Joshua: For me, video is the most important new frontier for lighting designers. LEE: What are some of the newer movements and shifts in lighting design that you find exciting or interesting? New technologies? Anything that you’re currently experimenting with? But these are quite a bit rarer than you’d think and more often than not you’re trying to shoehorn some lighting into a box set with a ceiling and no windows. The best theatrical experiences I’ve had have been with people who believe at their core that theatre is a collaborative art that no one person’s artistic contribution is more valuable than anothers. As a result, you’re often saddled with the assumptions of others. Joshua: Lighting Designers are always the last person in to a production and even if you are fortunate enough to get hired early, light is still the last element to be added to a show before opening. LEE: What is the most frustrating aspect of your job as a lighting designer? Thankfully, I’ve been given a wonderful variety of opportunities in the world of theatre in which to hone those skills. It was the beginning of an continuing process of understanding what it is to design. Trying new colours, new angles and new concepts. ![]() ![]() And there I was, skills dulled by years of “flash and trash” having to dig down and pick colours that weren’t primary! From that show forward, I began to be more forceful in the application of “design” to my designs. At the front of the room, was the closest thing to a proper theatrical set I’d lit in a long time. They had decided to turn the whole room in a western town and had hired an Arizona set building to provide mountains, rocks, tumbleweed and the like. That changed for me when I did a show for a pharmaceutical company at a resort in Arizona. You knew that no matter where you put the lights, you were going to be asked for the same bright ballyhoo and the same dark blue video look. And when the desired result was so often the same, the process of designing the show could be the least fun aspect of the job. Joshua: When I was designing corporate shows, the “design” was all about efficiency: efficiency of set-up efficiency of programming and by extension, predictability of result. LEE: What determined your passion for design? Tell us about the moment when you decided this was going to be your career. In 2009, I joined Cirque full-time on IRIS. My relationship with Cirque started with providing contract design & drafting services on Cirque du Soleil’s BeLIEve. From 2005-2009, I served as Product Manager and primary feature designer for WYSIWYG, the 3D visualization, plotting and paperwork software. Since graduating in 2003, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Canada’s more prestigious theatre companies, including the Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, National Arts Centre, Soulpepper, and Canadian Stage Company. As luck would have it, the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal was opening a new Master Class for lighting design and I was accepted as the first student in a 2-student program. ![]() Having toured the world, including shows for Canadian and American military personnel in Kandahar, Afghanistan (there’s a theory that I was the first “lighting designer” ever in Afghanistan) I decided to change focus from corporate and live music to theatre. ![]() After a very short flirtation with education at a Toronto college, I began teaching and ultimately designing lights for corporate productions. As fate would have it, there were a lot more jobs available for lighting technicians and my 14-year relationship with light. Joshua: Born in the Southwestern Ontario town of Chatham, ON, I moved to Toronto in 1997 with ideas of becoming a Stage Manager. LEE Filters: Tell us a little bit about yourself, Joshua. We had a chance to talk to Joshua about his career and his experiences working on “Iris.” Joshua Hind is the Assistant Lighting Designer & Project Manager for Cirque du Soleil’s latest creation, “Iris” playing exclusively at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles.
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