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Seeing the light
Chris Mannes becomes an award winner.
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For the second year in a row, an ISU theatre student has claimed a regional
lighting design award.
Chris Mannes was a little intimated at first.
It wasn't because he was charged with creating the lighting design for the
world premiere of "Scaramouche" by last fall.
It was because he was the only student lead designer on the production,
an adaptation of the historical French novel.
Since it was a world premiere, the talents of numerous guest artists were
used in the design of the ISU Theatre production.
"At first I was intimidated by the guest artists," the senior
performing arts major said. "But then I realized that this was an opportunity
instead of something to be scared of.
"It turns out he had nothing to be worried about. His work was so unique
that it was worthy of an award. Earlier this semester, Mannes won the regional
Barbizon Award for Excellence in Lighting Design at the regional Kennedy
Center American College Theater Festival in Sioux Falls, S.D. competing
against college students from Iowa, Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, North
Dakota and South Dakota.
Mannes will travel to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
in Washington, D.C., in late April to exhibit his work with the winners
of the seven other regions and compete for the national award. If he is
selected as the winner of the national award, he will receive a cash prize
and a week-long trip to New York City to meet with Broadway lighting designers
and see them at work.
In creating his award-winning design, Mannes decided to use lighting techniques
that he hadn't done before.
"I drew upon some of the work I had done last year for Barjche (a dance
recital at ISU) and it worked," he said. "And because of the nature
of the play, I decided that realism wasn't as important as the feeling or
emotional aspects of the show."
"Scaramouche" is just the latest in a series of ISU Theatre productions
that Mannes has been involved with. He has designed "Fires in the Mirror,"
"Pentecost" and
"Perceptions," which he also directed. He is currently designing
the lighting for the ISU Theatre/Stars Over Veishea production of "Into
the Woods," which will be presented on campus in April.
Mannes is the second ISU student to win the regional lighting design award.
Last year, Ray Steveson, '99, won for the fall 1998 repertory productions
of "Macbeth" and "A Poke in the Eye." Both Mannes and
Steveson are students of Jim Trenberth, assistant professor of theatre and
ISU Theatre's resident lighting designer.
"When Ray won last year it made me work a little harder," Mannes
said.
The regional Kennedy Center judge was Beverly Emmons, Tony Award-winning
lighting designer with numerous credits on and off Broadway. The Barbizon
Award for Excellence in Lighting Design is sponsored by Barbizon, Inc.,
a premier theatrical supply house specializing in advanced lighting for
professionals. The awards are designed to give outstanding student designers
national recognition and the opportunity to exhibit their work at the Kennedy
Center. Designs were appraised on the basis of quality, effectiveness, originality
and rendering techniques.
More than 18,000 students from colleges and universities across the country
participate in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival annually.
Around LAS
February 21 to March 5, 2000
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