Levi J. Wilkins (he/him) was born and raised on the Southwest Side of Chicago by a single mother. He has been a member of the Chicago theater community since the age of 6, performing in plays at ETA Creative Arts Foundation on the South Side. At the age of 13, Levi began teaching himself the art of stage lighting design. While in high school, he was accepted into the Advanced Arts Apprenticeship program through After School Matters at Gallery 37 Center for the Arts. Levi attended Lincoln College of Technology where he was awarded and recognized for his performance in stage lighting and theater. Since college, he has had the privilege of being the resident lighting designer for multiple theater companies, churches, and event venues across Chicago.
Levi is currently the Lighting Director at The Faith Community of St. Sabina Church and a resident Lighting Designer at Arkansas Repertory Theatre. He is a three-time Jeff Award nominated Lighting Designer and a former company member and Resident Lighting Designer for Collaboraction Theatre for Social Change from 2018 to 2020. Some of his notable theater credits include Exit Strategy (Northwestern University), A Day of Absence, What to Send Up When it Goes Down (Lookingglass Theatre), How Blood Go (Congo Square Theatre), Brother Sister Cyborg Space (Raven Theatre), The Mountaintop (Constellation Stage & Screen), A Christmas Carol (Metropolis Performing Arts Centre), Into The Side of A Hill (Flint Repertory Theatre), Is God Is (A Red Orchid Theatre), Once On This Island (Pulse Theater), A Raisin in The Sun (Indiana University Northwest), London Road and Jump (Shattered Globe Theatre), and God and Monsters (Frame of Reference Productions).
He has a love and passion for not just lighting but the art of theater in general. Creating and attending live theater is at the heart of who he is. Pushing the boundaries of lighting by thinking of non-traditional ways to apply it in performance is the basis of his design work.
Levi Wilkins on a Lader Adjusting a Light at A Red Orchid Theater, 2023.
Image by ike Hari of Fadeout Media.
Featured Artworks
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, 2019.
August Wilson's Jitney Act 2 Scene 1, 2024.
Image by Matthew Sewell.
Opening Number from 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, 2024.
Musical Theater Works, Skokie, IL, Actors Photo Graphed are Neala Barron, Zach Kunde, Michael Davis Arnold, Will Koski, Rachel Guth, Jamie Dillon Grossman, Mai Hartwich, Joe Lewis, Brandon Acosta.
Opening number for Christmas Eve Service at The Faith Community of St. Sabina, 2018. Image by Mack Julion of M28 Photography .