew Harwood, Aaron Posner, Contemporary Stage Company, Theater of the Living Arts (TLA), The Electric Factory, UPenn Annenberg Center / Zellerbach Theater, FDR Park, Brian Sanders’ JUNK, Megan Bridge/Fidget, PIMA Group, The North Star, Emmanuelle Delpech, Brat Productions, The Bald Mermaids, KJ Holmes, Crane Art Center, Group Motion Multi-Media Dance Theater, Chris Aiken, The Clef Club, The Grand Opera House, Union Transfer, Jessica Warchal-King, Peter Bingham, Amtrak's 30th Street Station, Moxie Dance Collective, Thalia Field, Keith Powell, Jamie Jewett/Lost Wax, Rebecca Sloan, Philadelphia Theater Company, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, The Wilma Theater (danceBOOM!), Plays & Players, The Slought Foundation, Philadelphia Fringe Festival/Live Arts/FringeArts & The Painted Bride.
Mark’s work has been seen lighting the likes of The Magnetic Fields, Radiohead, George Clinton & P-Funk, The Mural & The Mint, Liz Phair, Taylor Swift, Betty Carter, Anais Mitchell, Jesus Jones, Belly, Rage Against The Machine, Babatunde Olatunji, Candy Whales, and others. His work with music also included working production & steel on shows by Pink Floyd, Nine Inch Nails, Lollapalooza, Rascal Flatts, The Roots, Barry Manilow, Beastie Boys, Eltro, Wayward Wind, Richie Havens, Violent Femmes, The Toasters, Robert Cray Band, Fishbone, Phish, Firehose, & Naughty By Nature among many others.
As an assistant lighting designer Mark worked with John Ambrosone, Nancy Schertler, Don Holder, Russell Champa, & Christopher Akerlind at such venues at Gloucester Stage Company, Hartford Stage Company, Philadelphia Theater Company, Portland Stage Company, Trinity Repertory Company, and The Wilma Theater. He was never a good ALD, but learned a lot for sure.
A recipient of the Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts, Mark's work has been recognized with a IRNE Award "best lighting design" nomination his work on MAN IN SNOW at Gloucester Stage Company; a meritorious achievement award from the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival for his lighting & projection design for LEGACY OF LIGHT at the University of Colorado Boulder directed by Jennifer Hubbard; and Barrymore Award nominations by the Theater Alliance of Greater Philadelphia for POETIC LIFE/THE CHOICES WE MAKE with Philadelphia Young Playwrights & The Mural Arts Program (‘New Approaches to Collaboration’) and for PLANETARY ENZYME BLUES with New Paradise Laboratories (‘Outstanding Lighting Design’). Additionally his work has been recognized as "Best Lighting Design" of the season by Philadelphia Weekly for MISSION TO MERCURY for Pig Iron Theatre Company and BRITNEY'S INFERNO with Headlong Dance Theater. THE GATE with Brian Sanders' Junk was given honorable mention. The Boston Globe named his work on FUN HOUSE MIRROR at Boston Playwrights’ Theater one of the “10 Best” for the season. Mark’s short dance film with Liz Staruch & Victoria Zolnoski - THE CAMERA BETRAYS YOU - received four awards at the 2011 American College Dance Festival and was chosen for the Northeast Region Gala performance - additionally it was part of the 2016 Philadelphia Screen Dance Festival.
Mark's visual art was part of HIPSTOGRAPHS: EXPERIMENTS IN HI-FI LO-FI at Atlanta’s Gallery M, and he shared a gallery show with Victoria Zolnoski at Johnson State College in Vermont entitled THRESHOLD. Additionally his visual art has been shown at Goddard College, Vermont Governor’s Institute on the Arts, Franklin Pierce University, West Chester University, Castleton University, and via the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival multiple times.
Mark received his self-designed bachelor’s degree (“Lighting Design For Art, Architecture, & Performance”) from the University Without Walls program from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and his Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. In academia Mark has served on the faculties of Bennington College, Marlboro College, Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, University of Colorado Boulder, Franklin Pierce University, Vermont Governor's Institute on the Arts, Lower Merion High School, and Arcadia University. He has served as the Director of Production for the American College Dance Association's Northeast & MidAtlantic North Regions; and he has presented his academic work at the Society of Dance History Scholars & American College Dance Association conferences. Additionally he has been a guest artist at Johnson State College, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College, The Lawrenceville School, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Abington Friends School, Friends Central, University of Maryland College Park, Concord Academy, Keene State College, Univeristy of the Arts, Germantown Academy, Harriton High School, Conestoga High School, Milton Academy, Harvard University, Texas State University at San Marcos, Ursinus College, Temple University, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Currently Mark is a consultant to the Arnhold Institute for Dance Education, Research, Policy & Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City.
