Background
Chris Hawkes is an entertainment design and construction professional with 29 years of experience in specialty fabrication, focusing on project management and technical direction/design. Projects include a broad spectrum of work in live theatre, permanent installations for theme parks and museums, corporate events, trade shows and television. Most recently, as the Technical Director for the Performing Arts Department at Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Chris taught undergraduate BFA technical direction and production classes, in addition to leading all technical production areas. Prior to this, he was Technical Director for the Theatre Department at University of Houston and taught graduate level technical direction coursework.
Chris spent many years in Los Angeles working as a technical director, project manager and production manager with multiple entertainment design firms, production companies and scenic fabrication companies. Production management projects include work for Thinkwell Group: Fernbank NatureQuest at Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, GA and Warner Bros. Theme Park in Abu Dhabi. With BRC Imagination Arts, Chris worked as Fabrication Manager for the Information and Communication Pavilion at World Expo in Shanghai. He has worked on three project teams which have received Themed Entertainment Association Awards.
Additional projects involve project management work for Universal Studios Japan and Universal Studios California, The Guggenheim at The Venetian Las Vegas and The Cerritos Millennium Library. Project management for corporate clients includes: Microsoft, Harley Davidson, Motorola, SmithKline Beecham, Time Warner, Qualcomm.
Theatrical experience encompasses work as the Scene Shop Foreman for La Jolla Playhouse/University of California San Diego Theatre Department, Director of Opera Production at Rice University Shepherd School of Music, as well as fabrication for UCLA Opera, USC Opera, The Old Globe, The Geffen Playhouse, The Philadelphia Opera Theatre, among many others.
