11 The Lighting and Sound Teams
Michael Riha
The role of the lighting designer is simultaneously complex, and quite rudimentary. Simply put, the job of a lighting designer is to “put light when and where it is needed to support and enhance the story being presented.” However, it is an art form that demands the specificity and skill of a surgeon and at times, the brute strength of a bodybuilder. It is an incredibly influential and manipulative design element as it relates to live entertainment.
Lighting design is also one of the more recent additions to the ever-growing list of collaborators when it comes to mounting a live theatre production. Scenery and costume design is, without a doubt, the oldest elements that were “designed” when it came to live theatre. Aside from using candlelight and gas lighting fixtures, the primary role lighting played was simply to illuminate the actors so the audience could see what was happening on stage. It wasn’t until the late 19th Century with the introduction of electric light that we began to see the full potential of just how powerful lighting would become in the enhancement of storytelling on the stage.
A Conversation with Shawn Irish
Throughout this chapter, I have included portions of an interview I conducted with USA-829 lighting designer and Head of MFA Design at the University of Arkansas, Shawn Irish.
Shawn Irish: My favorite part about being a lighting designer is getting to tell stories. I know that sounds a little bit cliché, but it’s the combination of the technical requirements of lighting along with the artistic part that is the most satisfying to me. Ever since I was a kid, I have enjoyed storytelling and I think that’s one of the exciting things about lighting. It’s one of the last elements that is added to a theatrical production, and to me, it feels a little bit like the glue that holds all of the other design elements together.
In this chapter, I will outline both the technical and artistic skills one needs to develop when training to become a skilled lighting designer. I will also be including quotes from professional lighting designer and colleague, Shawn Irish to help put it all into context.
What you will not find in this chapter is an extensive history of how lighting design has evolved over the years or an in-depth examination of the equipment available to a lighting designer. However, I will allude to how electric light changed the concept of how lighting design could play a role in a more “realistic” way to enhance live theatre. It is my opinion that realism is better suited for film or television and live theatre is home to an advanced sense of imagination and theatricality.
I hope that by the end of this chapter, you better understand what it takes both practically as well as artistically, to become a professional lighting designer. As Robert Edmond Jones said many years ago, it is important to become a “jack of all trades” when pursuing a career path such as that of a theatre des