In 2018 Mark stepped back from working in academic arts and freelance design to work as a social science field researcher for the U.S. Forest Service & The University of New Hampshire on Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest. During this period he designed and built himself a small house in the Vermont woods out of shipping containers. 2022 saw Mark taking on the new challenge of renovating a small house in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom - and gardening on 3.5 of his 10.4 acres.
Mark believes in noticing everything.
Since 1990 Mark’s designs have been seen on 4 continents; in 10 countries, and 26 U.S. states.
In New York City his credits include off-Broadway at LaMaMa E.T.C. & The Pearl Theatre Company, as well as designs at The Apollo Theater, P.S. 122, Dance Theater Workshop, Brooklyn Academy of Music (Dance Africa & Next Wave Festival), Ohio Theater/Ice Factory Festival, The Joyce Theater, Flea Theater & HERE Arts Center.
In the United States Mark’s credits include Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, CAP UCLA, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Andy Warhol Museum, The Lincoln Theater/9:30 Club (Washington, DC), Michelle Ellsworth, DancePlace, David Dorfman, Daniel Nagrin, Zak Winokur, Camille A. Brown, Phantom Theater (Vermont), American Repertory Theater, Dana Reitz, Jessica Lang, Dance For Life (Chicago), Rennie Harris Grassroots Project, Speakeasy Stage Company, Northlight Theatre, David Cromer, The Orchard Project, Elena Demyanenko, David R. Gammons, Kyle Abraham, River North Chicago Dance Company, Lost Nation Theater, Carolina Theater (Durham), Chien-Ying Wang, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Joe Goode, Stonington Opera House/Opera House Arts, Keith A. Thompson, Athenaeum Center for Thought & Culture, Lorraine Chapman: The Company, Spencer/Colton Dance, Penobscot Theatre, Actor's Shakespeare Project, 7 Stages, SummerStages Dance, Edisa Weeks, Variety Playhouse (Atlanta), Berklee Performance Center, Peter Bingham, Yvonne Rainer, Theater At Monmouth, Pilobolus, New England Youth Theatre, Kimmel Center for the Arts, Big Ears Festival, Gesel Mason, Helanius Wilkins, Dark Water Theater Company, Revolution Hall (Portland), Boston Playwright's Theater, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Portland Stage Company (Maine), Gloucester Stage Company, Harris Theater for Music & Dance (Chicago), Boston Center for the Arts, Orpheum Theatre/PhoenixStages, Stay Awake! Theater, Fox Theater (Oakland), Fitzgerald Theater (St.Paul), Naples Philharmonic Center, Thalia Hall (Chicago), Dance Chicago, Fusebox Festival, & Seattle Theatre Group/Moore Theatre.
Internationally his credits include Canada’s Luminato Festival; Australia’s Melbourne Festival; Spain’s Primavera Sound Barcelona; Poland’s International Dance Theaters Festival; the United Kingdom's Brighton Festival, Brighton Dome, Barbican Centre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh International Festival, Sadler’s Wells (West End), Colston Hall (Bristol), Philharmonic Hall (Liverpool); Ireland's National Concert Hall, Italy's Ravenna Teatro and Colombia's Festival Imberoamericano de Teatro.
From 1998 to 2018 working in Philadelphia (lived there 1998-2011) he designed over 275 projects with and for venues & artists including Reactionaries (for which he was co-director with Bethany Formica), Headlong Dance Theater, New Paradise Laboratories, Iron Gate Theater, Christ Church Neighborhood House, Danny Hoch, National Constitution Center, Trocadero Theater, Point Breeze Performing Arts, The Union League of Philadelphia, The Rotunda, CEC Meeting House Theater, Arts Bank, Pig Iron Theater Company, Prince Music Theater, Rennie Harris Puremovement, no more masterpieces, Drake Theater, Lenape Regional Performing Arts Center, Delaware Theatre Company, Arden Theater Company, Off-The-Grid Festival, Walnut Street Theatre, Nichole Canuso Dance Company, Andrew Harwood, Aaron Posner, Contemporary Stage Company, Theater of the Living Arts (TLA), The Electric Factory, UPenn Annenberg Center / Zellerbach Theater, FDR Park, Brian Sanders’ JUNK, Megan Bridge/Fidget, PIMA Group, The North Star, Emmanuelle Delpech, Brat Productions, The Bald Mermaids, KJ Holmes, Crane Art Center, Group Motion Multi-Media Dance Theater, Chris Aiken, The Clef Club, The Grand Opera House, Union Transfer, Jessica Warchal-King, Peter Bingham, Amtrak's 30th Street Station, Moxie Dance Collective, Thalia Field, Keith Powell, Jamie Jewett/Lost Wax, Rebecca Sloan, Philadelphia Theater Company, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, The Wilma Theater (danceBOOM!), Plays & Players, The Slought Foundation, Philadelphia Fringe Festival/Live Arts/FringeArts & The Painted Bride.
