Jason Hand
Jason is a Toronto-based lighting designer working in theater and opera.
Selected credits include The Arsonists (Canadian Stage), Morris Panych’s adaptation of The Amorous Adventures of Anatol (Tarragon Theatre) and a new production of The Tales of Hoffmann for Edmonton Opera, directed by Joel Ivany.
Last season he received a Dora nomination for his design of The Ugly One for Theatre Smash.
Jason has created the lighting for the world premieres of The Trespassers at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, The DeChardin Project for The Quickening Theatre and Tijuana Cure for Theatre Smash. He developed innovative lighting for site-specific productions Peer Gynt and Gorey Story for The Thistle Project, the co-op production of Vacancy. He also lit the acclaimed productions of La bohème and The Turn of the Screw for Against the Grain Theatre.
Other credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Winter’s Tale (Canadian Stage), The Man of Mode, Ivona Princess of Burgundia (George Brown College), Fly Fisher’s Companion, Self Help, The Melville Boys (Lighthouse Theatre Festival) and See How They Run (Theatre Aquarius). In addition to his opera designs for Against the Grain Theatre, Jason has designed Giulio Cesare for Orchestra London at the Grand Theatre, Tim Albery’s Dido and Aeneas at Opera on the Avalon and assisted an international roster of designers on over 25 productions at the Canadian Opera Company. He has also assisted some of Canada’s top designers on plays and musicals at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Soulpepper, the Vancouver Playhouse, Luminato and Dancap.
In 2011, he collaborated with director Joel Ivany and designer Camellia Koo to conceive a production of I Capuletti e i Montecchi that placed third in the biennial European Opera-Directing Prize. In 2012, Jason was named a Protégé Winner in the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre.
Recent and upcoming projects include This at Canadian Stage and a first time collaboration with Allan MacInnis on Blue Planet at Young People’s Theatre. He will also have his first design at the Soulpepper Theatre Company with Leah Cherniak’s The Barber of Seville.
Jason holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honors from York University and just bought his first home in Toronto.
