Ellyn,
A scenario that I lived through once, long ago and far away [ but in this galaxy
], involved an LD who had excellent design skills (in the sense that she had a good eye for light/shadow/direction/
intensity/contrast) and good color sense, but very little if any technical knowledge or experience in or out of
theatre. She had very little comprehension of how a lighting
unit got to where she wanted it and how electricity got there. She wanted lights mounted
FOH where there were no hanging positions and was incensed when she was told it couldn't be done. She got into a tiff with the
Scenic Designer when she wanted some units mounted in an alcove on the set and they were too large to mask so she wanted the designer to alter his design to create adequate
masking, no ideas or thought on how from her, "just get it done!". There were other similar incidents and in the end she went to the artistic director/
producer and complained that the entire resident staff was refusing to work with her and they were all rude and inconsiderate. The end result was the scenic demanded his name be removed from the program and any record of the show, and left saying "She can do anything she bloody well wants!, The Design is in her name now!". The ME on the show was let go, the TD got a reprimand put in his file that cost him a raise. Don't know what pull or relationship the LD had with the PTB, but it was obviously big. It wasn't big enough though, the TD, Scenic and ME, stayed in touch and were all elated when they discovered a couple years later that the particular LD had never worked in
theatre again and was in fact completely out of the business. Oh Yeah! The show was a reasonable success, reviews mentioned the script, acting, costumes, but pointedly not the set or lighting.
As I said it was long ago, most of the people involved are retired or passed away, so I will not mention names, show titles or
theatre companies. However, I hope this will perhaps give you some ideas to ponder on.
Questions or thoughts? Feel free to contact me directly off list or PM.
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