IN MEMORIAM: DON CHILDS (1943-2011)

Don began his theatrical career at the San Francisco Actors Workshop during the theatrically active 1960's. During his tenure with the Workshop he spent his summers at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival (for 5 years) working as a technician, lighting designer and finally as Technical Director. When the Workshop founders went to New York to take over the Lincoln Center Theatres Don returned to college where obtained a BA from the University of Iowa and an MFA from Indiana University. A teaching career took Don from San Diego to Montreal and many places in between.

Don designed over 200 plays, musicals, dance concerts, and exhibitions. His work has been displayed at the Prague Quadrennial where the production that he lit for set designer Ladislav Vychodil won the Gold Medal for Scenography. Among Don’s favorite designs was the production of Not about Nightingales which was produced at Sam Houston State. Nightingales brought him a number of awards including an invitation to exhibit in the inaugural World Stage Design exhibition in Toronto in 2005.  Don was named Artist of the Year by Texas Educational Theatre Association in 2007.

Don was the recent chair of the Southwest region of the United States Institute of Theatre Technology. He founded the Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas to train designers and technicians  for the ‘high-tech’ world of entertainment technology which has its center in Las Vegas.  Don was a member of USITT, IATSE-USA 829, and IAAM.