Virtual Salon #22: Illuminating the Careers of Disabled Lighting Designers
Production Still Credits:
Steel Magnolias, Dallas Theater Center, September 2018. Photo Courtesy of Karen Arnold.
Creative Team: Director, Joel Ferrell. Scenic, Dahlia Al-Habieli. Costume, Karen Perry. Sound, Melanie Chen Cole. Stage Management, Megan Winters.
ID: A 1980s hair salon is on a thrust-style stage with a proscenium. There are salon chairs, seating, hair dryers, and so forth. There is a raised portion upstage that has two doors and two windows. The exterior is seen beyond the windows. The frame and stage are surrounded by doily accents. The lighting has a lot of texture repeating the doily pattern. There are strong blue and purple exterior colors.
Folx with disabilities have a very unique skill set that they bring to theatre; they have to be creative, innovative, and adaptable just to get through the day. The disability aesthetic embraces our differences to help tell the story better. As we create a roadmap to a more equitable theatre ecosystem, how can we as theatremakers change not just the physical space, but the processes and protocols of how we collaborate to celebrate and accommodate people of different abilities?
Corresponding with the release of the Howlround article of the same title, join Wingspace for an opportunity to dive deeper into the discussion about design through a disability lens with Annie Wiegand, Michael Maag, and Monique Holt.
Thursday, February 25th, 8-10pm EST / 5-7pm PST via Zoom and Facebook Live
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsdumhrDovE9J_Ij4zm96DPGyZJdZUjQLq
ASL Interpreters: Cara Schwartz and Emily Hart
Wingspace is committed to inclusivity and we are dedicated to increasing accessibility for all our events. If you have questions or concerns centered around access or accommodations we strongly welcome you to please reach out to us via DM or email: salons@wingspace.com
Monique Holt, a freelance theater deviser and English-ASL script translator. Just moved back to New York City to start her role as an Assistant Professor for Theatre and Dance Program at Gallaudet University. At a theater graduate school, she wrote her thesis: Universal Design for Theatrical Presentation. It is still her manifesto. Theatre Communications Group hired her to be one of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion co-facilitators. She believes there should be an EDI course designed for all theater programs. She always seeks more theater opportunities for Deaf BIPOC, LGBTQIA, and DeafBlind artists to create more leaders. Currently, she is working with two other Deaf Professors from two other universities to run the first small Deaf Theatre Festival, focusing on Deaf playwrights: “Short Play Festival” in July 2021, hosting three Deaf theatre groups from Seattle-WA, Austin-TX, and Canada. She can be reached at Monique.Holt@gallaudet.edu
Annie Wiegand is the first, and maybe the only, professional Deaf lighting designer in the theatre industry in the United States. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Annie received her BA in theatre from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, and her MFA in Lighting Design from Boston University. After receiving her MFA, Annie toured for three years with The Acting Company as their Lighting Director. The highlights of her lighting design work include the following productions: Off-Broadway: I Was Most Alive With You (Playwrights Horizons, NYC). Notable Regional: Eclipsed (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, WI); Steel Magnolias, Under the Breeches (Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Montogmery, AL); Steel Magnolias (Dallas Theater Center, TX); The Who and The What (Huntington Theatre Company, Boston, MA); The Children, Matt and Ben, Brahman/I (Kitchen Theatre Company, Ithaca, NY); Small Mouth Sounds, The Bridges of Madison County (IRNE Nominee for Best Lighting Design), and Tribes (Speakeasy Stage Company, Boston, MA). Notable Off-Off-Broadway: Follies (Astoria Performing Arts Center. NYIT Nominee for Best Lighting Design). Annie is an Assistant Professor in the Theatre and Dance Program at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. She teaches design and production in both theatre courses as well as interdisciplinary courses. She is also a Teaching Artist with Roundabout Theatre Company in NYC. Also, since 2013, Annie has been the Producing Director with New York Deaf Theatre. She resides in the NYC area with her wife Staci, dog Rusty, and cat Parsley.
Michael Maag designs lighting and projections for theatre, dance, musicals, opera, and in planetariums across the United States. He sculpts with light and shadow to create lighting environments that tell a story, believing that lighting in support of the performance is the key to unlocking our audience’s emotions. He has built custom optics for projections in theatres, museums and planetariums, and also designs and builds electronics and lighting for costumes and scenery. As a paraplegic, Michael is passionate about bringing the perspective of the disabled artist to technical theatre. He is currently the Resident Lighting Designer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Michael is a founding member of Kinetic Light - an internationally recognized disability arts ensemble. His designs and creations have been seen on OSF’s stages for the last 20 years, as well as at Arena Stage, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Florida Studio Theatre, and many other places.