Mark’s work has been seen lighting the likes of The Magnetic Fields, Radiohead, George Clinton & P-Funk, The Mural & The Mint, Liz Phair, Taylor Swift, Betty Carter, Anais Mitchell, Jesus Jones, Belly, Rage Against The Machine, Babatunde Olatunji, Candy Whales, and others. His work with music also included working production & steel on shows by Pink Floyd, Nine Inch Nails, Lollapalooza, Rascal Flatts, The Roots, Barry Manilow, Beastie Boys, Eltro, Wayward Wind, Richie Havens, Violent Femmes, The Toasters, Robert Cray Band, Fishbone, Phish, Firehose, & Naughty By Nature among many others.
As an assistant lighting designer Mark worked with John Ambrosone, Nancy Schertler, Don Holder, Russell Champa, & Christopher Akerlind at such venues at Gloucester Stage Company, Hartford Stage Company, Philadelphia Theater Company, Portland Stage Company, Trinity Repertory Company, and The Wilma Theater. He was never a good ALD, but learned a lot for sure.
A recipient of the Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts, Mark's work has been recognized with a IRNE Award "best lighting design" nomination his work on MAN IN SNOW at Gloucester Stage Company; a meritorious achievement award from the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival for his lighting & projection design for LEGACY OF LIGHT at the University of Colorado Boulder directed by Jennifer Hubbard; and Barrymore Award nominations by the Theater Alliance of Greater Philadelphia for POETIC LIFE/THE CHOICES WE MAKE with Philadelphia Young Playwrights & The Mural Arts Program (‘New Approaches to Collaboration’) and for PLANETARY ENZYME BLUES with New Paradise Laboratories (‘Outstanding Lighting Design’). Additionally his work has been recognized as "Best Lighting Design" of the season by Philadelphia Weekly for MISSION TO MERCURY for Pig Iron Theatre Company and BRITNEY'S INFERNO with Headlong Dance Theater. THE GATE with Brian Sanders' Junk was given honorable mention. The Boston Globe named his work on FUN HOUSE MIRROR at Boston Playwrights’ Theater one of the “10 Best” for the season. Mark’s short dance film with Liz Staruch & Victoria Zolnoski - THE CAMERA BETRAYS YOU - received four awards at the 2011 American College Dance Festival and was chosen for the Northeast Region Gala performance - additionally it was part of the 2016 Philadelphia Screen Dance Festival.
Mark's visual art was part of HIPSTOGRAPHS: EXPERIMENTS IN HI-FI LO-FI at Atlanta’s Gallery M, and he shared a gallery show with Victoria Zolnoski at Johnson State College in Vermont entitled THRESHOLD. Additionally his visual art has been shown at Goddard College, Vermont Governor’s Institute on the Arts, Franklin Pierce University, West Chester University, Castleton University, and via the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival multiple times.
Mark received his self-designed bachelor’s degree (“Lighting Design For Art, Architecture, & Performance”) from the University Without Walls program from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and his Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. In academia Mark has served on the faculties of Bennington College, Marlboro College, Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, University of Colorado Boulder, Franklin Pierce University, Vermont Governor's Institute on the Arts, Lower Merion High School, and Arcadia University. He has served as the Director of Production for the American College Dance Association's Northeast & MidAtlantic North Regions; and he has presented his academic work at the Society of Dance History Scholars & American College Dance Association conferences. Additionally he has been a guest artist at Johnson State College, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College, The Lawrenceville School, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Abington Friends School, Friends Central, University of Maryland College Park, Concord Academy, Keene State College, Univeristy of the Arts, Germantown Academy, Harriton High School, Conestoga High School, Milton Academy, Harvard University, Texas State University at San Marcos, Ursinus College, Temple University, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Currently Mark is a consultant to the Arnhold Institute for Dance Education, Research, Policy & Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City.
In 2018 Mark stepped back from working in academic arts and freelance design to work as a social science field researcher for the U.S. Forest Service & The University of New Hampshire on Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest. During this period he designed and built himself a small house in the Vermont woods out of shipping containers. 2022 saw Mark taking on the new challenge of renovating a small house in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom - and gardening on 3.5 of his 10.4 acres.
Mark believes in noticing everything.