Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2001 - 47

A CONVERSATION WITH

distinguished

LIGHTING
DESIGNERS
The USITT Lighting Commission commemorated the Institute's 40th anniversary in March 2000 by inviting the past recipients of its Distinguished Lighting Designer Award to participate in a panel discussion
during the USITT Conference & Stage Expo in Denver. We were most fortunate that of the six surviving Distinguished Lighting Designers, three of
them-Ken Billington, Imero Fiorentino and Richard Pilbrow-were
able to arrange their busy schedules to participate in the panel. The discussion was moderated by Bill Warfel, professor emeritus of stage lighting at Yale University and recipient of the 1998 USITT Award for a lifetime
of distinguished contribution to the American theatre.
To date, the Distinguished Lighting Designers include Abe Feder
(1993), Ken Billington (1994), Jules Fisher (1995) Tharon Musser
(1996), Imero Fiorentino (1997), Jennifer Tipton (1998) and Richard
Pilbrow (1999). Their work represents the diverse nature of the lighting
design profession of today, encompassing Broadway and other traditional venues like opera and dance, non-traditional activities such as
lighting industrials, extravaganzas, television, themed entertainment and
architectural projects, as well as consulting. Each of them provided a few
of their favorite credits for this article, which are included as sidebars.
What follows are excerpts from the discussion we had with Billington, Fiorentino and Pilbrow last spring. Some editorial liberties have
been taken. First, while the questions are indicated as belonging to Bill
Warfel, most are in fact questions he fielded from people in the audience. In a few instances, I have paraphrased a discussion in my own
words, but have certainly tried to let these outstanding artists speak for
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TD & T

Richard E. Dunham

themselves. I think it can be said that those in attendence found the conversations enlightening and entertaining and I hope that through this article, those who missed it can now share in the event.
Bill Warfel (BW): We represent a group of people who have had both
different avenues of experience and yes, a lot of common experiences as well. While Mr. Billington began in the theatre, he lights
all sorts of venues today. Mr. Pilbrow began his career in the
United Kingdom as a stage manager, and while he lit plays also
founded an international consulting service with Theatre Projects.
Mr. Fiorentino was educated in the theatre and moved into the
early television industry while it was still done "live." Beyond television he has a broad-based design experience with work in industrials, event lighting and architecture projects. I would like to take
a few moments to let each of our distinguished panelists introduce
themselves in a manner that allows them to express what they
would like us to know about themselves and their art.
Imero Fiorentino (IF): I went into television in 1950. It was the
golden age of black and white television. There was no video tape
back then, no Hollywood Studios, no CBS City, no NBC Burbank. In
the 1950s the bulk of the television work was in New York City.
There were maybe six to eight lighting directors in New York at
that time. I see myself as being very lucky because of the fact that
while I was trained in theatre I went into television right at its beginning in 1950. I also branched off into architectural lighting

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