Q&A with Christopher Akerlind
Christopher Akerlind is the lighting designer for the Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of Twelfth Night, running in Sidney Harman Hall December 2, 2008 through January 4, 2009.
Hometown:
Currently Portland, ME, but I was born in Hartford, CT
Favorite Shakespearean play:
Twelfth Night (no joke). Maybe my favorite play.
Favorite Shakespearean villain:
Though I don’t think of them as villains I get the point. Iago. His imagination is awesome.
What's on your iPod? (mp3, cd player, etc.):
A lot generally, but currently listening to: Bach (The Well-Tempered Clavier), Stravinsky, Gerry Mulligan, Getz, Miles Davis, Prokofiev
Lots of people don’t know much about lighting design. What does your design process entail?
Much depends on the chemistry of my collaborators. In some situations I hear nothing from the director; sometimes too much. It’s never the same, though I strive to keep as much choice-making until the very last minute hoping for it to be an extension of the work the director and actors have done in rehearsal. The basics of the process follow a similar path. First, I try to absorb as much familiarity with the material as possible. Then, at some point, I’m handed a space (a word I prefer to “set” or “scenery”) that will dictate certain of my choices. If it has a ceiling, there will be no overhead lighting and the ceiling itself might need to be lit as part of the overall composition. I try to create lighting gestures that spring from space and happen to grab performers as they do so. Much theatrical lighting treats performer and space separately. I try to do the opposite as much as possible.
Along with a space, I try to integrate the thoughts of the director and writer, if s/he’s living and present, into what becomes the light plot (the document that organizes light ideas into concrete thoughts about where and how to mount the lighting fixtures and what colors to put in them). In my process, I try to keep this a malleable document. I’d much rather decide which lights are doing what after seeing the actors deliver a run of the event in the rehearsal room. Much of what I love about making a Shakespeare play is the absence of stage directions. It’s why there is so much freedom inherent in making them.
Next is the focusing of the lights where the details of the rehearsal hall become integrated into the systems and gestures of my preplanning. It’s an incredibly creative moment when the “happy accident” of lighting colliding with space in unexpected ways can often change the entire trajectory of a project. Colors can change, the intentions of lights can be rethought; in short, everything can be thrown out if necessary.
Then the real creativity begins. Tech rehearsal (an expression I do not like, preferring “making”) begins and, together with the light board operator, I begin to set the lighting cues, the series of states that, when stung together, constitute the visual story. Lighting design finishes the work of the set and costume designers and the director, and begins a relationship with the sound designer. I’m never finished. One aspect of creating spatial composition is akin to tailoring. The more the staging tightens the more I can tighten the “look,” thereby making it more and more specific to my and my collaborators eyes.
What do you like most about being a lighting designer?
It’s like being a jazz musician in that the effects of my work are not easy to describe, and the creative freedom I have to riff on what writer, director, performers and other designers have made.
What’s your favorite project so far?
Too many to name. This is my second Twelfth Night in 18 years which makes me happy. Favorite projects tend to be those where I’m working with directors and designers of similar tastes and instincts.
What would be your dream show to design lights for?
One which was so hot and funky that it gathered an audience completely new to theatre-going.
What is your favorite part about working on Twelfth Night?
So far: meeting Rebecca Taichman, reuniting with designers Riccardo Hernandez & Miranda Hoffman, and returning to Washington, DC, as a nascent Obama administration takes shape.
What has been your biggest challenge so far working on Twelfth Night?
Because I’ve not yet begun per se, I’m most nervous about uniting the overhead canopy, reflective back wall, and various surrounds (blue Orsino world and garden rose world) into one cohesive look. It’s a vast space and I know next to nothing about how Rebecca is using it. That information comes when I arrive three days before we begin to make the show in the theatre. That’s when the creative work begins.
What’s next for you after this show is done?
Currently Portland, ME, but I was born in Hartford, CT
Favorite Shakespearean play:
Twelfth Night (no joke). Maybe my favorite play.
Favorite Shakespearean villain:
Though I don’t think of them as villains I get the point. Iago. His imagination is awesome.
What's on your iPod? (mp3, cd player, etc.):
A lot generally, but currently listening to: Bach (The Well-Tempered Clavier), Stravinsky, Gerry Mulligan, Getz, Miles Davis, Prokofiev
Lots of people don’t know much about lighting design. What does your design process entail?
Much depends on the chemistry of my collaborators. In some situations I hear nothing from the director; sometimes too much. It’s never the same, though I strive to keep as much choice-making until the very last minute hoping for it to be an extension of the work the director and actors have done in rehearsal. The basics of the process follow a similar path. First, I try to absorb as much familiarity with the material as possible. Then, at some point, I’m handed a space (a word I prefer to “set” or “scenery”) that will dictate certain of my choices. If it has a ceiling, there will be no overhead lighting and the ceiling itself might need to be lit as part of the overall composition. I try to create lighting gestures that spring from space and happen to grab performers as they do so. Much theatrical lighting treats performer and space separately. I try to do the opposite as much as possible.
Along with a space, I try to integrate the thoughts of the director and writer, if s/he’s living and present, into what becomes the light plot (the document that organizes light ideas into concrete thoughts about where and how to mount the lighting fixtures and what colors to put in them). In my process, I try to keep this a malleable document. I’d much rather decide which lights are doing what after seeing the actors deliver a run of the event in the rehearsal room. Much of what I love about making a Shakespeare play is the absence of stage directions. It’s why there is so much freedom inherent in making them.
Next is the focusing of the lights where the details of the rehearsal hall become integrated into the systems and gestures of my preplanning. It’s an incredibly creative moment when the “happy accident” of lighting colliding with space in unexpected ways can often change the entire trajectory of a project. Colors can change, the intentions of lights can be rethought; in short, everything can be thrown out if necessary.
Then the real creativity begins. Tech rehearsal (an expression I do not like, preferring “making”) begins and, together with the light board operator, I begin to set the lighting cues, the series of states that, when stung together, constitute the visual story. Lighting design finishes the work of the set and costume designers and the director, and begins a relationship with the sound designer. I’m never finished. One aspect of creating spatial composition is akin to tailoring. The more the staging tightens the more I can tighten the “look,” thereby making it more and more specific to my and my collaborators eyes.
What do you like most about being a lighting designer?
It’s like being a jazz musician in that the effects of my work are not easy to describe, and the creative freedom I have to riff on what writer, director, performers and other designers have made.
What’s your favorite project so far?
Too many to name. This is my second Twelfth Night in 18 years which makes me happy. Favorite projects tend to be those where I’m working with directors and designers of similar tastes and instincts.
What would be your dream show to design lights for?
One which was so hot and funky that it gathered an audience completely new to theatre-going.
What is your favorite part about working on Twelfth Night?
So far: meeting Rebecca Taichman, reuniting with designers Riccardo Hernandez & Miranda Hoffman, and returning to Washington, DC, as a nascent Obama administration takes shape.
What has been your biggest challenge so far working on Twelfth Night?
Because I’ve not yet begun per se, I’m most nervous about uniting the overhead canopy, reflective back wall, and various surrounds (blue Orsino world and garden rose world) into one cohesive look. It’s a vast space and I know next to nothing about how Rebecca is using it. That information comes when I arrive three days before we begin to make the show in the theatre. That’s when the creative work begins.
What’s next for you after this show is done?
The Seagull at American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge, MA. It’s another project with Riccardo Hernandez. In fact, he and I will do The Two Gentlemen of Verona immediately after that at the Guthrie.
posted by Shakespeare Theatre Company at 10:19 AM
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