Lighting Design
In February 2025 STA interviewed Ed Hunter, a seasoned lighting design expert.
A professional software engineering leader with Bay Area companies such as Sun, Juniper and Netflix until his retirement in 2021, Ed now has more time to focus on his long-time passion, lighting.
He has worked regularly with theatre companies such as South Bay Musical Theatre (where he was also a board member), West Valley Light Opera, Sunnyvale Community Players, City Lights Theatre, Peninsula Youth Theatre and Palo Alto Players.
Ed also lectures on lighting at West Valley College.
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STA is extremely grateful to Ed for sharing his thoughts with Saratoga students.
How did you get into lighting design?
"I started in high school in New York City, like a lot of kids. My career in theatre started in 2nd grade whenI wrote a puppet show for my class. I went to a school with a robust theatre programme so I also had some brief tv and film exposure in 2nd and 3rd grade, as well as doing one show a year in middle school. I was always curious about the light booth. My first foray into lighting design was Dylan Thomas’ Under Milkwood in high school. I was left bitten by the bug. While I went on to major in engineering and become a software engineer, I always continued to do theatre on the side. I designed 3-6 shows a year while working, and I retired 3 years ago so now I do this full-time. I did 16 shows in 2024."
For those who don’t know, would you give a brief description of how theatre lighting works so when you describe your process, people will better understand the details?
"Lighting design is about telling a story. If done well, you are telling the same story the director is telling.
The lighting designer works closely with the rest of the creative team - scenic designer, costume designer, props designer etc."
"There are a lot of details that go into the lighting - what direction is light coming from, what is the shape, the colour, the intensity, the timing?
The lighting designer has to manipulate all those things."
"Lighting design encompasses so many different subjects but if you succeed in controlling all of them, your presence will be felt!
When you get a new script/start working on a new piece, what is your approach/step by step process in how you approach designing the lighting?
"When the director approaches me, I try to read the show before I talk to anyone (some teachers recommend reading the script in one sitting). I need to get a sense of what the show is about. What year? What time/s of day? What are the characters? The overall flow.
Then I get a scenic floor plan/concept of the set and read the show again. I may have concepts from the costume designer at that point and/or talked with the director if they have already presented his/her overall concept to his/her creatives.
Next, I look for specific lighting moments (eg lightning). Or emotional moments - is the scene sad or scary?
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Then I start to think of ideas.
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Then I sketch concepts of what the light plot will look like for the various moments - daytime, nighttime, coming through a door etc, making sure I take the director’s vision into account.
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Then I start to flesh this out while reading the script a third time. We light up the door when someone is entering, for example, but then it is unlit when no-one is standing in it.
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Finally, I translate all that into a light plot, including channel hookup and instrument schedule, colours needed, rentals needed and full details including a script marked up with exact notations on where each light cue goes.
For context, it takes anywhere from 50 hours for a dramatic play to 75-100 hours for a musical or comedy, including tech time to produce a good lighting design (spread out over time)."
What is the #1 lighting-related thing that goes wrong when groups do a show? How do you avoid that? How do you fix it on the night?
"Underestimating the complexity of a lighting design and all that goes into executing it.
You have to hang the lights and focus them as well as programming the cues. Students and amateurs particularly underestimate the amount of people power needed.
If you have 100 lights in your design for example, if you know what you’re doing, it takes 2-3 minutes per light to focus it. However, if you haven’t focused a light before, it can take quite a bit longer. Times that by 100 and it all adds up. You may have people helping who have never worked with lights before.
I may get three hours to get the lights installed, and I first have to spend 45 minutes training the students and it can take the remaining 45 minutes with 2 students just focusing 6 lights (as happened in a recent show). Converting concepts into action can be very hard for students."
What’s the #1 mistake tech crews make when it comes to lighting? What advice would you give students who find themselves responsible for lighting for a production?
"On the tech crew side, the biggest mistake they make is not having a plan and thinking ahead. I am not a believer in telling students what to do step by step, unless they ask for advice. I DO ask them “have you thought about how to do this?” Or how to solve this? Or when I look at the set, I might say to them “here are some things - think about how to light the door, the staircase or whatever the situation requires..
Thinking ahead creates fewer problems - eg make sure you are hanging lights when more people are around to help, vs at the last minute when you are on your own because everyone has something else critical to do.
Writing out your timeline and logistics or resources needed makes for a smoother process."
"The other big mistake is not writing down the details as the show evolves and making sure there are written copies. If you have the only list on your phone, no-one else can access that (eg your adult supervisor or the tech operators cannot access the lighting designer’s design notes).
If the details aren’t written down, the operator doesn’t have instructions on what to do or what has already been programmed or still needs programming and you have a bottleneck instead of being able to work more efficiently.
A written list is also psychologically useful - if you can cross items off the list, you feel the accomplishment."
"In a school environment, a mistake often made is talking about the tech crew as a unified body. However, there are very separate functions.
Designers design and techs operate but it is an important distinction.
It could be the same person, but it can often be a different person so communication and coordination is key.
Often, many changes are made when the actors first get onto the stage for rehearsal. If notes aren’t carefully taken when changes are being requested by the director, then you have no way of knowing which of the many colour blues you picked were the final choice, for example."
What is the best piece of advice you were given about lighting when you were starting out/piece of advice you wish you had known sooner?
"The best advice I was given was years ago - and it is still valid today. “Design the show that you want and then cut back to fit the constraints of what you can do.”
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There are two important life skills involved in that:
Firstly, prioritisation. What are the really important things in this design I cannot live without?
Secondly, problem solving. For example ,there is a show set in a forest with a storm and lightning in the middle. I cannot afford the gobo (lighting template) with the lightning bolt, so how do I create the lightning? Maybe I need to flicker the lights on the back wall instead."
"The other advice I would give anyone is to go and see other shows. The way you learn about lighting is by watching other people’s lighting. It is very easy to get into a rut or do what works easily for you. Seeing other lighting concepts can give you fresh inspiration for colours or angles or effects. You could try this instead on your next show…..
If you get the chance, work with other lighting designers whenever possible so you can ask questions and learn how to work the board effectively."
