Video Chat with Lighting Designe Christian Epps

[Jacob Coakley]

Video Chat returns to TheatreFace.com this Wednesday, August 24 at 2 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Pacific as we go live with Lighting Designer Christian Epps.

Christian got into lighting design during his time at Northside School of the Arts in Atlanta, went on to get a BFA from Howard University before doing graduate studies at New York University. He got his professional start on the East Coast, with stints at the Berkshire and Williamstown theatre festivals, and freelancing at the Folger Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club and American Place Theatre. Since then he's worked everywhere from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe to Brooklyn Academy of Music to Carnegie Hall and moving across the country to L.A. where he is currently based, working on new Athol Fugard work at the Fountain Theatre and Celebration Theatre -- where he lit Bash'd. The picture at the top of this post is from that show.

The chat will be broadcast live here on TheatreFace.com, and viewers can ask questions before and during the chat. If you can't be around during the chat, feel free to ask questions in the comments on this blog post. I'll pass the questions along during the chat. During the chat I'll be monitoring the Stage Directions twitter feed (@stagedirections) and will ask any questions directed to me there. LASTLY -- if you type your questions in the chat screen during the broadcast I will also ask them. Point being--there's plenty of opportunities to participate.

Here's the questions I'll be starting out with:

1 - Is there a vocabulary of light that you as a designer can learn? Are there certain building block lighting techniques that all designers should have in their pocket? And then from a different angle: How do you build up a design vocabulary with a director?

2 - You've lit for all sorts of mediums -- theatre, dance, and TV. Does light serve a different purpose in each one? And then a follow-up: Why do so many theatre lighting professionals seem to also have a background in lighting dance? Does light occupy a special place in dance that it doesn't necessarily do in theatre?

3 - Do you have favorite shows to light? Any shows you would love to light?

 

[Jacob Coakley]

Thanks all who participated! Here's the recording of the chat!


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