Michael Philippi was born in Appleton, Wisconsin in 1951. His theater career began when he
started designing sets as a student at James Madison Junior High. While he attended the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, he left school without graduating in order to continue his
education and training through a two-year apprenticeship with noted designer Gilbert Hemsley
and then by working with designer John Ezell. By 1985, Philippi became the resident lighting
and set designer for both Wisdom Bridge Theatre in Chicago and the New American Theatre in
Rockford, Illinois. Throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, Philippi worked regularly for
many theaters in the Chicago area, the Midwest, and other parts of the United States. He was
the lighting designer for the 1999 Broadway revival of Death of a
Salesman and the 2009 revival of Desire Under the
Elms both starring Brian Dennehy.
Over the course of his career, Philippi received 14 Jefferson Award nominations and won
twice – lighting design in 1984 for In the Belly of the Beast:
Letters from Prison at Wisdom Bridge Theatre in Chicago, and set design in 1985
for the Wisdom Bridge Theatre production Terra Nova. He also
won two Hollywood Drama-Logue Critic's Awards for lighting design – in 1985 for Kabuki Medea at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California, and for
Changes of Heart in 1997 at Mark Taper Forum in Los
Angeles, California.
Philippi died unexpectedly on October 27, 2009 as he was walking to the technical rehearsal
for the play High Holidays at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.
He was survived by his wife Miriam Hack and daughter Megan.
