HOWELL BINKLEY: My name is Howell Binkley, and I'm a lighting designer for the
HOWELL BINKLEY: theatre.
HOWELL BINKLEY: I grew up in North Carolina and at a young age,
HOWELL BINKLEY: I was began working at the roadhouse where all the
HOWELL BINKLEY: road shows would come in.
HOWELL BINKLEY: And took a big interest in just watching
HOWELL BINKLEY: how all the lighting packages came off the trucks and were set up
HOWELL BINKLEY: in the theatre and then watch of the
HOWELL BINKLEY: shows at night, just as a young kid, I was like 10,
HOWELL BINKLEY: 11 years old and this was very fascinating to me how
HOWELL BINKLEY: this lighting package could just come off a truck and get set up.
HOWELL BINKLEY: And then the performers would come in that afternoon and a show that
HOWELL BINKLEY: night. And then we took it all down, packed it
HOWELL BINKLEY: on the truck, and they left and we were back to bare theatre.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So as time passed and I worked more
HOWELL BINKLEY: on that roadhouse that just became fascinated
HOWELL BINKLEY: with how it all the execution of it all.
HOWELL BINKLEY: Well, I think sculpting with light is really a major part
HOWELL BINKLEY: of our job, you know, especially the body.
HOWELL BINKLEY: We have to sculpt the body.
HOWELL BINKLEY: Say in a dance piece, you know, the body needs to be sculpted, you
HOWELL BINKLEY: know, from the side, you know, from the back.
HOWELL BINKLEY: You know, the body can also be silhouetted against a cyc.
HOWELL BINKLEY: And I think that in terms,
HOWELL BINKLEY: it just captivates that style of movement that the dancer is
HOWELL BINKLEY: doing and also kind of works with the music.
HOWELL BINKLEY: I think the most exciting part about what we do
HOWELL BINKLEY: is when we actually get the actors
HOWELL BINKLEY: on stage.
HOWELL BINKLEY: Say, in Hamilton a new musical that I just did
HOWELL BINKLEY: on Broadway, where it's just a simple
HOWELL BINKLEY: set, you know, and here we have a whole entire show
HOWELL BINKLEY: done on this, you know, this one set.
HOWELL BINKLEY: It's not like a lot of drops flying in and out.
HOWELL BINKLEY: You know, it's just one area.
HOWELL BINKLEY: In my job in this show is really to dissect this whole
HOWELL BINKLEY: show, to really frame it in a way that there's many locations
HOWELL BINKLEY: throughout the course of the 50 songs that are on the show.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So each song kind of has a new location,
HOWELL BINKLEY: a new time of day, kind of a different feel–whether it's this song
HOWELL BINKLEY: as a memory song from the actor, something
HOWELL BINKLEY: that's going on their head from the past and how we attack
HOWELL BINKLEY: that, lighting wise to convey to the audience
HOWELL BINKLEY: is that's what's going on during the lyrics
HOWELL BINKLEY: of the song. Or whether it's you know, a reality
HOWELL BINKLEY: song about what's happening in the world today, sung by
HOWELL BINKLEY: like the three sisters and an introduction of each
HOWELL BINKLEY: one, which will kind of–is their
HOWELL BINKLEY: exposition through the show.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So each sister is introduced in a very unique way,
HOWELL BINKLEY: but it's reality. Whereas a lot of other songs on the show are
HOWELL BINKLEY: kind of a memory about what happened in the past,
HOWELL BINKLEY: or kind of foreshadowing of the future so you're going to put them in
HOWELL BINKLEY: a very type of different light and that sort of thing.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So that's kind of that's what I really enjoy
HOWELL BINKLEY: about all the prework that's done as a lighting designer.
HOWELL BINKLEY: You know, it's really a lot of fun when we finally
HOWELL BINKLEY: get the actors on stage and really start to carve in with our tools
HOWELL BINKLEY: to light the show. It's very exciting to me.
HOWELL BINKLEY: How we approach really going into designing the show
HOWELL BINKLEY: is I kind of used this work called formatting.
