The Lighting Designer is usually one of the last designers to finalize a design. Lighting has the ability to enhance, change color on demand, to hide, to highlight, or to vanish anything on a stage. The set, costumes, makeup, props, all depend on the lighting for the "final" look. The lighting is the design that ties all the other designs together.

Light is an energy, not a pigment or a piece of fabric or wood. To be able to communicate the lighting to a director takes an understanding and training in lighting on the part of the director. As a Lighting Designer, I will take into account all the other designs for a production and decide on an approach to that particular production that is appropriate. I will read the script or in the case of a musical, like The Great American Trailer Park Musical, also listen to the music many times prior to the first rehearsal.

The director and designers decide the look of the show after a few weeks of production meetings before rehearsals. After considerable collaboration with the Director and other designers and production staff, I then decide how to approach a production: is it realistic, fantasy, period, up-tempo, sad, happy, high tech, low tech, bright, or dark? Is it fast or slow? With this knowledge, I watch rehearsals and keep an open dialogue with the Director and other designers.

For clarity of color and texture, I like to visit the costume shop often and see what is being created there. Even with a color rendering of a set, or a model, I look to the costumes as my base of reference. The style of the production will determine angle, color and shadow. I approach musicals looking for blocking and choreography to determine the rhythm and beat of the show. When I read a script or see a rehearsal, I see how lighting can effect it. In my mind's eye, I can see just how the light will show itself; light, shadow, color, angle, intensity, and rhythm. I have to be able to see the whole production, not just scene by scene.

After a few rehearsals, I sequester myself to my studio and take all the ideas, read all the notes, think of new ideas and ways to produce what I think the show needs, and convert this into a technical drawing, with reams of paperwork that details every light or device used. Computers have allowed me to work very fast when producing a light plot and paperwork. The process of sitting down and cranking out a light plot and paperwork takes anywhere from eight hours to a couple of days. The disadvantage of being the last designer to produce a finished design is the limited window of time before the show's opening. A plot has to be produced very quickly.

Once finished, the lighting plot is given over to the electrics crew who do the physical work of hanging each light and cable according to the drawings. I then "call focus" where I instruct the electricians to move each light or device and point it where I need it to be. After one or two days of this part of the process, I get behind the lighting controller and create lighting cues or "looks" for the entire show. The "writing" of cues can take up to three or four days just to get the show "in the ballpark". Then there is a week of adjustments during tech and dress rehearsals and before I know it, it is opening night!