William (Bill) DeMull

PDR_0576cropWilliam (Bill) DeMull
Lighting Designer

William DeMull was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan.After graduating from Michigan State University, he was hired by the university to design lighting at the Calumet Opera House in the summer of 1974 for six major theatre productions, including “Man of La Mancha, “Gypsy,” “The Tavern,” and “Wait Until Dark.”   In fall of that year, upon the urging of the chairman of the Theatre Dept. at M.S.U., he moved to Washington, D.C. to embark on a professional career in theatrical light design.

Upon arrival in Wash.,D.C., he met with Maida Withers, a choreographer, dancer,
and professor of Dance at George Washington University.  At the time, Maida was forming a her own dance company, the Maida Withers Dance Construction Company. She invited Mr. DeMull to work with the Dance Construction Company, beginning in that very fall of 1974. That collaborative work between Maida and Light Designer, Demull, would extend for the next forty years. The early collaborations featured performances in Washinton, D.C. and the east coast area, including Virginia, Baltimore, Md., and New York. Some of the major works included “Stall,” “Families Are Forever,” “Time Dance,” “Laser Dance,” and “Threshholds Crossed,” among many other noted works.

In 1980, Mr. Demull moved to New York where he would be based until 1992, when he would relocate to North Carolina. But before moving to New York, he would be hired as Lighting Director for the Bicentennial performances at the National Cathedral and St John the Divine (NYC) of the New York Pro Musica’s “Play of Daniel” and the “Play of Herod.”  While living in NYC, he would do light design and production management for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Jan Van Dyke & Dancers, Nina Wiener  and Dancers, Laurie Anderson, and Peggy Lyman among many other choreographers/directors.

He toured for several years with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company with major performances in New York, London, Paris, Berlin, and Hong Kong. He was responsible for creating the lighting for the company’s premier of “Freedom of Information” at the Zellerbach Theatre in Berkeley, CA. in 1984.

Throughout the years, Mr. DeMull has maintained a role as light design collaborator with the Dance Construction Company that has included tours of Mexico and Guatamala in 1987 and more recently in Russia (Moscow & Krasnoyarsk) in 2007.

Lately, Mr. Demull is in the process of developing Artsway International/ South, an artistic concern dedicated to the support, development and promotion of struggling performing arts companies.  Artsway International/ South has supported Dance Project (Greensboro, N.C.) for their efforts in developing the North Carolina Dance Festival, Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance (Asheville, N.C.) a summer dance concern, featuring dancers from several nationalities, and Time Lapse Dance Company (NYC), a small dance company that makes use of flowing costumes (a la Loie Fuller) to bring attention to environmental concerns and climate change, among other performance companies.

Collaborations