Chapter 5: Lighting Design

Playlist Notes: A lot of these songs belong to shows I light designed at local productions, but there are some showtunes included from musicals with a lighting design that I obsessed over when I first saw them. This is probably the strangest collection of songs together, but this playlist serves more as a catalog of songs that sparked personal “design breakthroughs”.

Visibility. Selective Focus. Modeling. Mood. The four functions of a stage light. When summarized into four key concepts, lighting design seems simple. However, it manages to be the most intangible and abstract of all theatrical design elements. While there are qualities of light which a designer can customize (like distribution, intensity, movement and color), the rest is out of control. While it’s interesting that lighting design was what I wanted to tackle head-on first, it’s a spark of curiosity I’m forever grateful for.

After working backstage for several Playhouse Merced productions, the creative director at the time introduced me to their technical director, who allowed me to shadow him on several productions. At one point during cueing, the technical director got up and said, “I’m going to get a coffee real quick. Why don’t you try messing with the board while I’m gone and see what you can do?”. As he walked away, realizing the permission I was granted, I grabbed the computer mouse and began to play.

After this, we worked on several more shows together until he got a new job working for the school district and left Playhouse Merced. With no one else as familiar and knowledgeable of the lighting equipment, I was called in to help with their production of Driving Miss Daisy, which would be the first of many productions I would design with them.

This image is from my first production I light designed with Playhouse Merced, “Driving Miss Daisy”. This photo highlights the warm lighting hanging above center stage focused on the actors to isolate the “car” in this scene from the rest of the set.

Once being hired as an Artistic and Technical Assistant, the sky was the limit. The absolute joy I had when I found the medium that I wanted to professionally pursue was unlike anything else I ever experienced. People thought I was crazy for only getting an average of four hours of sleep, but being granted the ability to work eight-hour shifts and practice the craft was not an opportunity I was going to actively waste.

When I went through the process of applying to colleges to continue studying technical theatre and design, I remember being so immensely proud of the work within my portfolio. Months later, after artistic reviews and an in-person interview with some of USC’s SDA faculty, I got the letter that I was accepted into USC’s BFA program. I was so ecstatic that my work and dedication in my craft paid off and that I could continue my exploration in theatrical design with some of the best creative minds in the business.

While I haven’t been able to practice this craft in quite some time now, I like to look back at what I did accomplish and imagine what could possibly be in store when theatre makes a full return.

This photo from a production of Spring Awakening I worked on displays my use of color to help mirror the angst radiating off of these teenage characters during this number. Spots of white light hit in time with the song’s drum solo while intense uplighting added energy and suspense at this critical moment in the song.

This image from a local production of Frozen Jr. captures the final version of my “Aurora Borealis” effect (shining from above the stage onto the draping fabric) as well as my use of intelligent lighting to create “ice” around Elsa for her big number, “Let It Go”.

This photo from my local work on Spring Awakening showcases the the climax within my color theory for the show. The central purple light at the top of the image only made its appearance for the show’s final number, “The Song of Purple Summer”, which symbolized a shift from the characters’ past experiences (marked through contrasting red and blue light throughout the show) into a new future.

This image from a local production of Spamalot Jr. highlights one of my unique “pie-tin gobos”, a lighting tool which I carved out of a pie-tin using an X-Acto knive and inserted into a stage light to give the beam a particular shape. In this case, it was for the “Holy Grail” seen above the set.

This final Spring Awakening photo captures the lighting schematic shown within the archive’s logo in its final form. The marriage between the deep reds and blues signified the intensity of contrasting emotions within the play’s characters during this impactful number.

Click here to view the epilogue.