A Brief Outline
of the
History of Stage Lighting

Six years earlier in a French production of Jeanne D'Arc, on a very similar architectural set, Bel Geddes used only 3 sections of border lights, 24- 1000 watt 6 inch "focusing" spot lights, 3- 400 watt "baby" spots and 18- 1000 watt cyclorama floods. His autobiography, Miracle in the Evening was published in 1960, two years after his death (Garden City, NY: Double Day and Co., Inc). Link to Norman Bel Geddes' production credits listed in the Internet Broadway Database (www.ibdb.com).

In addition to design, he wrote the unit on stage lighting in John Gassner's Producing the Play (1940). He used his lighting design for Nazimova's production of Ibsen's Ghosts (1935) at the Empire Theatre to illustrate typical practice in the mid-1930s. The layout, which he considered "necessary for general lighting of this type of production" included..

• 6-- 500 watt 6" Ellipsoidals on the balcony rail
• 22-- 400 watt 6" Fresnels on the First Pipe,
• 4-- 400 watt 6" Fresnels on the First Torm left and right
• 2-- Sections of 200 watt strip lights on the First Pipe, and,
• 2-- Sections of 60 watt foot lights.

Building on his theatrical experience, Feder created a second career as an architectural lighting designer. Structures which carry the Lighting by Feder credit include New York's RCA/GE building in Rockefeller Center, the Empire State building and the United Nations building. When comparing his two professions as a theatrical and architectural lighting designer, he commented: "How can you get excited about a 50-foot stage after you've lit a 50 storey building?"

In 1993 Abe Feder was the first to be honored as a USITT Distinguished Lighting Designer. His theatrical designs have been archived at the Springer Opera House in Columbus, GA. Digital copies of a number of his drawings (including light plots for My Fair Lady, Camelot and On A Clear Day...) can be viewed at Abe Feder / Springer Opera House : Lighting Design Collection

Link to Abe Feder's production credits listed in the Internet Broadway Database (www.ibdb.com).

After briefly studying acting and dance at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse and three years at Yale University she arrived in New York and became a technical assistant with the WPA Federal Theatre, Project 891. John Houseman was the producer, Orson Welles the director, Nat Carson the scene designer, and Abe Feder the lighting designer. When Houseman took a leave of absence in the fall of 1936 to stage Leslie Howard in Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Imperial Theatre, he brought Rosenthal along as the assistant stage manager in charge of lighting. When the man from the rental house, who was to install the electrical system became ill, Rosenthal suddenly became the "worker in light." I assume the lighting system she designed was similar to the layout created by Abe Feder for Welles' Elizabethan productions at the Federal Theatre. This was, perhaps, her earliest lighting credit.

Following the outlaw performance of The Cradle Will Rock, John Houseman was fired and Orson Welles resigned from the Federal Theatre. These two men joined forces and created the legendary Mercury Theatre. Jean Rosenthal became their production and lighting manager. Although credited as the "Production Manager," it is believed that she designed the lighting for the eight productions staged by the company.

Probably her most influencial work was with the Martha Graham Dance Company (1934-1969) and the New York City Ballet (1948-1957). Her imprint on the world of dance is huge. Echoing a comment by dance designer Thomas Skelton, "Jeannie Rosenthal invented dance lighting."

Link to Jean Rosenthal's production credits listed in the Internet Broadway Database (www.ibdb.com). For more information on Miss Rosenthal, link to my Jean Rosenthal page.

Wonderful Town (1953)

After arriving in New York in 1938 she began assisting a number of prominent scene designers -- Stewart Cheney, Donald Oenslager, Howard Bay, Raoul Pene du Bois and Oliver Smith. Her first Broadway design credit was for the costumes for The Girl from Wyoming which opened its 86 performance run on October 29, 1938. Three years later, in March 1941, she would design the sets for Gabrielle, an adaption of Tristan which saw a two performance run on the stage of the Maxine Elliot Theatre. Her first lighting credit was for the Beggar's Holiday, Duke Ellington's adaption of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera which starred Alfred Drake (as Macheath) and Zero Mostel (as Peachum) and opened a 111 performance run at the Broadway Theatre on December 26, 1946. Sets for Beggar's Holiday were designed by Oliver Smith. Peggy Clark and Smith would work together on 43 Broadway productions. Her most famous Broadway lighting designs include Brigadoon (1947), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), Paint Your Wagon (1951), Wonderful Town (1953), Peter Pan (1954), Auntie Mame (1956), Bells Are Ringing (1956), Flower Drum Song (1958), Bye Bye Birdie (1960), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1960). Her last Broadway lighting credit was Musical Chairs in 1980.

During World War II she was co-designer of the Stage Door Canteen, technical director of American Theatre Wing's Lunch Time Follies, and developed "blue prints" for overseas USO camp shows.

