TEDxArcadiaUniversity Speaker: John Conklin
John Conklin, Set and Costume Designer, has designed sets and costumes for the major American opera houses (New York City Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis), the Glimmerglass Opera (where he served as Associate Artistic Director), and the opera companies of Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis, Washington, Los Angeles, Santa Fe and Boston. At the Metropolitan Opera, he designed the world premiere of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles and Jonathan Millers's production of Pelleas et Melisande among others and has completed two Ring cycles (San Francisco, directed by Nichols Lehnhoff and Chicago Lyric Opera directed by August Everding). In Europe, he has worked for The English National Opera, The Royal Opera (Stockholm), The Bastille Paris Opera (costumes for Robert Wilson's Magic Flute) and the opera companies of Munich and Amsterdam. He has also designed for Broadway and off-Broadway (including The Public Theater) and extensively for regional theater, including the American Repertory Theater (Boston), The Goodman Theatre (Chicago), the Hartford Stage Company, Long Wharf (New Haven), the Mark Taper Forum (Los Angeles), the Actor's Theater of Louisville, and Center Stage (Baltimore). He has also designed for dance with such companies as the Joffrey Ballet, the Boston Ballet, and the Royal Ballet (London). He teaches at the Tisch School of Arts (NYU) and serves as Artistic Adviser to the Boston Lyric Opera. In 2008 he received the Robert L. B. Tobin Award for Life Time Achievement and in 2011 he was a National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honoree.
What inspires you?
The seemingly infinity capacity of the human spirit to rise, and even to soar, above the tawdry, the depressive, and the cruel.
What is your connection to passion and creativity?
I hold a deep commitment and belief that passion IS creativity!
