When asked what advice he would give an up and coming lighting designer, Rick Fisher, LD for Billy Elliot on Broadway, offers a practical response that underlies his philosophy about his work. “I think the most important thing is to try and do everything and find out what kind of performance you like because it really helps to like the show you’re lighting,” he replies. “Then you don’t mind watching it over and over again and refining your language to support what you’re doing. That’s where you get subtler and better, and sometimes you have to be quite self-effacing in this business. It’s not about seeing the lighting; it’s about seeing the show.”
—Rick Fisher, as quoted by Bryan Reesman, “Inside Theatre,” PLSN, May 2009