HOWELL BINKLEY: And it's a process of kind of–we'll spend,
HOWELL BINKLEY: you know, hours and days and
HOWELL BINKLEY: weeks with the director, set designer, costume designer
HOWELL BINKLEY: kind of formatting our way through the production,
HOWELL BINKLEY: kind of mapping our way in a way.
HOWELL BINKLEY: We'll have a rough set model
HOWELL BINKLEY: and we'll kind of start on page one of the script and kind of work
HOWELL BINKLEY: our way through it with, you know, take it
HOWELL BINKLEY: like, you know, one scene at a time.
HOWELL BINKLEY: And where's this scene going to be and what scenery is going to be
HOWELL BINKLEY: in it, what part of the stage it's going to be on and how we
HOWELL BINKLEY: transition from getting out of this scene into the
HOWELL BINKLEY: fields of hay and things like that.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So it's really a mapping process, very
HOWELL BINKLEY: similar to making the storyboard for film but I just
HOWELL BINKLEY: call it a formatting process. And, you know, a lot of
HOWELL BINKLEY: these days to projection is a big integral part of our
HOWELL BINKLEY: shows that we do so, you know, is
HOWELL BINKLEY: to, you know, negotiating the real
HOWELL BINKLEY: estate of where things are going to be and how
HOWELL BINKLEY: we get through the show.
HOWELL BINKLEY: My way of kind of getting into the director's head,
HOWELL BINKLEY: because usually during these formatting sessions, the director is
HOWELL BINKLEY: very specific about what he's going to want in this certain scene.
HOWELL BINKLEY: You know, whether the scenes in a kitchen or in a basement or
HOWELL BINKLEY: how he feels about how it should be lit, whether it's just a little
HOWELL BINKLEY: light coming through the window.
HOWELL BINKLEY: And, you know, it's a very dark and gloomy scene with, you know,
HOWELL BINKLEY: where they're at a poker table and a lot of smoke and just one lamp
HOWELL BINKLEY: over the table. Those things kind of general–you know, that's
HOWELL BINKLEY: chemistry to me that kind of tells me, you know, what the directors
HOWELL BINKLEY: seeing and where he's feeling light coming from.
HOWELL BINKLEY: And, you know, I'm also adding to that ambiance of his looks
HOWELL BINKLEY: so that's kind of my job as a designer to be able to layer into
HOWELL BINKLEY: his kind of vision of the scene.
HOWELL BINKLEY: But this takes a lot of planning and a lot of detailed work before
HOWELL BINKLEY: we actually get to the drafting table to really start prepping
HOWELL BINKLEY: the light plot.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So these are very great meetings for me
HOWELL BINKLEY: as a designer to really get the feel of what the set designer is
HOWELL BINKLEY: going to be doing and these are just formatting sequences too.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So really, this is even before the set's been
HOWELL BINKLEY: kind of finalized or are really finished being designed.
HOWELL BINKLEY: Costumes are exceptionally important to a lighting designer
HOWELL BINKLEY: where you're not fighting the color or anything.
HOWELL BINKLEY: It's all kind of weaved together in a palette
HOWELL BINKLEY: that is comfortable and and soft for the audience.
HOWELL BINKLEY: But it's also telling a story about who's who, what color they're
HOWELL BINKLEY: wearing and what motif has been set up.
HOWELL BINKLEY: What we do is we build lighting cues that they're called for
HOWELL BINKLEY: a dance number and a musical.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So when they're moving in,
HOWELL BINKLEY: there's lighting changes with their movement or
HOWELL BINKLEY: lighting changes with the music.
