Theater Design Consultants, The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Founded in London by lighting designer and producer Richard Pilbrow, Theatre Projects Consultants was established in 1957 to provide creative design and consulting services to the theater and performing arts community. Now the pre-eminent theater consulting organization in the world, Theatre Projects Consultants has more than 500 projects in 40 countries to its credit.
Richard Pilbrow
Founder and chairman of Theatre Projects Consultants, Richard Pilbrow is one of the world’s leading theater design consultants. He is also a theater, film and television producer as well as an internationally known author and stage lighting designer.
His numerous lighting design credits include Cy Coleman’s Broadway musical The Life (Tony Award-nominee for Best Lighting) and Harold Prince’s award-winning Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic Show Boat (Drama Desk & Outer Critic's Circle Awards for Best Lighting). A pioneer of modern stage lighting, Pilbrow’s 1970 book, Stage Lighting, with a foreword by Sir Laurence Olivier, became a standard for lighting design. His book Stage Lighting Design: The Art, The Craft, and The Life, published in 1997, received the 1998 Theatre Crafts International "Lighting Product of the Year" Award.
A London native who now lives and works in Connecticut, Pilbrow was chosen by Lord Olivier to be the theater consultant for the National Theatre of Great Britain. He was also the theater consultant to the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican Theatre and the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Pilbrow’s recent projects include the Aronoff Center for the Arts, Cincinnati, OH; renovation of the New Amsterdam Theatre, New York, NY (home to Disney’s The Lion King); Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, Lenox, MA; Novo Teatro Opera House, São Paulo, Brazil; Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, Cerritos, CA; Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA; and the Goodman and Steppenwolf Theatres in Chicago, IL. As a commercial theater producer, Pilbrow’s long partnership with Harold Prince led to a collaboration as the London producer of such Broadway hits as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Company and A Little Night Music.
David I. Taylor
David Taylor joined Theatre Project Consultants’ London office in 1985, became the Principal Consultant in the Connecticut office in 1993, and was recently appointed to the Board of Directors. His consulting experience covers a wide variety of performance spaces including arts centers, educational facilities, repertory theaters, concert halls and renovation/restoration projects. Recently, Taylor served as Project Manager for the New Amsterdam Theatre renovation, the San Jose Repertory Theatre, Amherst College’s Experimental Theatre and the Benaroya Concert Hall in Seattle.
Like Richard Pilbrow, Taylor began his career as a lighting designer in the United Kingdom and continues to light shows in the UK and United States. He holds a First Class Honors degree in Drama and Scenography from the University of London and has also studied at the UMASS/Amherst on a theater research scholarship.
Says Taylor about the Kimmel Center project: "TPC and RVA (along with Artec on occasion) undertook an extensive programming exercise in Philadelphia to understand the constituents for the performing arts and the inventory of venues in the city and hinterland. We initiated an array of interviews with potential users and competitors to the venue and visits to other theaters and concert spaces, as well as seminars and discussions with the major constituents such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Philadanco and Concerto Soloists."
"These interviews and meetings were useful on a number levels - to expand our understanding and knowledge of the arts and culture in Philadelphia, to specifically create a venue that was responsive to the needs of the city and its arts constituents and to develop relationships with the artists and performers, choreographers, technicians and audiences who would make the Kimmel Center their home, so that it is just that--their home. I think our program of research and relationship building was extensive and has led to a better building, and one which has ownership from its constituents who we believe will love it."