Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2001 - 49

meeting his future wife. Despite his disillusionment he still doesn't
see his life at the college as a complete waste of time...he lit everything that came his way and read every book on lighting that he
could lay his hands on.
Fiorentino grew up in Brooklyn, the son of Sicilian immigrants.
His parents never went to the theatre, however his uncle took him to
every new show at Radio City Music Hall. "I just loved it," he recalled.
As a boy Fiorentino made miniature sets that he lit with colored
Christmas lights, using model train transformers for dimmers. He
also read everything he could about lighting. When he got to high
school he joined the "stage squad" where he built scenery and did the
lights. "My high school teacher just pushed me to the end and wanted
me to do what I am now doing. She was great! If she wasn't there I
may not be here," he said, adding, "I might even be rich!" His supervisor was responsible for convincing his parents to send him to Carnegie Tech where he studied lighting. During the summers he always

Abe Feder
Theatre projects, spanning over fifty years, include over two
hundred Federal Theater projects in the 1930s, and Broadway hits
such as Inherit the Wind, My Fair Lady and Camelot. His
company, Lighting by Feder, appeared in the credits for a total of
three hundred Broadway shows.
Architectural lighting projects include the RCA/GE building at
Rockefeller Center, the Empire State building, the United Nations
building, the interior lighting for Buckminster Fuller's first geodesic
dome, the Prometheus Fountain in Rockefeller Center, Roosevelt
Raceway, the Montreal Cultural Center, the John F. Kennedy Center
for Performing Arts, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, the main altar at St.
Patrick's Cathedral and the Israel National Museum in Jerusalem.
Projects like the Terminal Plaza at the Idlewylde (JFK) airport
in 1956 demonstrate Feder's expertise with new technology. He designed a new fixture for the 160-acre parking area which used a new
eighteen-inch mercury vapor lamp instead of the standard thirty-sixinch one. He then specified forty-three towers instead of the previously required 275 towers thus preserving the unspoiled plaza feel
that the architects wanted.
48

W I N T E R

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TD & T

The first rule of lighting is visibility. All the rest is fluff. First,
you have to be able to see it. -IF
went off to do summer stock. For four years he was immersed in theatre and lighting every day. Despite the constant work, it felt like a
holiday to him, and he thoroughly enjoyed every one of the experiences.
After finishing his degree at Carnegie Fiorentino returned to
Brooklyn and had to earn a living. He went everywhere looking for
opportunities to do lighting. He did a number of window displays
and exhibits but really got his first break when he secured a position
with ABC Television in 1950. "My first thought after I got the job was,
how am I going to do this?" He asked the man who hired him, "Who is
going to teach me? How will I know if it's good?" The answer he got
served Fiorentino for many years to come: "Nobody is going to teach
you. If it looks good remember how you did it-that's the way to do
it in the future." So, at the age of twenty-one, he began his career figuring out how to light a one-and-a-half-hour live television drama.
BW: What is lighting design? And regardless of whether you
are lighting a Broadway show, television program, hotel or bridge...what does it do?
IF: What is lighting design? What must it do? What does it have to
achieve? It really comes back to another question: What is the first
rule of good lighting design. The answer-I learned it a long time
ago-is visibility. It's that simple. All the rest is fluff. First, you have
to be able to see it.
RP: The wonderful thing about light is that without it, in theory, you
don't see anything. Vision is the most extraordinary part of the
human anatomy. Through our sight the world is revealed and how
it is revealed depends on the quality of light and how it can be manipulated. In this day and age we can manipulate it in great detail.
Yes, the absolute first rule of vision is that you must see what you
should see. Sometimes, you shouldn't see everything. Darkness is
also essential to the theatre. You must see what needs to be seen
but after that, light can beautify, modify, transform and affect the
emotions in an incredibly powerful way...just as music does or
God does outside. The beauties of natural light...none of us could
begin to copy it. We work in an art form which is trying to tell stories to enrich peoples' lives. Light is a very powerful weapon in
your arsenal of theatrical mechanisms or tools.
KB: I have often said that I am one of the most important persons associated with a show. The playwright is probably the most important-because without the playwright there is nothing. However, if
the lighting designer isn't there you're sitting in a black room. I
feel that, yes, visibility is of course crucial, and I also feel that
darkness is important. I agree with Richard in this. How do you
make darkness? What do you hide? What is in the black? Where is
the mystery? Where is the intrigue? Where is the beauty? Sometimes

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