Greetings from the Barn! Since my last column, we’ve opened “Dial M for Murder” and are preparing to open our heartwarming musical, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” I want to share the rest of the interview I conducted with our incredible lighting team of Laura Eckelman, the lighting designer for “Boeing Boeing” and “Dial M”; Brennan Desautelle, the master electrician for the Players; and Katie Alba, who is a Core Company (apprentice) member focused on electrics and lighting, the assisting lighting designer for “Boeing” and “Dial M,” and the lighting designer for our upcoming musical.
The interview has been edited and condensed.
Brendon Fox: Katie, when you were talking earlier in the interview about pivoting between different needs (from Laura the lighting designer or Brennan the master electrician), has that been stressful, or has it been mostly OK?
Katie Alba: I think at first it was a little stressful. I thought, “This is like my first time at this place. I don’t know if always doing this or that totally right.” But the people I work with are so phenomenal – Brennan and Laura – and understanding. This environment at the Players is good and caring. They’re mindful of my well-being.
BF: In what way?
KA: If I’ve been working for a long time, they’ll say, “Katie, please go home. Take a break!” And I’m also very excited, learning all these things under these two phenomenal people. And knowing that I’m in a workspace where people really care about my growth both as a human being, and as a professional.
BF: That’s wonderful. Well, kudos to Laura and Brennan. I want to move the timeline forward into the present, Katie, because you’re also the lighting designer for our musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” Can you talk about how your experiences at the Players so far – knowing the theater’s equipment, being the lighting programmer for Laura Eckelman, working under Brennan and the electrics team – have prepared you to jump into collaborating with Jen Wineman, the director and choreographer of “Spelling Bee”?
KA: It’s been great, because Laura’s given a lot of great advice. But I think it’s interesting to go through my own lighting design process and seeing how I can adapt it to make it my own. To begin with, I read the script, and I spend a lot of time doing my own research. And since this is a musical, I go through the entire soundtrack and pinpoint what each song feels like to me, and what environment I want to create. And then, a big part of the process is listening to other artists involved in this production of “Bee.” Since I know the inventory well, it’s helpful to know which lighting instrument is best utilized to create the kind of space that I’m thinking of in my mind. In addition, part of the fun is balancing the realism that Jen (the director) really wants in a normal spelling bee, but also really tapping into my own creative side when some of the songs go into a fantastical mood.
BF: One thing that people may not realize is that regardless of the size of the theater, the lighting designer doesn’t typically get to spend much time in rehearsal until just days before the opening. But the great thing about your position this summer is that you’re already here, so you’ve been able to jump in and watch a fair amount of rehearsals. This is invaluable, because you can see organically how each character and musical number takes shape and evolves.
KA: Yeah, I’m just so grateful that I get to have that opportunity. A lot of my process is intense collaboration. I go into rehearsals with solid ideas, but I leave room for give-and-take with the director. I know how spontaneous directors can be, and how spontaneous I can be, and it’s exciting being in that space and seeing the light bulbs going off with everyone being inspired and knowing how best to support Jen in her vision, while also having my own vision included.
BF: So, I have one last question for all three of you. What is something at this moment that you love about your job?
Laura Eckelman: I’ll go first. One of the things that continues to draw me to lighting is that lighting – to quote a play that Brennan and I have both worked on – is like magic. It can come and go like magic – it’s hard for scenery or props or costumes to just appear or disappear. But lighting can completely transform the space. And then transform it back immediately, instantaneously. We are literally controlling what you see and how you see it. We’re also shaping the world. You know, color and light are incredibly powerful. That ability to transform a space ephemerally is fun and amazing, and that never gets old.
Katie Alba: Light is mind-blowing to me, and I think it really unlocks creativity. What if I wanted a moment to be super-romantic? Boom. There it is! But what if it’s more fantasy/romantic? OK, now I’m going add different color and shapes. It’s mind-blowing. I feel so much passion, knowing that I get to tell a story with light.
BF: That’s lovely. What about you, Brennan?
Brennan Desautelle: What I love about my job is twofold. To go off what Katie and Laura were saying about how lighting is magical – my job makes me feel like I’m the “man behind the curtain,” because you don’t see the light. You just see what the light’s doing. To make all those incredible things happen onstage, it means for example that I need to figure out how to sneak a tiny little power cable underneath a rug, or to have a table lamp do something unexpected. Working with all these different designers, who have their own unique approaches to creating these worlds is wonderful; being able to interface with them and collaborate with the different departments to realize those visions is a lot of fun for me.
The other thing that I really love about my job that’s very Peterborough Players-specific is that because I’m a shop head, I get to interface with the Core Company of apprentices a great deal. I get to offer them support. It’s nice that I can help train this incoming generation. Both in the sense that for the people who know that they want to do lighting, I get to really help them refine their skills and become much more confident technicians. And for the people who perhaps don’t know what they want to do yet in the profession, I get to show them this cool world.
BF: What else?
BD: There’s that moment in every show when we turn all the light cues on, and seeing everything that we did work, and seeing the stage light up is a nice feeling. So, being able to give people that experience and have them think, “wow, I did that!”
LE: If I could say one more thing before we sign off. I just think it’s lovely that you’re highlighting the entire lighting department at this moment in the season, because lighting in general often gets overlooked, but especially in public-facing communications. Designers tend to get a lot of love and attention, and technicians often don’t. But I literally can’t do any part of my job without these two other people – Katie and Brennan. My entire job is to draw pictures and say words – and these are the people who make it happen! Between Brennan maintaining all the inventory, doing all the paperwork, getting all those lights circuited and powered; Katie being on site, anticipating problems, solving problems, bringing me in to consult, offering suggestions. So, it really is an incredible team effort.
BF: Well, the Players is incredibly lucky to have all three of you and your entire team working on this summer’s season – not to mention Stephen Jones, our final lighting designer joining us for our final two shows – “Native Gardens” and “Hay Fever.” Katie, I know your design for “Spelling Bee” will be fantastic, and I encourage everyone reading this to come check it out from July 16 through the 27. See you there!
Brendon Fox is artistic director of the Peterborough Players.