Donald Holder to Lead Lighting Design at David Geffen School of Drama

Two-time Tony Award-winning lighting designer Donald Holder will join the faculty of David Geffen School of Drama at Yale as Professor in the Practice and will serve as Head of the Lighting Design Concentration at the Geffen School and Lighting Design Advisor at Yale Repertory Theatre, effective July 1, 2025. He will join the leadership of the Design Program which includes Co-Chairs Riccardo Hernández and Toni-Leslie James, who serve as Heads of the Set Design and Costume Design Concentrations respectively; Jill Du Boff, Head of the Sound Design Concentration; and Wendall K. Harrington, Head of the Projection Design Concentration.
 
“I am delighted to welcome back Donald Holder, a 1986 graduate of David Geffen School of Drama, to our community in this new role,” said James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean of the Geffen School and Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theatre. “We are fortunate to have such a distinguished practicing artist joining our faculty, as he combines imaginative and technical prowess with a profound commitment to preparing new generations of practitioners for a lifetime of work in the field.”
 
Donald Holder said, “I am thrilled beyond words to be joining the faculty at David Geffen School of Drama and to follow in the footsteps of my mentor Jennifer Tipton and long-time colleague Stephen Strawbridge as Head of the Lighting Design Concentration. There is no question that my education at Yale has served as the foundation and sustaining force for everything that has followed in my artistic and professional life, and I hope I have the same impact on future generations of emerging artists. I look forward to carrying on the traditions and principles that have defined our program since its inception and am equally excited about forging a path into the future that embraces the ever-changing dynamics of our world and our industry.”
 
A global leader in his field, Don Holder numbers among his credits more than 60 Broadway productions, as well as hundreds of others at every major American regional theater, eminent international venues, and opera companies including Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, Dutch National Opera, Kirov Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Chicago Lyric, and the Berlin Staatsoper.
 
A partial list of his notable Broadway productions includes South Pacific, McNeal, My Fair Lady, Oslo, Kiss Me Kate, Anastasia, M Butterfly, Ragtime, The King and I, Gem of the Ocean, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Lion King. Don has been recognized with two Tony Awards, twelve additional Tony nominations, the OBIE Award, and the Lucille Lortel Award, among many others. His work in film and television includes Spirited (Apple Studios), Oceans 8 (Warner Brothers Pictures), Smash (NBC), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon), and Gossip Girl (HBO Max). 
 
Don has been a lighting educator for nearly twenty years, most recently at Cal Arts and then Rutgers University, where he is Head of the Lighting Design Program and Professor of Professional Practice. A graduate of the University of Maine at Orono, he earned his MFA in Technical Design and Production in 1986 at Yale, where he studied with Jennifer Tipton; and he has designed nine productions at Yale Rep, including Maurice Sendak and Tony Kushner’s Comedy on the Bridge and Brundibar, August Wilson’s Radio Golf, and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. 
 
Prior to his full-time appointment, Donald Holder will join the admissions committee for the lighting design concentration. In his new roles, he succeeds Stephen Strawbridge, who will begin his phased retirement on July 1 and will continue teaching half time through June 30, 2027. Stephen Strawbridge, who received his MFA from Yale in 1983, joined the faculty in 1993. He served as Co-Chair of the Design Program, first with Ming Cho Lee and then with Michael Yeargan, 1996–2021. He has designed 28 productions at Yale Rep, more than any other artist in the theater’s history. 
 
“Throughout his tenure, Stephen Strawbridge has tracked and supported students’ progress with a keen and compassionate eye, while navigating the complicated interdepartmental relationships with his customary clarity and calming presence,” James Bundy said. “Steve’s impending retirement from Yale will be a loss to our community, but it is a joy to contemplate his having more time to spend with his wife Ruth and their family, sailing on their boat, and illuminating truth and beauty in many productions to come.”