This book provides an insight into the life of a professional lighting designer, through interviews with lighting designers at different stages of their careers plus a group interview with the designer and lighting team of the hit musical Billy Elliot.
The designers featured are: Neil Austin, Natasha Chivers, Jon Clark, Paule Constable, Rick Fisher, Richard Howell, Howard Hudson, Jessica Hung Han Yun, Mark Jonathan, Amy Mae, Ben Ormerod, Bruno Poet, Jackie Shemesh and Johanna Town. Between them, they have worked all over the world on shows of every genre – collecting many awards for their work along the way.
They share inspiration and practical advice, useful to anyone embarking on a career in lighting, fascinating to anyone who enjoys going to the theatre, offering insights into:
> approaching a new design;
> dealing with the challenges each new show brings, from working with a new director to being part of a creative team in realising a piece;
> the use of light and dark, colour and texture;
> managing collaborations, with directors, designers and their own team of associate and assistant lighting designers, programmers and electricians.
> and beyond the art and craft of lighting, the practicalities of a lighting career – moving from just getting enough work to pay the bills, to lighting the world's biggest shows.
Emma Chapman is a Royal Society research fellow based at Imperial College London, and one of the world's leading researchers in search of the first stars to exist in our Universe.
Emma is the recipient of multiple commendations and prizes, including the Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship, one of the most prestigious science fellowships in the UK. She was presented with the Royal Society Athena Medal in 2018 and highly commended in the UK L'Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science award in 2017. In 2014, she won the Institute of Physics Jocelyn Bell Burnell Prize.
Emma is a respected public commentator, contributing regularly to the BBC on screen, over the airwaves and in printed media. She has presented at Cheltenham Science Festival, the European Open Science Forum and at New Scientist Live.
@DrEOChapman
Rob Halliday has lit shows around the world, from the acclaimed dance show Tree of Codes to the intimate production of the musical Amour. He has also worked as lighting programmer, associate designer or both for productions such as Billy Elliot, Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Equus and Red. He writes about the production of live shows for magazines including Lighting&Sound International, Lighting & Sound America, Live Design, The Stage and others, many of these articles collected together in the Entertainment in Production books, and has been a guest speaker at drama colleges and trade shows around the world.
www.robhalliday.com
