Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

114 Chapter 5 Designers and Technicians
6. Don Holder’s “lighting was . . . wondrous to behold” and “top-of-the-line” with “eye-tricking moments” said three
Broadway critics in reviewing his design of the 2013 Broadway Big Fish where, as you can see, the illumination of
the townspeople in a haunted forest (populated by dancing trees and a towering giant) makes them gleam in what
would realistically be dark and gloomy surroundings. © Paul Kolnik
meticulous,” Holder freely admits.
“My work tends to be quite detailed—
specific rather than general, layered
rather than spare. I’m certainly obsessive
about craft—I start with a strong take
on each scene and then detail each
moment. This means that my lighting
tends to be very densely cued and
shaped.” Holder cites as an example
his 2009 production of the musical
Pippin at the Mark Taper Forum in Los
Angeles on which he was working
at the time of this interview: “It’s just
two hours long but it has six hundred
light cues. But every detail retains the
sense of the big picture.”
With a strong background in music,
Holder finds himself often engaged in
shows “that require a romantic, lyrical,
and above all musical treatment—but
this is not limited to the music in
musicals (like Pippin) alone. Indeed,
he accounts his love of music as a
reason why he has often been tapped
to design the premieres of August
Wilson’s “straight” plays. “I think
that August’s work is so poetic and
operatic, his storytelling is so rich, his
sense of history, religion, and magic
have such a depth, and there are so
many undercurrents running through
the body of his work that there’s
always much more underneath these
plays than what you see on the page.
I think my style of lighting is well suited
to Wilson’s work, since so many of his
characters seem like they’re stepping
out of straight dramatic acting and
singing arias. His work has a musicality,
an operatic quality, a mythic proportion
that I simply love. So there’s a certain
amount of freedom and liberty I can
take by stepping out of reality,
heightening things, making things
larger than life, and responding
to the play emotionally rather than
intellectually. And so my work
becomes very personal.”
Holder’s career has taken flight
during an extraordinary evolution
of lighting technology, which has fit
exceptionally well with his careful
craftsmanship. “When I broke into the
theatre, the theatres I worked at were
still employing manual dimming systems,
so my work was wholly dependent
on the skill of the person running
it. Indeed, I was at the mercy of the
light board operator. And as my work
requires every light to be specifically
cued and crafted, I would become
despondent when mistakes were made.
So I greeted the age of computerized
control with open arms. For me it
changed everything: my lighting could
become more fluid and more creative,