Kevin Dreyer

Kevin Dreyer is an American lighting designer of dance, theatre, opera and film, Associate Professor of Theatre at the University of Notre Dame and resident Lighting Designer for the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival. Dreyer is also a dance lighting reconstructor for the works of Gerald Arpino, Moses Pendleton and Kurt Jooss.

A third-generation performer, Dreyer was born at Fort McClellan, an Army base in Anniston, Alabama. During his youth, he never lived in the same place for more than three years since his father worked as a singer, actor, teacher, and for the Quaker's American Friends Service Committee, a pacifist organization that staff community service projects. When Dreyer was about to enter the tenth grade, his father joined the drama faculty at the North Carolina School of the Arts. "We decided that if I wanted to have my own identity, I shouldn't go in for acting, so I went for design and production, thinking that if I had trouble getting a job acting, stage managing would be a good fallback," he says. "By the time I got to college, acting was no longer calling me as it had." Dreyer observed ballet classes at NCSA to get a clear sense of the process.

Dreyer received a BFA in Stage Design and Technical Design from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1975. "I don't like sawdust, so I gravitated toward lighting. What I discovered, also, about myself is that I'm an impatient person in ways. The thought of waiting four to six weeks to see a design realized is excruciating. I am really drawn to the speed that's involved in designing lighting." He was influenced as a designer while stage managing for choreographer and lighting designer Alwin Nikolais' Nikolais Dance Theatre. "From Nikolais, Dreyer learned the importance of detail and acquired a knack for striking a human chord." "He was the first person to be entrusted with the original lighting created by Alwin Nikolais." Dreyer was also exposed to 'dance pieces that would start entirely from visual design.' "I took away the courage to experiment. Nikolais' true genius was his ability to spot the right thing in the midst of an accident. He had no preconceived rules. Anything was valid. And that's where you find the magic."

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