HOWELL BINKLEY: You know, a lot of the lighting changes are really kind of
HOWELL BINKLEY: work with the sound, work with the orchestrations,
HOWELL BINKLEY: work with the lyrics.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So these are all called effects
HOWELL BINKLEY: that the stage manager calls throughout the course of the
HOWELL BINKLEY: evening, he or she calls all the lighting cues
HOWELL BINKLEY: and a lot of the sound cues and all the
HOWELL BINKLEY: scenery moves. This is all called by one person and
HOWELL BINKLEY: that's the stage manager. So that person has a huge job
HOWELL BINKLEY: in driving the show. They call all the scenery moves when
HOWELL BINKLEY: sound changes. All the lighting effects that we cue
HOWELL BINKLEY: or go into a computer.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So during that, during the course of the day, when were setting the
HOWELL BINKLEY: lighting, there was an actual programmer on
HOWELL BINKLEY: a computer that all the lighting cues are set.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So and then all these lighting cues have a number.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So we start at the top of the show, what, like que 20
HOWELL BINKLEY: through a thousand, like some shows have over seven eight hundred
HOWELL BINKLEY: thousand cues in them.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So but they're all on a computer and they're all hidden and they're
HOWELL BINKLEY: all run by an operator.
HOWELL BINKLEY: Now in the lighting world we have automated lighting fixtures.
HOWELL BINKLEY: These are computerized lights that store
HOWELL BINKLEY: over a hundred different colors.
HOWELL BINKLEY: They also store patterns or gobos or templates
HOWELL BINKLEY: of any design. And usually inside these certain units there's
HOWELL BINKLEY: three wheels that house all these different templates.
HOWELL BINKLEY: And these units, they are since, they flash, they strobe,
HOWELL BINKLEY: they flood out.
HOWELL BINKLEY: And it's all done by computer where
HOWELL BINKLEY: a lot of the old conventional units were a fixed unit.
HOWELL BINKLEY: It would just you hung it and focus it.
HOWELL BINKLEY: It really had one job.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So these computerized lights can do you know
HOWELL BINKLEY: what one you know, it would take, you know,
HOWELL BINKLEY: one hundred fixed lights to do one automated
HOWELL BINKLEY: lighting fixture can do now.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So and also the color temperature of the lights has just completely
HOWELL BINKLEY: changed from that tungsten look that we had twenty
HOWELL BINKLEY: years ago to the color temperature has just escalated
HOWELL BINKLEY: to a whole different type of feel on stage.
HOWELL BINKLEY: Especially now a lot of the lights are LEDs source,
HOWELL BINKLEY: so just that whole color temperature
HOWELL BINKLEY: really, it just makes this gives the stage a much more richness
HOWELL BINKLEY: and colorful blend.
HOWELL BINKLEY: It's really all a team effort in all departments
HOWELL BINKLEY: to layer just the size of these shows now.
HOWELL BINKLEY: And it's a huge collaboration.
HOWELL BINKLEY: And that's another great thing about what we do, is
HOWELL BINKLEY: we're you know, we're always experimenting.
HOWELL BINKLEY: We're exploring new layers, new elements, new types
HOWELL BINKLEY: of lights, new types of sound.
HOWELL BINKLEY: So it's really, it's exciting.
HOWELL BINKLEY: The students who are studying lighting and coming up and wanting to
HOWELL BINKLEY: be lighting designers. The first thing I share with them is
HOWELL BINKLEY: to go and see as much theatre, dance, opera
HOWELL BINKLEY: as you possibly can.
HOWELL BINKLEY: I think that's where you'll learn.
HOWELL BINKLEY: As much as you go and see theatre you're going to see
HOWELL BINKLEY: different techniques from different designers, scenery,
HOWELL BINKLEY: costumes, lighting, you know, and see different directors'
HOWELL BINKLEY: works and choreographers and see what inspires
HOWELL BINKLEY: you there. Because I think the more you can see, the more it's going
HOWELL BINKLEY: to instill into your own craft
HOWELL BINKLEY: as a designer. So that's my main thing that I try to share
HOWELL BINKLEY: with upcoming designers. And also I try to
HOWELL BINKLEY: help them observe working designers
HOWELL BINKLEY: in the field to go and study how they work in a room, how they
HOWELL BINKLEY: work with directors, how they are when we are in the technical
HOWELL BINKLEY: process of mounting shows on the stage.