Abigail Rosen Holmes’ sizeable résumé includes working with some of the most creative talents in the music industry. Among the many people for which she has provided lighting and video are the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Pet Shop Boys, Peter Gabriel, Herbie Hancock, Bonnie Raitt, Thompson Twins, Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus and in more recent years, Cher, Janet Jackson and The Cure. She is currently on the road with redhot Latin sensation Shakira, who, in addition to burning up the charts, is selling out arenas across the globe on her “Oral Fixation” tour. We caught her two-night stay in San Jose at the beginning of her U.S. leg where we spoke with Holmes about her past experience and the current tour. Like many people, Holmes came into the lighting industry through a side door. Though she grew up around the theatre, she didn’t intend to become a lighting designer. “My mother is a modern dancer, and I grew up seeing a lot of dance and experimental theatre,” she said. “At one point I had thought that I would follow a more conventional path into lighting design for theatre and dance. I started at school with a theatre major but became an art major. Very accidentally I started working as crew and then production or stage manager on concerts first at Brown University and then at some nearby non-union venues. That was my job while I was in school.”
Even after working shows, Holmes didn’t know what fate had in store for her. “I don’t think it had really occurred to me until then that lighting for live music was something you could do, that it was actually a job,” Holmes recalls. “I was a huge music fan. That was a very exciting period for new music with punk and new wave, there was so much great music from New York and from the UK. The music and bands were also interested in new and experimental ways of presenting themselves visually and often very aware of art and also of theatre presentation.”
From early on, Holmes has had the opportunity to work with artists who are very creative and artistically aware. “I was lighting director for Talking Heads in the early 1980s and worked on the movie Stop Making Sense. That was very early in my career. David Byrne exemplifies everything which makes an artist interesting to me to work with. As someone with an art background he is highly visually literate, aware both of art and of current experimental theatrical presentation. He is extremely risk-taking visually and has a fantastic, very minimalist sensibility. It was an amazing opportunity to have early in my career.”
Her experience with the Talking Heads heavily influenced her style and the way she uses lighting. But not everyone appreciated the minimalist approach. “I actually managed to get fired as lighting designer on a tour right after this for being too restrained. It may not be obvious in some of the shows I light, but my ideal aesthetic is still driven by the idea that the lighting changes and effects not be gratuitous.”
The next phase of her career brought new highlights. Among them was a historical show in Europe. “I was lighting designer for Roger Water’s ‘The Wall’ concert in Berlin in 1990,” said Holmes. “That was an amazing experience. It was a pivotal moment in history, and an amazing time to be in Berlin, which made the experience feel very special. It was my second show as lighting designer for Roger Waters, who was fabulous to work with. He is aware of everything in his show, and has very clear ideas about what he wants and why.”
Her enthusiasm for great art and risk-taking artists continues to this day. Among her favorites is the moody music of The Cure. “I am very lucky to have the opportunity to work with Robert Smith of The Cure,” she enthuses. “There is a huge dynamic range in the Cure’s music, and it is so atmospheric, which is a great opportunity for lighting. It’s great that all these artists I love are very involved in their lighting, and very smart. I guess that is the consistent thread!”
As for the direction of the lighting industry, Holmes recognized the importance that video plays in today’s productions. She has embraced the technology and seized new opportunities that it presents. “I have really enjoyed the opportunities in the last few years to make video content for some of my shows; The Cure, The Dallas Symphony, Turner Broadcasting. Many of my shows in the 1980s used projection. The technology has come so far, there is a wealth of ways to use images as part of lighting now. It adds so much to what we can do.”
Her current tour with Shakira is allowing her to stretch her work and push her out of her comfort level. “Shakira is very involved in every aspect of her show,” Holmes said. “She’s also really fun to work with. She is extremely smart and quick to understand all the technical aspects of the lighting. We discussed the looks and cueing prior to offline programming and then she spent several nights with us during production rehearsals looking at the cueing. She has a very clear eye, and it was really interesting to me to work within the restrictions of her taste. She prefers a lot of monochromatic looks, which made me have to think in some new ways about how to get the variation and emphasis in the looks.”
Holmes describes the lighting in terms that are consistent with her early work. “I think the lighting has a combination of restraint in the colors and clean, apparent simplicity of some of the looks, and also excitement and richness, partly from the cueing, which is quite full in some places. We take a lot of the musical accents.”
Working with other creatives in the team, the lighting rig for Shakira does contain some interesting technology as well as a few surprises. “The wall of lights [see photo at right –°©ed.] was conceived by the show creative director, Jaume de Laiguana, as a sort of retro-rock look,” she said. “I think it provides a great alternative to the look of a low-res LED wall. It is fantastic. I wish I could claim it as my idea! It was a lot of fun to use. We programmed it in several different ways, using cues and effects as well as the bitmap capabilities of the MA Lighting grandMA. The show looks very clean; there is no visible scenery, so the wall is a great surprise when it is revealed. With no scenery the lighting positions are important in giving shape to the stage. The ‘crownshaped’ truss over the stage is echoed in the angle of the low side lights and the curve of the rear floor light positions.”
Holmes has had a long successful lighting career, but there’s more she would like to accomplish. When asked who she would most like to work with, she doesn’t hesitate. “Everyone who knows me knows the first part of the answer—Nine Inch Nails or any project with Trent Reznor. And, to continue working with Shakira and anything at all, ever, with Robert Smith.”
As she thinks back on her career, Holmes pauses to reflect on how she got where she is. “My career benefited greatly from the expertise and generosity of other designers with whom I worked, first and foremost Mark Fisher, and also Patrick Woodroffe and Jonathon Smeeton.”
