Graduated from the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema LGITMIK (today the St Petersburg State Academy of Theatre Art (SPbGATI)), faculty of set design and theatre technology, specializing as a lighting designer. For some time, working at various Leningrad theatres, he worked as the lighting designer on such productions as the Case after the play by Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin (Stage Director – Vladimir Vorobiev, Designer – Eduard Kochergin; Musical Comedy Theatre, 1977) and Questi fantasmi after the play by Eduardo De Filippo (Stage Director Temur Chkheidze, Designer – Georgy Meskhishvili, Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre, 1993).
In 1984 he was invited to join the Mariinsky Theatre. In over A quarter of a century at the theatre he has designed for many productions, among them the operas the Queen of Spades by Pyotr Tchaikovsky (Stage Director – Yuri Temirkanov, Production Designer – Igor Ivanov, 1984), Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Stage Director – Yuri Alexandrov, Production Designer – Yevgeny Lysik, 1987), the Love for Three Oranges by Sergei Prokofiev (Stage Director – Alexander Petrov, Production Designer – Vyacheslav Okunev, 1991); Kashchei the Immortal by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (Stage Director – Irkin Gabitov, Production Designer – Vyacheslav Okunev, 1993), Salome by Richard Strauss (Stage Director – Julie Taymor, Production Designers – George Tsypin and Georgy Meskhishvili, 1995), Carmen by Georges Bizet (Stage Director – Éric Vigier, Production Designer – Georgy Meskhishvili, 1996) and the ballets Knight in A Tiger Skin by Alexei Machavariani (Choreographer – Oleg Vinogradov, Production Designer – Teimuraz Murvanidze,1985), Les Noces by Igor Stravinsky (choreography by Bronislava Nijinska, staging by Howard Sayette, 2003), Le sacre du printemps by Igor Stravinsky (choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky; reconstruction of the choreography and staging by Millicent Hodson, revival of the sets and costumes and supervision by Kenneth Archer, 2004) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream to music by Felix Mendelssohn (choreography by George Balanchine, Ballet Mistress and Coach – Sandra Jennings, Production Designer – Luisa Spinatelli, 2012).
Sergei Lukin has been involved in the project 21st Century Russian Seasons run by the Maris Liepa Charitable Foundation (Moscow), thanks to which Michel Fokine’s ballets the Firebird, Schéhérazade and Pérouchka have been restored.
For the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet Sergei Lukin has worked as a lighting designer on productions including Die Puppenfee and Class Concert (choreography by Konstantin Sergeyev).
