Theater

Jim Findlay

Initial PGF Award: Theater Fellowship, 1999
Additional PGF Awards: 2010 Works in Progress Residency Award

Jim Findley works across specialties as a designer, director, performer and creator with a constellation of theater, performance and music groups largely based in New York City.

He is a founding member and primary collaborator in both the experimentally ground breaking COLLAPSABLE GIRAFFE (1995-present) and the internationally successful, music/media performance company ACCINOSCO/Cynthia Hopkins (2003-present).

With his cohorts in the Giraffe, Findlay is involved in all aspects of the company's performance works including Damfino (Performing Garage, 1998); 3 Virgins (ShowWorld, 1999); Bend Your Mind Off (CG and Radiohole, Collapsable Hole, 2000 and 2001); Witch Mountain/Black Tarantula (Collapsable Hole, 2001); Letters from the Earth (Collapsable Hole, 2005); and Pee Pee Maw Maw (Collapsable Hole, 2008). Since 2001, the Collapsable Giraffe, with partner company Radiohole, has made the Collapsable Hole, a converted garage in Williamsburg, Brooklyn it's home, presenting their own works and the work of many other companies from New York and around the world.

For the other company he co-founded, ACCINOSCO, and in league with longtime collaborator Jeff Sugg, Jim Findlay has designed the sets and video for the body of work known as Cynthia Hopkins' Accidental Trilogy, including Accidental Nostalgia (Bessie Award 2005) and Must Don't Whip 'Um (2007) in addition to performing in each of the pieces. The final work in the trilogy, The Success of Failure, premiered at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis in April 2009 and will play at St Ann's Warehouse in NYC in May/June 09.

Findlay was an associate member of the experimental theater troupe The Wooster Group from 1994 to 2003, designing sets for the internationally renowned company which include House/Lights (Bessie for the Design 1999, Obie 1999) and To You, the Birdie! (Obie 2002). Those designs for the Wooster Group have toured for over 40 cities worldwide including Berlin, Istanbul, London, Moscow and Paris. He also has worked consistently with Ridge Theater and in association with the new music company, Bang on a Can since 2001: Lightning at our Feet (BAM, 2009); Difficulty of Crossing a Field (Peak Performances NJ, 2006); Shelter (BAM, 2005); Oedipus, composed by Harry Partch (Peak Performances 2005); DECASIA (Brooklyn 2004 and Basel, Switzerland 2001). Other notable designs include his 2008 set and video design (again with Jeff Sugg) of cartoonist Ben Katchor's musical Slug and Bearers of Kayrol Island at Vineyard Theater; set design for Red Fly, Blue Bottle at HERE in April 2009; a 2005 set design for the acclaimed Riot Group's Switch Triptych in London and Edinburgh, UK; and video design for The Tomashefsky Project by the San Francisco Symphony.

Current projects in progress include designs for Steel Hammer, a song cycle by Julia Wolfe of Bang on a Can, premiering at Carnegie Hall in November 2009; and Video Design for Saving the Princess, by choreographer Ralph Lemon, premiering at the Lyon Opera in September 2009.

Individual Awards:

2008: Hewes Design Award, Lucille Lortel AWard, Obie Award and a Drama Desk Nomination for set and video design with frequent partner Jeff Sugg of "Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island" at the Vineyard Theater.

2007: Bessie Award and Hewes Design Award nomination for set, video and production design of Cynthia Hopkins' Must Don't Whip 'Um at St Ann's Warehouse.

2001: Obie Award for Collapsable Giraffe/Radiohole.

2001: Princess Grace Award

1999: Bessie Award for design of Wooster Group's House/Lights.

website: jimfindlaynyc.com