» Visual Aids: Use of Paintings and Photography for Lighting in the Theater
Brian MacDevitt, Broadway Lighting Designer

In this final plenary session, Tony Award-winning Broadway lighting designer Brian MacDevitt will discuss the role of a lighting designer in live Theatre, Dance and Opera. He will describe the process lighting designers apply from "page to stage", how they communicate visual ideas to directors and collaborators, and show examples of how the outside references have aided and furthered his work. Numerous examples from Broadway shows will be discussed and examined for principles of design involving the use of light, color, and visual aids. As a lighting designer in live theater, dance and opera, he must translate emotional responses to text, imagery, movement and music to an audience through light. Before arrival at the theater, he needs to find ways to communicate lighting ideas to directors and other collaborators. Many times he uses paintings and photography to support ideas and to inspire new ways lighting the stage. By exploring images from outside of the theater, he then can arrive at stage pictures that can challenge the "way it is done" or "what works", which are handed down stage techniques that he believes are insular and stale.

Brian has designed lighting for Dance, Theater, and Opera internationally for over 30 years. Some highlights last season include, The Three Sisters at The Abbey Theater in Dublin, Dr Atomic at The MET and ENO, Speed the Plow with Jeremy Piven, Blithe Spirit with Angela Lansbury, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, You're Welcome America with Will Farrell on Broadway, and Puncture by Nancy Bannon at the Chocolate Factory. Some of MacDevitt's other Broadway credits include The Pillowman, The Coast of Utopia (Voyage), Love! Valour! Compassion!, Urinetown, The Musical, Invention of Love, True West, The Diary of Anne Frank, Present Laughter, Nine, A Raisin In the Sun, The Color Purple, and Sideshow. MacDevitt has worked with such dance companies as American Ballet Theatre, Tere O'Connor Dance, Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project, Doug Varone and Dancers, Boston Ballet, and Nancy Bannon. Brian has received four Tony Awards, OBIE, Bessie (with Tere O'Connor), Outer Critics' Circle Awards, Hewes Awards and Drama Desk Awards. He has been on the faculty of New York University's Tisch School and SUNY Purchase, and is presently an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.