Tristan Decker is in his 7th year as the Technical Director and Associate Professor of Professional Practice for Texas Christian University’s Department of Theatre. Having started out as an actor, Tristan has become a noted, award winning freelance designer and technical director who has designed for many of the area’s leading regional theater companies. Having gained a reputation as a “fixer,” his passion to experiment and blend new technologies with traditional techniques drives his work and fervent belief that the idea of “We can’t do X” is simply a new challenge to be turned into “We can do X and this is how.” Among the nearly 300 productions he has been involved with, his work has been seen on the stages of The Dallas Theater Center (A Macbeth), Undermain Theatre (Uncle Bob, Saint Nicholas, Homework, A Por Quinly Christmas, Blasted, The Appeal), Second Thought (Hunter Gatherers), Our Endeavors Theater Co. (Caligula, The Last One-Nighter on the Death Trail, Artificial Jungle, Dainty Shapes and Hairy Apes), Trinity Shakespeare Festival (Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III), Echo Theater Company (End Days), River City Rep (Glass Menagerie (with Tony Award winner Donna McKechnie) Doubt, Moonlight and Magnolias, Member of the Wedding (with Oscar nominee Margaret Avery), Texas Woman’s University, The University of Dallas, The Contemporary Theater of Dallas (The Cemetery Club), Theatre 3 (The Minotaur, Defiance, The Imaginary Invalid, Metamorphoses), and Shakespeare Dallas (Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, Richard III, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Taming of the Shrew, Merry Wives of Windsor, All’s Well That Ends Well, Othello), and Oklahoma City Rep (Heisenberg, August: Osage County, Lysistrata, My Fair Lady), among many others. He was also hired by Disney to design one of the first high school productions of High School Musical: The Musical which was also the subject of the 2007 documentary High School Musical: The Music In You. He was the lighting designer for first season of the nationally syndicated talkshow The Flipside with Michael Loftus. He is an original company member and Artistic Associate of the Trinity Shakespeare Festival serving in many areas as a set designer, lighting designer, technical director, and scenic studio supervisor. He is a winner of multiple DFW Theater Critic Forum Awards and has been nominated for several Leon Rabin and Column Awards. Additionally, he is published in the Texas Theater Journal for his paper “The Myth-Application of Vitruvius’ Echea.” Most recently he was featured in American Theatre Magazine’s “6 Theatre Workers You Should Know.” Before coming to TCU as an Associate Professor of Professional Practice, he was the Resident Set and Lighting Designer and Technical Director for The University of Dallas. A 14 year resident of Fort Worth, Tristan is happily married with three young ones.
A Tuna Christmas, Lighting Design, Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre, 2016
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Lighting Design, Trinity Shakespeare Festival, 2016
Measure for Measure, Lighting Design, University of Dallas, 2016
The Women of Lockerbie, Lighting Design, Texas Christian University, 2016
The Flipside with Michael Loftus, Lighting Design, For Profit Productions, 2015-2014
Vanya, Sonia, Masha & Spike, Lighting Design, Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre, 2014
Comedy of Errors, Lighting and Set Design, Trinity Shakespeare Festival, 2014
Celebration, Lighting Design, Texas Woman’s University, 2014
Taming of the Shrew, Scenic Design, Trinity Shakespeare Festival, 2013
Merry Wives of Windsor, Lighting Design, Trinity Shakespeare Festival, 2012
As You Like It, Lighting Design, Trinity Shakespeare Festival 2011
DFW Theatre Critics Forum Award for Creative Contribution: 2014, 2013