In 1968 she was elected president of Local 829 of the United Scenic Artists. She was the first woman to hold this position. She also taught lighting design at both Smith College (1967-1969) and Yale University (1969-1970). One of her MFA students at Smith College, H. Lang Reynolds, was one of my mentors at Southern Illinois University in the mid 70s. Her papers have been donated to the Library of Congress in Washington DC.

Link to Peggy Clark's production credits listed in the Internet Broadway Database (www.ibdb.com).

Among the many musicals she designed are two of the longest running Broadway shows: Michael Bennett's A Chorus Line (1975 to 1990), which introduced a computer controled lighting system to the Broadway theatre, and Gower Champion's 42nd Street (1980 to 1988). Her dramatic credits include Neil Simon's autobiographical trilogy: Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983), Beloxi Blues (1985), and Broadway Bound (1987). She has worked with the Jose Limon Dance Company, the American Ballet Theatre, and the Dallas and Miami Opera Companies.

In 1972 she won her first Tony Award for Michael Bennett's Follies which was followed by Tony's for Michael Bennett's A Chorus Line (1976) and his Dreamgirls (1982). In the mid-1990s she was diagnosed with "early-onset Alzheimer's" which made it more difficult for her to focus on the project at hand. Her last "new" Broadway credit was The Lonsome West which opened at the Lyceum Theatre in April 1999. She was honored as a USITT Distinguished Lighting Designer in 1996.

In 2006, her Tony award winning design for Chorus Line was re-created by Natasha Katz for the "30th" anniversary revival at the Schoenfeld Theatre. Link to Tharon Musser's production credits listed in the Internet Broadway Database (www.ibdb.com).

Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk (1996)

He designed the lighting for Kevin Kline’s "Great Performances" production of Hamlet (1990) for PBS, and has lit productions of Porgy and Bess and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the New York City Opera company.

He was production supervisor (and lighting designer) for tours of the Rolling Stones (for which he won a 1976 IES Lumen Award), KISS, David Bowie, and the rock concert version of The Who's Tommy.

He has designed the lighting for the Radio City Music Hall presentation of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the 1977 Academy Awards Show, Quincy Jones' Reunion on the Mall concert for President Bill Clinton’s inaugural, America’s Millennium Live All-Star Concert New Year’s Eve 2000 and the concert segments of Barbra Streisand’s 1976 film: A Star is Born and the theatre segments of Rob Marshall's Chicago: The Musical (2002).

In 1993 he began the Broadway Lighting Master Class, a four day seminar conducted by major New York lighting designers. Link to Jules Fisher's production credits listed in the Internet Broadway Database (www.ibdb.com).

After graduation she moved to New York to continue her studies in dance and began performing with the Merry-Go-Rounders, a touring company which performed primarily for children. She became the troupe's "rehearsal mistress" (touring director) which required her to watch the performance from the front. She began to look at the larger picture, and that larger picture was determined and controlled by the light. "I fell in love with light," she told Linda Winer in an October 2003 interview, "and have been in love with it ever since." The following summer she returned to the American Dance Festival and took a class in dance lighting from Thomas Skelton. She became his assistant, and as the stage manager, was soon recreating his designs on the road for the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Her first lighting design credit for Paul Taylor was Orbs (1966), a two-act dance set to the music of Beethoven. Her first Broadway lighting credit was for a production of Our Town at the ANTA Theatre (now the Virginia Theatre) in 1969.

It was her design for Jerome Robbins' Celebrations: The Art of the Pas de Deux (1973) at the Spoleto Festival (Italy), which brought her to the attention of the theatrical world. By the mid-1970s her work was regularly being seen on the off-Broadway stages of New York's Public Theatre, the home of Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival as well as the stages of numerous Broadway houses. By the 1980s she was regarded as one of dance's most versatile lighting designers. Her achievements range from the "forceful, sculpted effects" in Twyla Tharp's Fait Accompli (1983) to the "subtle, shimmering vision" for Jerome Robbins' In Memory Of... (1985). Her work in opera includes productions of Wagner's Parsifal at the Houston Grand Opera, Tannhauser for the Chicago Light Opera and Martin David Levy’s Mourning Becomes Electra at the Seattle Opera.

Tipton's lighting has won a Drama Desk Award for Ntosake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf (1976); a Joseph Jefferson Award for John Guare's The Landscape of the Body (1976); a Drama Desk and Tony Award for The Cherry Orchard (1977); a second Tony Award for Jerome Robbin's Broadway (1989) and an Obie for Sustained Excellence at the New York Shakespeare Festival (1979).

Beginning in 1981 Tipton has been a professor of design at the Yale School of Drama where she advises her graduate lighting students to "use what you have, ...use it well and imaginatively."

