Thomas Hase

Thomas C. Hase's work has earned him both national and international recognition as a lighting designer who is known for dynamic designs in opera, new theatrical productions, live events and avant-garde dance. His design for the Tony-Award winning revival of Company on Broadway received critical acclaim and was recorded for broadcast by PBS for worldwide distribution.

Hase has worked at many of the major opera houses in the United States including Houston Grand Opera, LA Opera, New York City Opera, BAM Next Wave, Washington National Opera, Kennedy Center, DC; Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, the Minnesota Opera, Dallas Opera, Florida Grand Opera, the Goodspeed Opera and Boston Lyric Opera. He has also worked extensively at regional theaters throughout the United States. Hase’s designs have lit the stages at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Chicago Shakespeare, Center Stage Theatre, Alliance Theatre, the Dallas Theater Center, the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Maine State Music Theater. As lighting designer with New York’s Ping Chong & Company, Hase's work was seen worldwide.
 
Internationally, Hase has worked at theaters and opera houses throughout Europe, Canada, South America and Asia, including: the Vienna State Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Bavarian State Opera, the Barbican in London, the Abbey Theatre in Ireland, the Finnish, Columbian, Dutch National Operas, Opera North UK, the Canadian Opera Company, Malmö Opera in Sweden, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Staatstheater Kassel, Theater Erfurt, the Singapore Arts Festival and Tokyo Metro Arts Center.

In 2010, he was on the original design team for the London premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s opera Prima Donna at Sadler’s Wells, which was later produced by New York City Opera and at the Luminato Festival in Toronto. In addition, he was the lighting designer for the world premiere of Riverdance’s Magik Macabre in Dublin as well as the European premiere of The Wiz for Stage Holdings/Stage Entertainment in Holland. As resident lighting designer for Stadttheater Giessen in Germany, Hase produced over 100 designs for theater, opera and ballet.

The world commission production of Ice, where Hase was both Projection and Lighting Design for the Finnish National Opera; Der Freischütz at the Vienna State Opera; as well as Nederlandse Reisopera Production of L'Orfeo in Holland in collaboration with Studio Drift are a few of the many of his productions available in worldwide live streaming.
 
Hase celebrated his 27th year for the Cincinnati Opera Summer Festival as the Resident Lighting Designer/Lighting Director, and Design Adviser in 2023.
 
Hase holds a BA in History and German literature, an MFA from CCM in Lighting Design and Technology, and is a former Fulbright grantee to the Institut für Theater, Film- und Fernsehwissenschaft at the University of Köln, Germany in Lighting Design.