I was the Assistant Lighting Designer under Ryan Dunn for this production of Les Miserables (by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg) at Village Theatre Kidstage (Everett) in August of 2018. Below are some production photos from the show.
Photo Credit: Sam Freeman, Directed By: Kate Jaeger, Costume Designer: Meredith Magoun, Lighting Design: Ryan Dunn, Scenic Design: Catherine Cornell
Being a true assistant for this production gave me a great deal of learning opportunities. In my other assistant experiences at Central Washington University, I found myself more involved in design aspects of the production and the process as a whole. But for this production I was largely helping my designer (Ryan Dunn) execute his vision and his plan to the best of my ability. I achieved this by developing and refining most of the paperwork for the show and by taking thorough notes as we went through our days, and in those roles as assistant I felt highly successful. A challenge thrown my way for this production was the pile of other responsibilities I took on. The internship gave me the opportunity to also be the Light Board Operator and lead programmer for the show, both of which I accepted. This meant that during tech rehearsals I was bouncing back and forth between jotting down notes, taking cues, programming the show, and updating paperwork. I felt ultimately successful at juggling all these tasks, and I feel my designer would agree. The only task I found difficulty in giving frequent attention to was giving live notes to the followspot operators during the tech and dress process, which is a task Ryan and I discussed and I am told is often the job of ALDs, but I learned that if I am to take on that many tasks I need to be even more on top of work than I already was, and that being more efficient with my roles will help as well.