Reza Behjat is an Obie award winner lighting designer based in New York City. He began his career in Iran - where he worked with some prominent directors for several years. Reza’s works have been shown on Off-Broadway and in regional theaters across the United States such as The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Atlantic Theater, Minetta Lane, Lucille Lortel, The Guthrie Theater, Actors Theater of Louisville, Berkeley Rep, Alabama Shakespeare, and many more.
As a theater maker, Reza has found great joy in working on new productions or fresh reading of classics especially when he gets involved from the early stages of development until the full production. In this long-term engagement, he loves to be involved not only as a designer but also as a dramaturg and a visual thinker to help the playwright and the director to have a better understanding of the visual world of the play as they move forward in rewrites, design meetings, and eventually in rehearsals. For Reza, the most exciting part of designing for a new play or a musical is that there is no comparison basis for the production. It is like painting on a blank canvas and every choice is authentic.
Reza won an Obie Award in the design category for his work on two productions of ENGLISH and WISH YOU WERE HERE in 2023. In addition, alongside the cast and the creative team of ENGLISH, he received a Special Citation from the Obie Award. Also, he is the winner of the prestigious award of The Knight of Illumination for Nina Simone: Four Women in 2019.
Visual Storytelling
I constantly ask myself what is the biggest motivation that inspires me to continue working as an artist. I ask myself what has made me choose theater over other things? Or what passionates me to spend long hours walking in the street and taking pictures of strangers? No doubt the answer is changing and evolving as I get older, as I gain more experiences, and as I get to know more people in my life. But… people… humans… I think this is the answer.
As an artist, I’m inclined to practice visual storytelling as my way to create art, and in those visual stories that i tell (sometimes with collaborators and sometimes by myself), humans are the primary subjects of the artworks. No matter I’m designing for a theatrical production or doing street photography, what keeps me going is telling the story of a human that the audience would see on stage or in a frame.
In addition, what I appreciate a lot about theater is that it establishes a relationship between the members of a production team who are coming from incredibly diverse cultural and personal backgrounds. We talk a lot, we meet a lot, we bring a lot of different opinions to the table, but finally, we make one decision. I think what brings everyone to a middle ground, to a strong idea that everyone feels confident about it, is trust. I do theater because I like building trust with other collaborators to tell a story. I love to trust and to be trusted.
Also, I acknowledge the fact that I am still learning and exploring street photography as an art form and I need more time to be able to elaborate on what is the most satisfying thing about it. So far what I enjoy most about street photography is being able to tell the story of a stranger by choosing the right moment, lighting, composition and etc in a fraction of a second.
From a dark theater in downtown Tehran to a tight alley with beautiful graffiti in New York City, what ignites my creativity is being able to connect with people. To be able to tell the story of humans to another group of humans.
As Bruce Davidson beautifully says: “I’m just a humanist.”