Oleanna

I had the wonderful pleasure of spending a day watching Tony Award winning Lighting Designer, Don Holder, tech the production of Oleanna by David Mamet, Directed by Doug Hughes, starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles at the Golden Theater in New York!!!

It was a wonderful opportunity to re-introduce myself to Mr. Holder, watch him work hard and fast, as he moved from cue to cue adding, filling in, removing, adjusting, and cleaning up the already quite neat and tidy design that he had created for the production. Having the opportunity to listen and watch him cue the show, while watching the board-op type key strokes, and seeing Mr. Holder’s associate and assistant working right along side him was a wonderful treat that I will cherish for many years. We even got to go out to dinner with him and ask him a variety of questions about the production and how he works with students, young designers, and others in the field. I can’t wait to come down next month for a chance to see him work on Ragtime. (I will also be taking that opportunity to watch my Sound Design professor Rob Kaplowitz work the acclaimed production of FELA!)

I owe a deep thanks and overwhelming gratitude to Traci Klainer for making this day possible! It is truly an opportunity that not many young designers get to have, and I am so appreciative of the opportunity to learn so much in such a short period of time.

Not only did she set us up to watch Mr. Holder, but she was able to bring Chris Darland from Artec Consultants, Jason Lyons who created the lighting design for Rock of Ages currently playing on Broadway, Brian MacDevitt who recently won a Tony award for best lighting design of a play "Joe Turners Come and Gone", and many other folks to whom I can’t wait to interact with more.

So, thank you very much Traci for a wonderful day, and I look forward to many more in the near future.