Nelson, Richard, 1938-1996

Richard Nelson created the lighting for more than 70 Broadway productions, including SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, for which he won Tony and Drama Desk awards. His other Broadway credits include INTO THE WOODS, MORNINGS AT SEVEN, and THE TAP DANCE KID. Mr. Nelson also designed the lighting for many Off Broadway plays and musicals, including David Henry Hwang's GOLDEN CHILD. He was also known as a designer who, during a 40 year international career, helped to define the use of light as an important element in modern dance, working with choreographers such as Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Erick Hawkins, and Merce Cunningham. His architectural lighting designs include the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

Richard Nelson created the lighting for more than 70 Broadway productions, including ''Sunday in the Park With George,'' for which he won Tony and Drama Desk awards. His other Broadway credits include ''Into the Woods,'' ''Morning's at Seven'' and ''The Tap Dance Kid.'' Mr. Nelson also designed the lighting for many Off Broadway plays and musicals, including David Henry Hwang's ''Golden Child'' at the Joseph Papp Public Theater.

He was also known as a designer who, during a 40-year international career, helped to define the use of light as an important element in modern dance. Beginning in 1959, he worked with such choreographers as Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Erick Hawkins and James Waring. From 1968 to 1973, he was the resident lighting designer for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Nelson's designs were also seen at the Goodspeed Opera House in Chester, Conn., the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and Center Stage in Baltimore, where he created the lighting for a production of Bertolt Brecht's ''Galileo.'' He also worked with Steve Reich, the composer, and Beryl Korot, the video artist, on ''The Cave,'' an opera toured internationally in the 1990s. His architectural lighting designs include the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. He was also an associate professor of theater at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor from 1988 to 1991 and taught in the design department at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University until his death.

© 1996 by Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times.