Binkley was born on July 25, 1956 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As a teenager, he became interested in theatre, participating in theatre summer camps for three years at the North Carolina School of the Arts. In addition, Binkley picked up jobs unloading trucks at the R. J. Reynolds Memorial Auditorium in Winston-Salem, adjacent to Richard J. Reynolds High School where he attended.[3] He considered studying architecture in college, and applied to architecture programs at multiple state universities in North Carolina, but was not admitted to any of them.[4]
Binkley instead enrolled in the theatre program at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina in 1974. Less than two years into his studies, he left college for two years to work at Opryland as a stagehand.[3] Upon his return to ECU, he studied with The Acting Company during their residency at the university, and left college without graduating to take a full-time job with the company.[1]
Career
Binkley joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company as an associate under lighting designer Jennifer Tipton, who encouraged him to branch out and seek independent work. Binkley and David Parsons collaborated in 1982 to produce "Caught," a six-minute modern dance solo set to music by Robert Fripp. "Caught" depicts a soloist who is only illuminated while in midair, using strobe lights to create the illusion that the soloist is floating.[5][6]
In 1985, Binkley moved to New York City, and co-founded the Parsons Dance Company. Binkley remained the resident lighting designer of Parsons Dance for decades, creating over 60 designs for works by the company.[1][4]
Binkley then went on to make his Broadway debut as designer for Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1993, which earned him his first ever Tony nomination. From this success he went on to design and light a plethora of major Broadway shows. In total, he designed 52 shows for Broadway and was nominated for a Tony Award nine times.[7] Over the course of his work in Broadway, he became a frequent collaborator with Hal Prince and director Des McAnuff.[1]
University of North Carolina School of the Arts lighting design professor Norman Coates described Binkley's technique in 2016 as "a dynamic use of color, and he cuts through that color with a purity of white light. ... The dynamic of being able to create the motion in light that matches the motion in the music and dance could be what makes his work so successful."[4]
Following his death, lighting equipment manufacturer Rosco Laboratories created a compilation of shows designed by Binkley, highlighting his use of gobos that create patterns in beams of light. Binkley's signature looks often utilized the abstract geometric patterns created by one specific Rosco gobo, catalog number R77760 "Internal Reflections." Rosco renamed the gobo "Binkley Reflections" in his honor in September 2020.[9]
