Michael Rathbun has been a professional lighting designer for more than ten years. He loves light - the subtle power it holds for absolute transformation of a moment, an idea, an expression. He loves stories and finding ways to tell and amplify those stories in light; both the challenge of daring, conceptual provocative work and the challenge of finding the perfect light and movement for more traditional pieces.
He is currently based out of Southern California, though he's always happy to travel. He has worked from coast to coast in the U.S. (with Chicago holding a special place in his heart) and internationally in Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean. He is currently the touring Lighting Director for Benjamin Millepied’s LA Dance Project. He used the unintended break from production brought no by the pandemic to complete an MFA in Stage Lighting at Trinity College Dublin's Lir Academy and is so delighted that the live performance world is back!
To see more about his work experience, please download his resume below.
Review for Be Here Now (Los Angeles):
“Within the seven segments of dance, entr’acte by Caroline Shaw, the simple yet effective lighting by Michael Rathbun really struck. Moving in colors of charged blue, neon green, and simple white, we were taken into worlds of deep emotion. Using soft edges, cut edges, and edges in between, I almost forgot what the original floor plan looked like. There were times of no boundaries, and times of small circle surfaces so inclusive it felt as though one misstep and a dancer could fall off the edge. Rathbun is someone I would love to see more collaboration from, as his lighting design was like a spider’s web in the wind; constantly shifting and floating from scene to scene to keep everyone together and caught in the present moment.”
Reviews for Macbeth (Chicago):
“Michael Rathbun’s light design gave the performance a lurid sheen. His use of low-placed lights to highlight internal monologue gave the actors a stark look, and his use of reds and purples during the banquet and murder scenes sold the carnage in the Chopin’s intimate space."
- Sara Bowden, Theatre by Numbers
"Enhanced by witty musical interludes and the creative use of chiaroscuro lighting and dramatic sound effects, this vibrant new production of Macbeth highlights the play’s inexorable downward spiral from military triumph to political ruin, from the dream of worldly success to the nightmarish reality of tyranny in which lies have usurped truth and equivocation seems to be the only means of survival."
- Chicago Shakespeare 400 City Desk
Reviews for 3 Sisters (Chicago):
"Péter Szabó’s design and Michael Rathbun’s lighting are great assets of the staged portion of the play. From a red spotlight to represent Masha’s love, the colonel, to the evocative music ranging from Beethoven to Korobeiniki (the Tetris song), Scabó, Visky, and Rathbun have worked out a seemingly endless number of ways to keep the story fresh and focused on the characters’ inner monologues."
- Chicago Critic
"Nice lighting! (Michael F. Rathbun)"
- Splash Magazine
Reviews for The Jacksonian (Chicago)
"Michael Rathbun’s dim, moody lighting design accentuates both the quirky gallows humor and the mysterious calamity that unfolds.
- Chicago Theatre Review
"On the technical end, the tandem of Michael Rathbun (lights) and Oliver Hickman (sound and music), reunited after their work on last season’s excellent Our New Girl, employ their formidable talents in an effort to project onto “The Jacksonian” an air of consequence"
- New City Stage
"Katie Bell-Springmann's design enables the scenes to jump from Bill's motel room to the outside ice machine to the hotel bar/restaurant, with the help of Michael Rathbun's lighting design"
-Gapers Block