James P. Murphy received his BA in Technical/Design Theater from SUNY at Albany in 1981. Since then Murph has worked as a Technical Director, Production Manager, and Lighting and Sound designer throughout the Northeast. Murph is the resident Lighting Designer for the Dance Department at Swarthmore, as well as the Theater Department's Lighting Design Instructor. For the Theater Department he regularly designs Production Ensemble (Mad Forest; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Three Sisters; Ivona, Princess of Burgundia; Hayavadana; The Other Shore) and occasionally Senior Company (The Cosmonaut's Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union), as well as assorted thesis productions (Pop Out) and Directing Workshop showings.

Murph received a Barrymore Nomination for his sound design of The Arden Theater's production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream. He has designed the lights for that same classic twice: once, for Mum Puppettheatre's 2005 production, and again in 2013 for the Swarthmore Department of Theater's outdoor production in the Crum Woods.

Murph’s Philadelphia credits include 2004 Fringe Live Arts Festival for Sasha Welsh and Aryani Manring and with Mum Puppettheatre as Lighting Designer for the critically acclaimed Puppetmaster of Lodz, Madwoman of Chaillot and Seance.

Original dance lighting design include Last Train to Philly for Doug Elkins and Dance of our Ancestors for Kariamu Welsh & Co.