According to Chris Davis, the Associate Lighting Supervisor at Queens Theatre In The Park in Queens, New York-- "Jennifer Tipton is primarily a dance LD. She tends to work within a confined pallette, no color and a little color correction in either direction. Her work is all about angle, shape, and intensity, and she's a master at it." Link to Jennifer Tipton's production credits listed in the Internet Broadway Database (www.ibdb.com).

Chicago (1997)

Billington has designed over 75 Broadway shows, 50 off-Broadway productions, 60 operas for companies like the Houston Grand Opera, the Chicago Lyric Opera, the New York City Opera, the Christmas and Easter Show for Radio City Music Hall and Las Vegas acts for performers like Ann-Margaret, Shirley MacLaine and Liberace. He has developed a reputation for lighting big production: Sweeny Todd (1979), Discover Card's Stars on Ice, Riverdance, and Footloose (1998); and especially star driven revivals of classic American musicals: My Fair Lady (1981) with Rex Harrison, Fiddler on the Roof (1990) with Topol. and Hello, Dolly! (1995) with Carol Channing,

In 1997 he won the Tony for the Broadway revival of Bob Fosse's Chicago and was honored as a USITT Distinguished Lighting Designer in 1996. He is presently an Adjunct Professor of Drama at Carnegie-Mellon University. Link to Ken Billington's production credits listed in the Internet Broadway Database (www.ibdb.com).

He was presented the USITT Award for his "lifetime contribution to the performing arts community" at the 1980 Kansas City Conference. His professional papers have been archived in the Theodore Fuchs Collection on Theatre Technology in the Lee Library on campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Much of his design work was created for the theatre of opera and dance-- companies like the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera (for which he designed 36 productions and was appointed production supervisor in 1981), the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and the New York City Ballet. In September 1971 Hemsley was production manager and lighting designer for Leonard Bernstein's MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers, a work commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He was the lighting designer/production manager of the US tour of the Performing Art's Company of the People's Republic of China in 1978 and the gala inaugural celebrations of Presidents Nixon and Carter. He was nominated for two Drama Desk awards: for Porgy and Bess (1977) and The Mighty Gents (1978).

In 1970 he joined the theatre design faculty of the University of Wisconsin where he soon became one of the most popular and respected professors on campus. He continued to design, often using his students, known as "Gilbert's kids," as assistants, giving many of them their first experience in the real world of the theatre. Shortly after his death in 1983, the Gilbert V. Hemsley, Jr Internship in Lighting with the New York City Ballet, the New York City Opera, and the Lincoln Center Festival was established. The selected student spends nine months, June to February, working with these three Lincoln Center based companies. Probably his major legacy is the love, passion and professionalism he instilled into his students, many of whom work in the Minneapolis area. His papers, both designs and teaching documents, are archived at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theatre Research on the Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin.

Link to Gilbert V. Hemsley, Jr' s production credits listed in the Internet Broadway Database (www.ibdb.com)

In 1971 he joined the theatre faculty of New York University, a position he held until his retirement 26 years later in 1997. "Teaching...made me a better designer," he told Theatre Crafts International, "I always allow my students to ask any questions they want about my work, and so I have to be prepared to answer....When I began to teach, I also started to think about what I liked about lighting....The fact that I don't hold a nine-to-five job, that's pretty terrific. Sometimes I get asked by my students ‘Why do you still do it?’ And I'll laugh and say, ‘Well, think about it: where else can you get paid by someone to spend their money to fulfill your fantasies?’"

Lloyd Burlingame, Chair Emeritus of the Department of Design at NYU said "It was our great good fortune that he came to join us and worked his magic as a master teacher of lighting for a quarter of a century...Like the great lighting artists of our time, he understood all facets of what went into making the stew of a play, dance, or opera. His critiques on scenery and costumes were often deeply penetrating. He always insisted on his students understanding the heart of a play or opera. His light labs were famous for demonstrating the importance of lighting cues in relationship to music. If I were forced to choose one aspect of his art that made him unique in his generation, it would be his sense of color. He never put a foot wrong in his imaginative color choices.

Costume designer Carrie Robbins spoke about their collaboration on a Broadway show which had a short run or a week or two-- "I had an idea of creating a tintype / old-photo kind of look for a flashback sequence. I used a range of sepia stuff, of course, and hoped it wouldn't be too bland or too obvious. John worked his usual color magic, which I had come to count on, and the scene came alive, chirascuro'd in rich tones of gold to deep shadowy umber. I asked him what in the world did that. 'It's just the right color of gel,' he said. 'What do they call it?' I asked. 'Chocolate, of course.' Now there's an apt name. I still to this day don't know if he was kidding me or if there really is a chocolate gel."

Link to John Gleason's production credits listed in the Internet Broadway Database (www.ibdb.com)