Heather Gilbert

If you need some lighting design in this town, there are only a few places to look. One of the leading artists in this field is the beautiful and luxurious Heather Gilbert. We had a chance to talk to her about lighting, prom, and listen to some great war stories from the past! She joined us on the site of our prom, themed "The Great Ball of China".

Hey Heather! Thanks for joining us at New Trier High and this sweet prom, which has the awesomest theme we could think up! "The Great Ball of China"!

Thanks for having me. I used to have a plan to light proms one day. Never quite worked out. And here we are.

Well, we only do high school proms...real tasteful.

My mom would be happier with that career choice, I would imagine.

What kind of proms are you into?

Well, I was really only planning on lighting it. Proms have always had such poor lighting, wouldn't you say? Although one of my directors that I work with likes to quote BOOGIE NIGHTS when Ricky Jay says "There are shadows" in reference to the prom shoot. And Burt Reynolds says, "There are shadows in life, man." So maybe prom lighting is perfect after all.

It's actually "There are shadows in life, BABY." And then he asks about a woman's corsage. I'm pretty familiar with that film. But, whatever, why don't you tell these people what you are working on right now?

The Detective's Wife at Writers Theatre. It is a one actor play by Keith Huff directed by Gary Griffin starring the amazing Barbara Robertson.

Those are some really big names, though to be honest, I've never been too crazy about the name Keith. Is he a nice guy?

He is. I am a little atwitter working with him and he is so freaking cool. Calms my nerves on the pressure, you know. And my best friend in lighting design is names Keith so I am partial to the name already.

Why don't you tell us about some of your favorite shows you have worked on.

Well, it seems a little obvious to use this one, but of course OUR TOWN. That one was just amazing. Amazing actors, the whole idea. We hung three different versions of the light plot trying to get the perfect idea for the show, to match the amazing work the actors were doing.

The first meeting for the show ended up at a bar (what??? in theatre???) and it was me and Alison Siple (the finest designer in the world) and Jonathan Mastro (the finest person in the world), David Cromer (the genius), and Rachel Walsh (the real brains behind our operation) and we drank beers and ate sausage and David quoted the play and we all got to know each other more and we talked about the play for a long time. On the way home I sent David a text that said, "that was magic, right? something just happened that was magic?" and he wrote back, :"I know!" And we are doing the play again in January, 4 years later so....

And then STREETCAR where we talked about Blanche's trunk for so long when David was in town that Collette Pollard and I had to fly to NY to design the show because we forgot to talk about what the play looked like--we were just too excited talking about the characters.

And RED NOSES with Matty Hawkins because I just loved that process. He goes up on stage and acts the whole thing out for me. It's pretty awesome.

Matt Hawkins likes to wear women's Spanx. But, that show was really great and the lights were awe-inspiring.

He wears women's Spanx under those crazy ripped up "tech pants" (Hawkins is known to wear the holiest jeans on the planet for tech week) he has. So we all can see. I thought the acting was pretty awe-inspiring myself....

Listen, here's what you need to know. Matt Hawkins wears women's underpants and he also loves bubble baths. Speaking of bubble baths, it's almost time for our big dance number in the bubble bath at our awesome teen prom. Do you wanna be in it?

Can I light it? I am better lighting things than being in them.

You can be a Chinese chaperone. Just bring in the punch bowl and put that fresnel over on the tree.

Sounds good to me!

Heather, were you ever an actress and how did you get involved in lighting? You know I'm always so surprised when somebody decides to be a lighting designer because it is so much more thankless than say, costuming or directing.

I was not an actress. I did a few horrible scenes in college when they force you to. I hung lights for a class in college, then registered last the next semester and not surprisingly LIGHTING was open. My friend Emily conned me into taking it. And I just kind of loved it. My knack for geometry and love of literature and story telling somehow all came together. I am the kind of person who takes pictures of light that I love and texts them to people whether it is light through a window, light in my hallway, light on a billboard. And I feel like my job is to support the actors and they seem to appreciate me so that's all I need. Although the NY Times called my design for STREETCAR extraordinary and I will admit I memorized that and still drop that when I can find a reason...

Tell me your favorite story about something going horribly wrong.

Well, every designer I know has had at least one show that tanked and had to be done under work lights. Which isn't a bad thing because nothing makes people appreciate the lighting designer more than seeing the show under work lights.... but my favorite....hmmmmm.

Years ago I ran light board for a show called SWEET AND HOT--I think someone revived it in Chciago this year. It was at Berkshire Theatre Festival and it was gonna go to La Jolla Playhouse and then to Broadway. Des McAnuff came to see it and this was like a week after TOMMY won all those Tonys. So he is watching and I am hitting that computer GO button when suddenly the monitor does something weird and the next time I hit go the lights plunge to black. We get it back going, the lights are freaking out, doing whatever they want. Fancy Tony guy watching. Crazy. Intermission hits, everyone is consulting, freaking out. We get done. Sigh. Over. Then the director comes over and asks why there was a weird cue in one of the songs. ONE OF THE SONGS???? Anyway. It did go to La Jolla. It did not go to Broadway.

That's too bad. At least Des didn't ruin your career, because I hear he does that just for kicks. So during your last story, we were dressing in these bad ass samurai armors from the Ming Dynasty, and you haven't said boo. What gives?

I was trying to decide on the perfect gel color to fix what ails you. a little pink? Some R33?

A Klieg light right on the helmet should suffice. But, that's an amateur choice, I know. Well go ahead and get dressed for your part! You are our Geisha chaperone. Do you have soft hands?

I have been touching burning hot lights since I was 17 years old. Sadly no.

Well, it will have to do. Thanks for the interview, Man Hands, and can't wait to see your next show!

I do have the girliest hair in town though. Or biggest. Thanks!

Eric Roach, Anderson Lawfer

Eric Roach and Anderson Lawfer are the founders of www.Reviewsyoucaniews.blogspot.com