Friday, July 05, 2019
Spotlight Operator June Abernathy Talks with City Theatrical
www.livedesignonline.com: Whether you are new to the theatre industry or a seasoned pro, you've likely seen how a single spotlight can transform the look and feel of a show. But what goes into the follow spot operator role? What are the tips and tricks of the trade? City Theatrical interviewed June Abernathy, a 30-year spotlight veteran and front light supervisor for The Lion King US Tour
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3 comments:
I think that learning the spotlight is something that is important for stagehands and this book could be very good for helping people improve at this craft. Many people, myself included, started tech by doing spotlight and even after doing it for years, I still have a lot to learn and a book like this would have been helpful. Maybe this book will be something that is used to teach spot in high school theater programs and this way, students would be able to learn from professionals. I think something that is interesting from the lion king is that the hire most of their spot operators at each city which means that they are using people who might not have ever ran spot for this show before. It mentions that they are trained but they wouldn't be as good as someone who ran spot for the show at all performances.
Ben Hirschfied
This article published by LDI shows a lot of interesting and important tidbits. The q & a shows a lot of information that is very valuable. Learning from what an experienced spot op has gone through, shows a lot in the way of learning from the wise. In this article, June Abernathy was previously a stage manager. This shows how even years into what you think is what you want to do, it can vastly change. Her book seems very interesting as well, as it looks to be a nice guide of how to work a spot, in depth. This also shows the value of why many people should learn to spot op, becuase of how beneficial it is to everyone working in a theatre, and the combined respect. Overall, I think this article does a great job at showing all the inns and out of what a pro spot op is experiencing, and although it is not easy at all times, it can be very enjoyable.
Learning spot is an important part of theater and I do agree stagehands should learn spot because it will make them a more versatile resource. I also appreciate this book that June published I think teaching such a skill from the standpoint of a professional's experiences is a good way to learn. Although the book includes a lot of vocabulary and focuses on the technical aspects of running spotlight, failures are when we learn best and it's even better to learn from others mistakes because then you don't have that on your conscience.
June also mentioned that she called cues for other spotlight operators while also running her own spot. This is something I have never heard of before (probably because our productions only require about 1 or 2 spotlights). I do believe that this concept is effective and works well especially with the rate at which technical departments are growing.
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