Richard Pilbrow.
Richard Pilbrow, a famously tireless British stage lighting designer, creator, theatre design marketing consultant, and theatrical producer, died on Dec. 6, 2023. He was 90.
Richard had an ongoing, heightened sensibility for seeing new potentialities and breaking boundaries. As a good friend, affiliate designer, and co-designer with Richard, I noticed this play out in some ways.
There was all the time a twinkle in Richard’s eye, a glowing and pleasure in his power as he struck upon the core of a brand new perception, query, or problem. You may virtually see him scanning the horizon frequently, fueled by his countless power and curiosity, in search of what was doable past the prevailing state of affairs.
This was all the time an animating power on his initiatives, be it a lighting design, a theatre design, a e-book, a presentation (with a lot of elucidating photos), or his pleasure at discovering a brand new piece of leisure {hardware} or software program.
On Hal Prince’s manufacturing of Present Boat, set designer Eugene Lee bemoaned the usage of “little cones of sunshine” from particular person theatrical lights as a poor emulation of the parallel beams of daylight or moonlight. Richard stumble on the thought of upgrading David Hersey Associates (DHA) Mild Curtains. This fixture used very slim beams of sunshine to actually create a visual curtain of sunshine, two meters in size. The sunshine may pan upstage and downstage, and included a 20-color scroller to vary the colours alongside full size of the unit. Richard additionally wished so as to add a “tilt” characteristic in order that models could possibly be targeted stage left or proper. Utilized in mixture with its current upstage/downstage motion, it may now focus to any level onstage.
When 11 of those revolutionary new fixtures arrived on the theatre (one was a spare) proper earlier than tech, they had been instantly put in on two linesets, every spanning the total width of the stage. After they had been flown out to trim, turned on, and put via their paces, all the pieces else onstage spontaneously stopped.
All of us stared in awe. We had by no means seen such a broad stroke of lighting that encompassed the total stage in a single swath. Pointing straight down, they then all silently tilted—floated, actually—to the proper, and steadily shifted from the colours of excessive midday via afternoon, sundown, moonlight, and night. Simply as Richard had conceived and deliberate. Then they reversed route, floating to the left and going via colours from night time into vivid day. Then all of them floated to focus centerstage for the imagined star flip on the finish of the massive musical quantity—now rolling to lavender, deep rose, and vivid pink colours.
We had been so struck, we requested the lighting programmer to run the routine once more.
We had been nonetheless in awe, attempting to understand the affect of a high quality of sunshine and definition of area we had by no means seen earlier than.
Richard delighted to find methods to create the sort of pleasure, perception, and chance at each flip. He and a longtime good friend, designer/director Tony Walton, as soon as labored on a brand new musical known as Busker Alley, starring Tommy Tune. The manufacturing began out of city in Louisville.
Over lengthy dinners throughout load-in and tech, Richard and Tony spontaneously started to recount a few of their many adventures from over time. Their collaborations included co-producing many musicals within the West Finish for Hal Prince, together with A Humorous Factor Occurred on the Method to the Discussion board, She Loves Me, Cabaret, Fiddler on the Roof, Firm, and A Little Night time Music.
I had heard a few of these tales from every of them individually over time. However they took on a complete new life as every of them stuffed in particulars the opposite had neglected. This would constantly spark extra impromptu recollections that made these tales richer in each method. The 2 had been clearly having a grand time sharing these tales with one another and the others on the desk.
This went on for 3 superb weeks whereas they obtained to hang around collectively out of city. We heard the uproarious story about smuggling Elaine Stritch’s canine into the U.Okay. whereas she was within the London manufacturing of Firm; in regards to the trials, tribulations, and supreme success of Richard’s Broadway debut creating projections for Tony’s design of Golden Boy; and in regards to the two of them listening to about an thrilling new musical—as in stop-everything-you’re-doing thrilling—that Hal was engaged on, which might grow to be Fiddler on the Roof. It was an absolute delight to be a fly on the wall to tales from such a wealthy and great life.
Richard has written 4 books: Stage Lighting, an influential introduction to lighting for a lot of now within the business; Stage Lighting Design: The Artwork, the Craft, the Life, which incorporates interviews with quite a few main lighting designers throughout many arts and leisure sectors; Walt Disney Live performance Corridor—The Backstage Story, written with Patricia MacKay; and his memoir, A Theatre Mission.
His forthcoming e-book, A Sense of Theatre: The Untold Story of the Nationwide Theatre, is within the last levels of pre-production. Richard was the lighting designer for the opening of the Nationwide Theatre firm for Laurance Olivier in Sixties. When Olivier was charged with main the creation of the Nationwide Theatre constructing, Richard was requested to affix the planning committee. Lately, Richard grew to become fascinated with the Nationwide’s observe file of making indelible productions over time, typically overcoming a number of the inherent challenges of the Olivier and Lyttleton theatres. He was intrigued by how artistic groups made this occur and the way the Nationwide has thrived artistically as a theatre heart.
As one his collaborators, Rob Halliday writes, “It is going to be a captivating learn for anybody who loves the Nationwide Theatre. Or, actually, loves any sort of theatre in any respect. Anybody who has ever questioned why some theatres really feel nice, others much less so. Anybody who’s ever watched a present, or been a part of a present.”
Richard enthusiastically, steadily championed the potential and potentialities in others. Many have cited Richard as a key mentor and affect of their careers—whether or not in leisure know-how, theatre consulting, lighting design, or publishing. Graduating lighting design college students keep in mind when he spent considerate time with them at portfolio evaluations.
He was all the time in search of that spark of creativity, in himself and others, and supporting and inspiring that impulse at each flip. Whether or not an individual hadn’t but seen that chance for themselves or was simply beginning to discover their method, Richard was enthusiastic in his help.
As I completed drafting a lightweight plot for a number of the co-designs that we did, I added some new and totally different parts that Richard invited me to incorporate, sight unseen. When it got here to cueing in a few of these new concepts whereas in tech, as I used to be about to modify on the microphone on my headset, Richard jogged my memory:
“Astonish me!”
These phrases of Richard stay with me every day.
Daybreak Chiang is a lighting designer with intensive credit on Broadway and in regional theatres, opera, and museums.
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