Christopher Akerlind won the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for Light in the Piazza and an Obie Award for sustained excellence for his work Off-Broadway. He attended Boston University and the Yale School of Drama, training with Jennifer Tipton, and has served as head of Lighting Design and director of the Design & Production Programs at the CalArts School of Theater, was resident lighting designer for twelve years at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, a visiting associate professor and director of production at the USC School of the Arts and has guest taught at New York University, the University of Connecticut, the Broadway Lighting Master Classes, and Yale. He has designed many Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, working on both musicals and straight plays. He is noted for his work for director Lloyd Richards on the first productions of the plays of August Wilson, including The Piano Lesson (1990) and Seven Guitars (1996). Additional Tony nominations for Awake And Sing (2006) and 110 In The Shade (2007).