Who Are All Those People…And What Are They Doing at the Tech Table?

All year long, as shows go up and come down, designers are continuously busy working on various projects, including current shows, future shows and completely unrelated things, like having a life. So how, you may ask, does all the work get done? This is a story about the people whose job it is to not only achieve the goals set forth by designers, but to anticipate and overcome any obstacles along the way. These are “the facilitators,” the associate and assistant designers who act as intermediaries between the heads and technicians and other departmental representatives. These are the people who get down to the nitty-gritty of the show, realize creative ideas and get the problems solved so that the show can go on.

There are many people who work on Broadway, and it is by no means my intention to exclude any individuals who are continuously working on various shows. I recently spoke to a cross section, if you will, of the associate and assistant lighting designers who are currently working on Broadway.

As the design process develops for any show, the designer must be free to work with the director and focus on other creative elements to build the ideas of the show and the broader conceptual aspects without being hindered by the technical limitations or vast amounts of paperwork needed to get it up and running. The assistant or associate designer steps in to handle a good deal of the “nuts and bolts” and becomes the point of contact between the designer and the crew heads, as well as other departments. Often, the assistant designers will also often be given the task of maintaining the cues for the spotlights, which, depending on the show, can be more intense than the conventional lighting.

So what is the difference between an associate and an assistant lighting designer? There are many ways of looking at these relationships, and each designer has their own way of working, so it can vary from show to show. A basic tenet, however, is that there is a general progression from assistant to associate, indicating that an assistant is a newer, less experienced member of the team, and the associate has been involved longer and has more direct interaction with the design experience.

“I think there is a huge difference between an associate and an assistant. In my experience, it’s about the amount of delegated responsibility and the amount of autonomy,” says Vivien Leone, a veteran associate LD with credits like Woman in White and Little Shop of Horrors. “Associates have a lot more responsibility to implement what the designer needs, and often with a lot more autonomy than an assistant.”

Philip Rosenberg, a Broadway associate whose credits include Hairspray and Monty Python’s Spamalot, feels it’s a bit more subjective: “The title is something that is bestowed by the designer, and denotes a level of trust. An associate designer will be left alone with the director or may focus the show, where as an assistant designer will be more in charge of the paperwork. It’s definitely a level of responsibility and experience.”

“With every designer, the role varies considerably,” says Patricia Nichols, a Broadway assistant and associate who arrived more recently and whose latest shows include Jersey Boys and Lestat. “It can vary anywhere from managing work notes and keeping track of focus and paperwork, or it can be more involved where you’re stepping into the shoes of the designer. Making decisions on their behalf, knowing what is best for the production and what the designer is ultimately looking for is the key, and having a history with the designer benefits these decisions.”

Paul Miller, another veteran Broadway associate and assistant whose recent credits include Sweeney Todd, Little Women and The Producers, says, “There are so many roles, depending on the situation. You’re almost always the primary liaison between the electrician and the designer, in charge of being sure that the final product is documented for posterity. Sometimes, you get to be another set of eyes for the designer, sometimes you’re called on for your opinion about some choice or another and other times, you might be a stand-in for the designer when he’s not available. You really have to be able to read the situation accurately to know what’s expected.”

The designer’s aides are constantly working on the show and trying to make the designer’s life easier. Leone says, “We’re there to help the designer to be free to create. I see my role as a taking care of the day-to-day stuff that needs to get done, so that the designer can keep a free eye on designing and not get bogged down in the day-to-day things.”

Nichols says, “In a regional theatre setting, the assistant has more of an organizational and note-taking role, whereas on a Broadway production, the associate often has input to the design and becomes a second set of eyes for the designer.” As she also points out, “An associate usually has more involvement with the prep of a show, giving them more insight into why things are happening. As an assistant, it is sometimes hard to come into a show during the load-in and not have all the information.”

“Some designers,” says Miller, “don’t really ‘do’ the whole associate thing. They are able to be completely hands-on in all aspects of the prep and tech process and might only require someone with paperwork and organization skills. There are about as many different scenarios and degrees of ‘associate- ship’ as there are different designers.”

Anne McMills, another young associate and assistant designer whose recent work includes Good Vibrations and the upcoming Wedding Singer, sees her career choice a little differently. “For me, it’s a whole other role. I always compare it to doctors vs. nurses. The designer is like the doctor—he’s the big idea guy, the genius behind everything, and there’s the nurse who deals with the people and the details, much like assistants deal with making big ideas into smaller ideas and keeping the designer and electricians happy and focused.”

She goes on to describe how she views her role: “Communication is the primary aspect of working under a designer. But I think the second goal is being a caregiver to the designer, to help them stay calm and focused.”

Being a full-time associate designer is becoming more and more common. McMills points out, “It used to be that you became an associate, you learned from several different people and then you took your own step towards becoming a designer. I think this has shifted in recent years. It still happens, but that jump doesn’t really happen the way I think it was originally intended.”

Leone goes on to say, “Working as an assistant on Broadway is a definite and clear path to becoming an associate. Working as an associate on Broadway is absolutely not a clear path to being a designer. I highly recommend that if you want to be a designer, you go design. I work so much as an associate, I don’t have time to design, but I highly recommend it. People who have worked as designers make better assistants and associates because they comprehend what the process is.”

For many, being a full-time associate is the clear career choice. For others, finding a way to design themselves becomes the primary role. “I think assisting numerous designers is really important,” says Nichols. “There is so much I’ve learned from them. Everyone works so differently, and as a designer, I can see unconventional solutions and reasons they make choices, which influences my thought process and designer’s eye.”

Miller, who designed the lighting for Jackie Mason’s last two Broadway shows, has been able to work as an associate as well as a designer. “The dilemma is that being in that position is not really the place to try to advance your own design career,” says Miller.

As Nichols says, “Without finding your own relationship with directors, working with other designers or producers, you’ll never take that step up from associate to designer.”

Rosenberg, who is considering life beyond the associate world, says, “The projects become bigger and bigger, but also less and less challenging. When you keep working with the same designers over and over, you eventually stop learning as the shows become more routine. If you transition into more of your own designer, the situations become more unique. Being your own designer is a gamble, and working year-round is very attractive, but eventually you start to hit a glass ceiling, both monetarily and challenge-wise.”

For those who want to enter the world of Broadway as an assistant or associate designer, there are a few things to consider and some advice to heed along the way. “It’s all about relationships!” says McMills.

Rosenberg agrees. “It’s important to have a good conversation with the people you work with. The knowledge and number crunching can be taught along the way, but people skills are always useful,” he says.

As far as progressing from assistant to associate, Leone suggests, “You need to have experience with the way Broadway works—the rules, the crews, the channels of communication —because, if you’re going to be working with autonomy and that responsibility, you need experience.”

Like going to a good restaurant, the customers rarely get to see all the cooks in the kitchen, much like the audience rarely gets to see the designers in tech. While the creative process maybe hidden from view for most patrons, the proof is in the pudding, as they say, and the results from a strong and organized design team will be clear to all who see the show.