Page 4 - Beverly Emmons: Lighting Broadway, Enlightening Tomorrow

NOTABLE USERS
Beverly Emmons | New York, New York
. ...............
“I think what’s wonderful about all the computer work is that it’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s accurate. Once the documents are created they are easily amendable as the project evolves. And that’s great.”
– Beverly Emmons, New York, New York . ...............
lighting design got more com- plicated and enabled far more sophisticated aesthetic choices. We’re trying to include not only
the preproduction paperwork—
the big drawings, the hookups,
and shop orders...to order the equipment—but the actual results of the process in the theater.
We’re making accessible the focus charts and the cues so that these works can be reproduced and we can see this lighting.” Emmons her- self has used the Rosenthal Errand into the Maze paperwork to cue her Martha Graham show. “I could see what lighting then looked like, and how exactly it looked different from now. It’s not only the equipment, it’s also its location, focus, and how it is used. In 1948 you didn’t see any light rays, shafts—you only saw the dancers, whereas now we expect to see light rays in the air,
moving lights, and strong colors. None of that was possible then, but therefore none of that was in the aesthetic either—you didn’t need it. In modernizing it, I kept the simpler look with the same colors, but made it brighter and more rounded with the same subtle cues.”
With her rich background, Emmons can chronicle the evolution of light- ing design in the theater industry— from resistance dimmers to LEDs, and from paper and pencil through computer-aided design. “Computer drafting became most efficient when it could combine with the Lightwright program and go back and forth between Lightwright
and Vectorworks,” she says.
“I think what’s wonderful about
all the computer work is that it’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s accurate. Once the documents are created they are easily amendable as the project evolves. And that’s great.”
What’s next? “Always, the limit is the time to work, the human capital to make it beautiful,” Emmons muses. “Lighting design is like a painter standing in front of a paint- ing except that painting changes every time an actor takes a step and a lighting designer is decid- ing whether or not to make a new painting there. So for absolutely every moment on a stage the light- ing designer has decided how you should see it. The time to program
Lighting for Twelfth Night.
Headshot, photo courtesy of Blanche Mackey.
Embattled Garden, photo courtesy of Michele Ballantini. Martha Graham Dance Company dancers: Maurizio Nardi
and Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch.
Beverly Emmons and Judith Daitsman at work, photo courtesy of Peter Angelo Simon.
Twelfth Night, courtesy of University of Tennessee. Scenic design by Kevin Rigdon, photographer unknown.
Original text and publication by:
Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. www.vectorworks.net
all of that and to do all of that work is what is deeply costly. The tech- nology that shortens and simplifies that process is the technology that is successful.”
One thing is certain. The tech- nology will keep evolving, and the best will always rise to the top. With Emmons’ talent and her drive to save the ideas of prominent lighting designers, the field of lighting design will continue its brilliant evolution.
Profiled Designer:
Beverly Emmons
Phone: (718) 802-1498 bemmonsld@earthlink.net
Credits:
BrOADwAy shOws with liGhtinG DesiGn By Beverly eMMOns:
• Amadeus (Tony Award)
• Annie Get Your Gun
• Jekyll & Hyde
• The Heiress
• Chronicle of a Death Foretold
• Stephen Sondheim's Passion
• Abe Lincoln in Illinois
• High Rollers
• Stepping Out
• The Elephant Man
• A Day In Hollywood/ A Night in the Ukraine
• The Dresser
• Pilaf
• Doonesbury