Art Rotch | Designer | Director

NOTE

I may joke that, for lighting designers, tech is the process of making art while doing paperwork, but it’s really the best part. Things all come together then. As a detail freak, the preparation really pays off when we see and hear -together as a team- a world that has heretofore been imagined. The shared creation in tech is closest to pure magic designers get in theatre.

So I like to prepare for that time: I enjoy reading and then breaking down the text, exploring the story and its visual vocabulary with the creative team. Then I like working it out on paper, hearing the first reading with the actors, and yes, the focus day. My first professional design was a new Deborah Brevoort play at Perseverance Theatre, when I still thought I would eventually be a lawyer. The set designer looked at our low-tech star drop – really just a soft-focused template on a black scrim with christmas lights hung behind pulsing softly at different intensities, and told me he felt he was on the edge of a planet, staring at the Milky Way

I remember that night, sitting at the tech table, staring at the Milky Way. I keep at lighting in hope of being part of more moments like that.