Successfully lighting a musical may require an aptitude for music itself, only so much of which can be taught. “The lighting has got to work with the music. How do you teach someone how to write a poem? You can learn all the mechanics, whether it’s going to rhyme or whether it’s iambic pentameter, but then you’ve got to put those parts together.” A key challenge — and reward — is learning new things. “I’ve been a designer 25 years and I learn something new with every show. If you don’t, you might as well stop.”
—Howell Binkley, LD for “In the Heights,” Inside Theatre, PLSN, Aug. 2008
