Peter Nigrini’s body of work has been developed primarily
in New York City. He began working with a group of colleagues in small avante
garde venues on the lower east side, and it was in this context that he and
director Patricia Ybarra first began experimenting with projection as a theatrical
tool in Tim Griffin’s Fingerprints at the Clement Soto Vélez Cultural
Center.
He has since worked in a number of disciplines in the theatre. His video designs
include: Jean Genet’s Elle produced as the inaugural production of
The Art Party starring Alan Cumming, the Tony award nominated, Say Goodnight
Gracie at the Helen Hayes Theatre, Biro at the Public Theater,
The Booth Variations, a new play by Caridad Svich and Todd Cerveris,
the World Premier of Charles Wuorinen’s Adaptation of the Salman Rushdie novella,
Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Blind Date a new work with
the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, The Handel and Haydn Society production
of Dido and Aeneas, Camille for the Bard summerscape Festival, Sweet Bird of Youth at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
In addition to his work as a video designer he occasionally designs in other
media for the theatre including, scenery for
the Lincoln Center Theater/Lincoln Center Festival Production of Chen Shi-Zheng’s
Orphan of Zhao, Scenery for Poetics: A Ballet Brut, conceived
and directed by Pavol Liska and Kelly Copper, Scenery and Lighting for City
Voices at Het Veem Theater, Amsterdam, and Lighting for Lovely Stones
in the Woslley Warehouse, London.
Peter has also worked on a number of fine art projects including: Digital
Campfires, a multi-channel video installation, for the EXIT festival
(Sweden), Local Currencies - Diogenes/Barnum, a series of narrative
photo installations, produced with the artist Graham Parker, which has been
exhibited at the ICA London, the Dumbo Art Center, and the San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art and the world premiere of Cosmicomics, a new composition
for chamber ensemble and video by Richard Carrick based on the Italo Calvino
stories of the same name.
Nigrini attended Dartmouth College (B.A. in Theater and Film), and the Central
St. Martin’s College of Art and Design’s International Scenography Centre
(London), where he received his M.A. in 1999. Study at the centre included
project work at DAMU (Prague) and the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten (Utrecht).
He is currently designing video for Frau Margot, a new opera by Thomas
Pasatieri for the Fort Worth Opera, and a video accompaniment to Subway
Songs, a new album by the Metta Quintet to be released on Sunnyside Records
in June.