Doug Holder interviews Don Holder--Tony Award-Winning Ligh

Doug Holder: You were always involved with a lot of activities as
a kid, theater only being one of them. How did you wind up as a
lighting designer?

Don Holder: As you know, Mom and Dad exposed us to the performance
arts from an early age, which I think certainly initiated my interest.
Somehow, I gravitated to working on the stage crew, and, immediately, I
was fascinated by everything associated with stage lighting. I remember
building crude lighting instruments to augment the school\u2019s lighting
inventory when it was time for a Christmas concert, or a special event
in the junior high auditorium. My interest in lighting even extended to
my summer work at Boy Scout\u2019s camp, where I was always volunteering to
be the ceremonial chairman, or the guy in charge of building bonfires
and lighting the dark trails with \u201cpot fires\u201d [a burning wick in a large
soup can filled with kerosene].

A pivotal moment was seeing \u201cChorus Line\u201d on Broadway when I was in
high school. I\u2019ll always remember the legendary Tharon Musser\u2019s lighting
for that production. It really opened my eyes to the creative
possibilities of lighting in the theater. I saw, for the first time,
that lighting had the potential to be a powerful and emotional voice
that could make a profound contribution to the theatrical experience.

Although I lived through many moments of uncertainty about what I
wanted to do with my life, I always seemed to gravitate back to
theatrical lighting. Eventually [a year out of undergraduate school at
the University of Maine], I decided to take the leap and pursue the
profession seriously.

Doug: You told me that Jennifer Tipton, your lighting professor at
Yale, advised you to go into another field. Ironically, you went on to
win the Tony Award for lighting. Any thoughts about this?

Don: Jennifer\u2019s comments dealt a devastating blow to my
self-confidence. However, I was determined to change her mind and never
allowed myself to believe that I didn\u2019t have the talent or aptitude to
be a lighting designer. As I look back on those events today, I realized
that Jennifer based her comments on what she knew of me at the time,
which wasn\u2019t much. She hadn\u2019t seen my work first-hand, and her judgment
was drawn exclusively from my performance in the classroom. I had no
formal training prior to admission to Yale\u2014my degree was in forestry.
This didn\u2019t prepare me to dive right into intensive study that
emphasized a conceptual approach to design. As a result, it took my
entire first year to relearn the design process, which up to this point
had been based entirely on instinct.

Eventually, the ideas that Jennifer had been preaching began to sink
in, and, in my second year, I was given the chance to design a series of
new plays at The Yale Rep. Once she had the opportunity to see an
actual production that I designed, Jennifer\u2019s opinion of me, and my
work, changed completely.

Doug: Was \u201cThe Lion King\u201d the most challenging project you have done? What were the special challenges?

Don: I\u2019d say \u201cThe Lion King\u201d was indeed the most challenging
production I\u2019ve done, and one of the most rewarding. One of the many
challenges was how to give the audience a real sense of the vast visas
of the Serengeti: How could we create an unending, luminous sky scape
that fluidly changed color and tone as the day progressed, or the
emotional temperature changed? Finding a solution to this was crucial,
as it was decided that this magical African sky would be the central
visual metaphor for the piece.

Through research and mock-ups, we developed an unusual alternative to
traditional theatrical \u201cmasking.\u201d Black legs that are typically used to
hide the backstage spaces to the left and right of the stage were
reconceived for \u201cThe Lion King\u201d as sophisticated light boxes. These
light box legs mirrored and continued the skycaps that we saw in many
scenes, giving us the desired sense of an unending stage picture,
without sharply defined boundaries.

For the movie version, the challenge was to retain the essence of
\u201cThe Lion King,\u201d yet give it a new visual framework that allowed the
audience to experience it from a totally different perspective.

Doug: Lighting is a very technical field. How much \u201cart\u201d is involved?

Don: Lighting designers are considered collaborative visual artists
today, in the same way one considers scenic and costume designers. The
medium, the technique and the tools are just very different. Lighting
designers require tools and must develop technique the same way a
painter or sculptor does.

Doug: Tell me about working with Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp on the musical \u201cMovin\u2019 Out.\u201d

Don: \u201cMovin\u2019 Out\u201d was an incredible experience. I found working with
Tharp truly inspiring. I never met an artist with her strength, will,
determination, vision and talent. Twyla was very supportive and
encouraged me to think outside the box. Billy Joel was more or less
hands-off. He trusted Tharp completely. Billy was very enthusiastic
about the piece. Other than an introduction or two, we had no
interaction.

I felt that my design should be a seamless hybrid between dance
lighting and a high-energy, state-of-the-art rock concert. I tried to
find an appropriate middle ground where the dancers and musicians can
coexist, and where the lighting subtly draws the eye to the important
moments. Every night there is a crowd of Billy Joel lovers, and there is
a contingent of folks who are there for the story and dancing.
Hopefully, everybody leaves the theater happy.

Doug: Any new projects?

Don: I\u2019m working on a production of \u201cThe Magic Flute,\u201d directed by
Julie Taymor, and also August Wilson\u2019s new play due at the Huntington
Theatre in Boston, \u201cThe Gem of the Ocean.\u201d