During HGO’s 2025-26 season, A.J. Guban serves as the revival lighting designer for Porgy and Bess. Previously for HGO, he was the revival lighting designer for West Side Story (2025). Guban is an award-winning designer and the longtime lighting director for the Washington National Opera, where he has designed over 40 productions, including Macbeth, Il trovatore, Don Giovanni, Gods & Mortals, The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson, six world premiere operas (An American Soldier, Penny, Better Gods, The Dictator’s Wife, Proving Up, and Taking Up Serpents), and 36 world premiere one-act operas. At the Kennedy Center, Guban serves as a key lighting designer across opera, theater, and musical events. His recent work includes The Kennedy Center at 50 (broadcast on PBS), On Stage at the Opera House (a six-month pandemic performance series), and A Time to Sing with Renée Fleming and Vanessa Williams. He has also lit productions at Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Teatro di Cagliari, Opera Cleveland, Opéra de Montréal, New Orleans Opera, Detroit Opera, Atlanta Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Opera Lafayette, among others. Projects during the 2025-26 season include The Marriage of Figaro, The Little Prince, and West Side Story at Washington National Opera, and Porgy and Bess at Lyric Opera of Kansas City.