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The production table must be a calm, friendly place to allow the creative energy from the artistic team to synergize. Production people us various techniques to achieve this. Start by keeping it very organized (not messy). It creates a non-chaotic atmosphere.
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The production table should be a friendly place that communicates interaction and stress relief. David Jacques brings along a solar-powered garden gnome as a conversation piece.
I was once asked why so many lighting designers end up as university department chairs. The answer is simple: Lighting designers are inherently great problem solvers. They are trained to efficiently deal with crises and act quickly to solve problems. To help achieve this, lighting designers have incredibly creative and agile minds to handle unexpected events. They possess proactive personalities, which minimalizes the problems that normally occur during the production process. They easily and quickly adapt to change, selectively focus on multiple data streams and other quickly flowing information, and can truly multitask. Finally, lighting designers can continue to create in high stress environments. All these qualities are not only essential in being a successful lighting designer, but also in any leadership and administrative role.
Many psychologists and psychiatrists have studied what creativity is. Most agree that one of the true tests of creativity lies in the ability to actively problem-solve. Sure we can look at a problem and come up with one or two possibly solutions, but it takes the truly creative person to find the best answer.
I deal with many challenges throughout the process of designing a show. From the initial script study through the final dress rehearsal, the process is filled with problems to be solved. Many times these problems are created by other members of the creative team. As a lighting artist I am naturally ultra-sensitive to the world of the play and the theatre, and what my collaborators are struggling with. In many cases, my lighting can help solve their problems.
A good example is with scene transitions. Although the production team may have planned out the transitions from scene to scene early in the process, there always seems to be an issue with the transitions not being as “seamless” as possible once you actually see them on stage. Or maybe the director wants to change the transition, which requires you to change your lighting approach. This calls for quick thinking and using your problem-solving techniques.
A recent example was when a prop bed proved more difficult to move offstage than originally designed, requiring a longer transition. I easily solved this problem by adjusting the fade times and focusing the lighting away from the bed during this transition, which made its' awkward exit much less noticeable. Most transition adjustments are so subtle that no one other than the creative team notices them. That is the when your team members truly thank you for creating “magic” through light.
This is also true during the initial design phase. My design for “As One” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music has a minimal load-in time, which makes it impossible to achieve the complete set movement that the director and I desire. Through creatively compromising and working with the other team members, we came up with a solution that still tells the story through the design, while meeting the load-in requirements.
There is no area more important for a lighting designer than being able to split their focus and multi-task. I am not talking about the mistaken belief that you can actually accomplish two things during the same moment (Yes, I am talking to all my students who simultaneously surf the internet while listening to my lectures). The multi-tasking that we are only capable of is completing multiple tasks during the same period of time.
These qualities are essential for a theatrical lighting designer. Just look at my production table. There you see multiple monitors indicating the status of every light, my iPad with the cue list on it, the magic sheet with the channels available to me to create my lighting atmospheres, my moving light tracking sheets that indicate where each moving light is focused for every scene in the show, the headset that I use to talk to the lighting programmer, my assistants, and the stage manager, and finally, my good luck solar-powered garden gnome (…and let's not forgot the director who is talking to me in my open ear about the lighting cues…) Beyond all this is the stage where 90% of my attention should be focused.
How do you keep focus on the tasks that need to be performed with all these distractions? You do this with an agile mind that can quickly process data and efficiently adjust to constant change. It's the same with multi-tasking. Your mind is trained to prioritize problems and place their importance in achievement lists. Many times the solution to one problem is dependent on the solution to another. Focusing on and solving multiple complex problems is part of the life of the lighting designer.
I truly believe that the personality of the lighting designer plays a huge part in their ultimate success as a theatrical artist and business person. Theatre is a social artistic form. More importantly, theatre is a socially collaborative art form, which necessitates personalities that can actively and efficiently take action in solving problems. You cannot be a passive artist in the theatre. Passive personalities react to crises, pro-active personalities find solutions and solve problems before they become crises that can overwhelm the production team.
Good lighting designers can see problems approaching, and deal with these issues before they become unmanageable. They plan ahead and do their “homework” so that they can efficiently use their limited time in the theatre. Good assistants are trained to think one or two steps ahead of the lighting designer. This helps prepare them for when they eventually serve as lighting designers.
Lighting designers must have pro-active minds that can handle multiple challenges, usually under a great amount of stress. Staying calm under pressure may be the most difficult challenge for a lighting designer. The production table is the center of the creative energy during lighting level, technical and dress rehearsals. This is where the director and most of the designers congregate in the theatre... and guess who is at the center of the production table?
My professional mentor, Gilbert Hemsley, used to tell me that the production table must be a calm, friendly place to allow the creative energy from the artistic team to synergize. He taught various techniques to achieve this. One is a very organized (not messy) table that creates a non-chaotic atmosphere, edible goodies that invited social collaboration (his favorite was white pistachio nuts, although I prefer trail-mix), and friendly items that add to the stress relief (hence, my solar powered garden gnome). All these items help create this non-threatening atmosphere. However, no amount of trinkets can calm down a high-stress person. The lighting designer must be able to handle pressure and multiple crises with a calm demeanor. Lighting designers either have this quality, or die much too young.
Finally, the lighting designer must be able to deal with change, for change is the nature of collaborative art. The beauty of any of the collaborative performing arts is the quality of artistic change throughout the creation of the art. If you can't adjust to change, then you should consider another area of art that does not require more than one artist. Welcome change and become inspired by it, for this is the wonderful nature of synergetic creation that is the theatre.
