The Importance of Lighting with Jeff Hannah

Photos Courtesy of Stephanie Burdick

Hi everyone! It is Alexandra Lyon. I am back! Well, this summer at Tibbits has been just fantastic. In my opinion, the shows are the best they have ever been. After watching “The Full Monty,” it is very obvious that lighting is extremely important. I figured this was an opportune time to interview lighting designer Jeffery Hannah, and learn a bit more about lighting.

Jeff graduated from the University of Illinois with a master’s degree in lighting design and an undergraduate degree in acting. Jeff has been involved with theater his entire life; but he began working in technical theater during college. Jeff volunteered to be a master electrician on a show with no prior experience. By taking this leap into lighting, he began a new career in theater.

The average theatre attendee does not know much about Jeff’s line of work. His job, in a nutshell, is to take a blank theater and use lighting to create time, emotion and many other factors. All of the lighting must come together for an overall look for the show. Jeff stated that lighting for plays, musicals, and dance must enhance the show, but not overpower it.

This is Jeff’s second year working with Tibbits. He has really enjoyed working here and overcoming the challenges of a small, old theater. One of the challenges includes strange sight lines. This makes getting the perfect lighting extremely difficult. He also praised the fact that Tibbits has many good tools for lighting, which is unusual in theaters the size of Tibbits. Sometimes the unique set causes problems which later become good memories from which to learn. Jeff says that lighting plots start out with a guess of what will work for the theater. In the 2010 Tibbits production of “Crazy for You,” Jeff created a lighting plot and upon testing, realized he didn’t have strong enough lights to create a certain look. So, he had to go back and rethink how to create the same feel using different lighting techniques.

For Jeff, there is not one particular show that he would like to try his hand at lighting. He is willing to work on any project that comes his way. “With lighting,” he says, “each kind of production (play, musical, and dance) is very different.” While he enjoys change, it is also very difficult to bounce between the types of performances.

Jeff Hannah is the lighting designer for this summer’s production of “The Full Monty.” Before starting this show, he did not watch or reference other productions of “The Full Monty.” (However, he does admit to seeing the movie many years ago.) Jeff simply used what the script said and his own ideas. He started with twelve lights to illuminate the final scene and when this was tested the actors were still very exposed. Jeff went back to the drawing board and used many hours of collaboration to finally get it right.

I hope you have enjoyed learning more about the difficult job of a lighting designer. One piece of advice from Jeff to all aspiring theater people… both sides of theater (acting and technical) should be explored and tried. This way each side can respect and understand the other.