Todd Hensley is a lighting designer and theatre consultant. He began his career in Chicago on the lighting staff at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, working with such designers as Duane Schuler, Jennifer Tipton, and Ken Billington. After the Lyric, he continued to design stage lighting for opera and theatre nationwide. He joined the staff of Schuler Shook Theatre Planners / Lighting Designers and is now a partner in the firm.
Todd's lighting design for opera includes productions for Florida Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, Washington National Opera, the Skylight, Lyric Opera of Chicago's Opera Center, Chicago Opera Theatre, San Diego Opera, and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Notable productions include Six Characters in Search of an Author for the Lyric Opera Center; Carousel and the premiere of From the Towers of the Moon for Minnesota Opera; Florencia en al Amazonas and the premiere of The Tale of Lady Thi Kinh for the Jacobs School. Theatre work includes designs for Geva Theatre, Kansas City Rep, Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis, and Laguna Playhouse. His work in Chicago theatre includes productions for Northlight, Court, Chicago Children's, and Victory Gardens Theater, including nine years as its Resident Lighting Designer.
As Theatre Planning leader for Schuler Shook's Chicago office, his projects include Lookingglass Theatre, Millennium Park's Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the Shanghai American School, the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theatre, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, and major opera house renovations in Chicago, Seattle and Sarasota.