Doug Holder interviews his brother Don Holder, lighter of The Lion King
[The Lion King is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Having recently opened in the Montecasino Theatre in northern Johannesberg, South Africa, and another opening slated for Paris in October, the production will have played in 11 different countries worldwide. There are currently eight productions of the show, including Broadway, the West End, Hamburg, Tokyo, Seoul, two U.S. national tours and Johannesburg, making it a global phenomenon. In recognition of his stellar work lighting the show, we bring you an interview with lighting designer Don Holder conducted by his brother Doug.—ed.]
When we were kids, my brother Don (or Donnie, as I still call him) was always involved in a frenzy of activity. In high school, in Rockville Centre, N.Y., he was like a hyperactive Mickey Rooney, running from one project to the next. And now at 49, he hasn’t changed.
Since graduating from Yale Drama School in the mid ‘80s, Don has been lighting stages for a slew of Broadway and off-Broadway productions. My kid brother, the one whom I pulled countless pranks on — and with — is now a Tony Award-winning lighting designer of The Lion King, and winner of the Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle Awards. The Lion King is celebrating 10 years of production this year, so I figured I’d speak to Donnie about his creative life, and perhaps give him a well-deserved noogie.
Doug Holder: You were always involved with a lot of activities as a kid, theatre only being one of them. How did you wind up as a lighting designer?
Don Holder: As you know, Mom and Dad exposed us to the performing arts from an early age, which I think certainly initi-ated my interest. Somehow, I gravitated to working on the stage crew, and immediately I was fascinated by everything associated with stage lighting. I remember building crude lighting instruments to augment the school’s lighting inventory when it was time for a Christmas concert, or a special event in the junior high auditorium. My interest in lighting even extended to my summer work at Boy Scouts camp, where I was always volunteering to be the ceremonial chairman, or the guy in charge of building bonfires and lighting the dark trails with “pot fires” (a burning wick in a large soup can filled with kerosene).
A pivotal moment was seeing A Chorus Line on Broadway when I was in high school. I’ll always remember the legendary Tharon Musser’s lighting for that production. It really opened my eyes to the creative possibilities of lighting in the theatre. I saw for the first time that lighting had the potential to be a powerful and emotional voice that could make a profound contribution to the theatrical experience.
Although I lived through many moments of uncertainty about what I wanted to do with my life, I always seemed to gravitate back to theatrical lighting. Eventually, a year out of undergraduate school at the University of Maine, I decided to take the leap and pursue the profession seriously.
Q: You told me that your lighting professor at Yale advised you to go into another field. Ironically, you went on to win the Tony Award for lighting.
A: These comments dealt a devastating blow to my self-confidence. However, I was determined to change her mind, and never allowed myself to believe that I didn’t have the talent or aptitude to be a lighting designer. As I look back on those events today, I realized that Jennifer based her comments on what she knew of me at the time, which wasn’t much. She hadn’t seen my work first-hand, and her judgment was drawn exclusively from my performance in the classroom. I had no formal training prior to admission to Yale — my degree was in forestry. This didn’t prepare me to dive right into intensive study that emphasized a conceptual approach to design. As a result, it took my entire first year to relearn the design process, which, up to this point, had been based entirely on instinct.
Eventually, the ideas that Jennifer had been preaching began to sink in, and in my second year I was given the chance to design a series of new plays at The Yale Rep. Once she had the opportunity to see an actual production that I designed, Jennifer’s opinion of me and my work, changed completely.
Q: Was The Lion King the most challenging project you have done? What were the special challenges?
A: I’d say The Lion King was indeed the most challenging production I’ve done, and one of the most rewarding. One of the many challenges was how to give the audience a real sense of the vast vistas of the Serengeti: How could we create an unending, luminous skyscape that fluidly changed color and tone as the day progressed, or the emotional temperature changed? Finding a solution to this was crucial, as it was decided that this magical African sky would be the central visual metaphor for the piece.
Through research and mock-ups, we developed an unusual alternative to traditional theatrical masking. Black legs that are typically used to hide the backstage spaces to the left and right of the stage were reconceived for The Lion King as sophisticated light boxes. These light box legs mirrored and continued the skyscapes that we saw in many scenes, giving us the desired sense of an unending stage picture, without sharply defined boundaries.
For the movie version, the challenge was to retain the essence of The Lion King, yet give it a new visual framework that al-lowed the audience to experience it from a totally different perspective.
Q: How has the lighting changed since the inception of this production? Has technology influenced or changed your design at all?
A: The biggest change in technology since we first mounted The Lion King has been in the area of automated lighting. Our first production, and several productions that followed, used a package of Vari-Lite 200 Series luminaries — primarily VL2s and VL4s. The VL4s in particular were used extensively for cyc lighting, and thus regular repair of the color bulkheads was critical in maintaining a consistently colored skyscape. With the discontinuation of these products it became increasingly dif-ficult to obtain spare parts and to maintain the VL200 Series gear. This motivated us to make the switch to VL2000 Series equipment for our national tours and some of the more recent international productions. The significantly higher color tem-peratures and lumen output associated with these fixtures really changed the overall look of the production; secondary colors and “earth tones” were harder to achieve, and a large amount of relighting was required to bring these new productions in line with earlier incarnations.
The moving lights were initially controlled via the Vari-Lite Artisan system. When we upgraded the moving light package, we also made the switch to the Vari-Lite Virtuoso console, which allowed us to control our moving light rig via DMX as opposed to VL protocol. This allowed us to eliminate much of the out-of-date Vari-Lite data distribution network and greatly simplified installation and maintenance.
Q: The masking is so good in the road version that it was difficult to tell what kind of lighting you’re using. Can you give us a rough sketch of your key light, fill light and back lighting? What about side positions?
A: The lighting design is in essence a repertory dance plot; it relies heavily on side-lighting, and is organized to expand and contract the space in a series of layers.
Q: Lighting is a very technical field. How much “art” is involved?
A: Lighting designers are considered collaborative visual artists today, in the same way one considers scenic and costume designers. The medium, the technique and the tools are just very different. Lighting designers require tools and must develop technique the same way a painter or sculptor does.
Q: What was it like working with Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp on the musical Movin’ Out?
A: Movin’ Out was an incredible experience. I found working with Tharp truly inspiring. I never met an artist with her strength, will, determination, vision and talent. Twyla was very supportive and encouraged me to think outside the box. Billy Joel was more or less hands-off. He trusted Tharp completely. Billy was very enthusiastic about the piece. Other than an introduction or two, we had no interaction.
I felt that my design should be a seamless hybrid between dance lighting and a high-energy, state-of-the-art rock concert. I tried to find an appropriate middle-ground where the dancers and musicians could coexist, and where the lighting subtly draws the eye to the important moments. Every night there is a crowd of Billy Joel lovers, and there is a contingent of folks who are there for the story and dancing. Hopefully, everybody leaves the theatre happy.
Q: Are you working on any new projects?
A: Currently, I’m in previews with Romeo and Juliet at the Delacorte Theatre in New York’s Central Park, and I’m in the midst of preproduction on several upcoming projects: Romantic Poetry, a new musical written and directed by John Patrick Shanley, at New York Stage and Film, Ray Charles Live (with a book by Susan Lori-Parks) at Pasadena Playhouse and a revival of South Pacific at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in New York. I just finished work on a new national touring production of Movin’ Out and August Wilson’s Radio Golf on Broadway, and I am about to begin technical rehearsals for 1776 at the Guthrie Theatre.
I’m working on a production of The Magic Flute directed by Julie Taymor, and also August Wilson’s new play due at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, The Gem of the Ocean.
