The stones look on as the father takes Eurydice into the string room he has built.
To increase the educational opportunities for our students, Theatre Simpson brings guest artists in to work on our productions and share their expertise with the company and our patrons. Recent guest artists have served as fight director, musical direction, set designer, Shakespearean vocal coach, and lighting designer.
Tiffany Flory was able to work with Jason Amato, the guest lighting designer for our production Eurydice that closes today. Here is what Tiffany had to say about working with Jason:
Cool shadows, interesting texture, amazing color, and shooting ELECTRICITY! The design by Jason Amato for Eurydice is something I’ve never seen in my four years here at Theatre Simpson. While I was watching him put together his light cues, I was surprised at his process and how fast he did it.
Orpheus enters the Underworld
I asked him how he came up with his design and he said he analyzes the script almost like a director. “I look at the intention and the motivation of the script and then I take that and put it into the lights.” When I took an introductory lighting design class I learned the basics about lighting the actors and setting the mood. Jason makes it look very simple to yet it looks really cool. While talking with him after a show he told me a fun story about how when he has an assistant he will ask them after a particular moment, dance number, or song what the assistant thinks about it. Usually their answer is “It looked awesome!” He then challenges that response by asking: what did it mean? If they didn’t know, Jason would share with them his favorite motto, “If you don’t know what it means, then you can’t light it.”
From working on the beginning of this process and now seeing the final product, I understand what he means in his motto. His design is full of emotion and every light has a specific purpose to enhance the intention of that moment. Overall this was a great experience and this has been a wonderful learning experience.
Lighting designer Jason Amato.
