Lighting Designer
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
I discovered theater as a young child, watching the television broadcast of the magical Broadway production of Peter Pan. A few years later my grandparents took my sister and me to see the touring production of The Sound of Music during its successful run in Chicago. My sister and I spent the summer putting on backyard productions of the musical. Clearly my early experiences of watching theater happen drew me into a world that would shape my life and career. By the time I reached high school, I knew that theater would be my life's work. What I had not anticipated was the direction it would take. Like many young theater hopefuls, I saw myself as an actor, racking up a list of plays, talent shows and musicals by my high school graduation.
In my undergraduate program
in college, however, I was required to work on a lighting crew as part of my
major. It changed my life. I was creatively galvanized by the idea that I could
use the tools of lighting to affect the way people not only saw, but
interpreted, the action on stage. Illuminating the darkness, literally and
metaphorically, left acting in the dust, and has been my obsession ever since.
I have never stopped being
excited by the opportunity to use my creative skills to help human beings
connect to each other through the art of theater.
Just as those early musicals
sparked my childhood imagination, I became inspired as a lighting designer when
I saw a production of Ntozake Shange's For
Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Isn't Enuf in
Chicago. Experiencing this production made it clear to me just how powerful
lighting design can be. Jennifer Tipton’s masterful design for that piece
expanded my perceptions of what light could do. Her use of color, direction,
and, importantly, shadow, articulated the poetic and lyrical qualities of the
play in the unique way that lighting, at its best, always does.
Lighting designers have not
been my only inspiration, however. I am passionate about being a part of an artistic
team, working collaboratively to create the emotional, intellectual,
entertaining experience we call theater. I feel very strongly about the human
aspect of theater, and I am drawn to the way artists can enhance each others'
work on a production to help tell the story more effectively. As we worked
collaboratively to tell a story, I have found myself inspired by the work of
actors, directors, and other designers. My contribution has been to balance
visibility with the powerful, three-dimensional, sculptural quality of light.
My recent work with director
Ed Golden on David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit
Hole effectively illustrates my approach to lighting. For the beginning of
the play, set in a naturalistic world, I used cold, flat tones to emphasize the
disconnect and lack of warmth between the bereaved husband and wife at its
center. As the play progresses and the couple begin to take tentative steps in
the direction of healing, the lighting becomes warmer and textured in a way
that parallels their uncertain path toward hope and new connection.
