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L AMERICAN DESIGNERS 1960-2010 & reat L G ate ate Howard Bay Peggy Clark Patricia Zipprodt Abe Feder

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Lamerican designers 1960-2010

& reatLGateate

Howard Bay

Peggy Clark

Patricia Zipprodt

Abe Feder

d esigners participate creatively in productions of art and entertainment with the same level

of professionalism as performers and directors, but designers names are less often remembered and their contributions tend to recede into the collective memory. This book represents another effort by USITT to raise designers’ public profiles by establishing a record of their artistry. As Raoul Pène du Bois told Elliott Arnold during an interview for the New York World Telegraph in 1940: “No designer can afford to be modest. He has to fight hard for what he wants in a show. Once I planned to dedicate a book of my sketches ‘to the producer through whose fingers slipped some of my best designs.’”

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preface

hen USITT launched the monograph series about major American Designers in 2005, it was with the intention to profile active designers who would be willing to attend the Annual Conference & Stage Expo to share their life stories

and creative inspiration. Everyone loved the idea and five monographs later, the series is an unqualified success. However, many regrets were also expressed that so many designers who would have been the subject of monographs were no longer alive and able to participate.

As USITT’s fiftieth anniversary approached, the idea for a remedy presented itself—and this volume is the result. The twenty-five scenery, costume, lighting, sound, and make-up designers included within these pages were all active between 1960 and 2010 when the majority of their career occurred. They all spent most of their lives working in the theatre rather than in other venues and for other art forms, and all of them dedicated themselves to working in the major theatre centers, in particular New York City, where USITT was founded in 1960.

In addition, an attempt was made to identify designers whose careers were not already represented in books recently published or still in print, such as Jo Mielziner, who would obviously have been included but for Mary Henderson’s excellent book about his life and career.

Literally hundreds of designers could fit this criteria, so effort was also made to provide some variety of era and style, and also more traditional definitions of diversity. Members and the leadership of USITT Scene Designs and Technology Commission, the Costume Designs and Technology Commission, the Sound Commission, and the Lighting Commission all actively participated in selecting designers to be included. The original list changed a bit, due to availability of research materials, appropriate and willing authors, and schedules.

One can hope that the success of this venture will lead to more publications that record—before it is lost to history—the great heritage of designers in the United States.

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preface

Many thanks are owed, to USITT’s leadership and membership, with warm congratulations on reaching fifty years as a vital organization serving design, production and technology professionals in the performing arts industry. Appreciation is due to David Rodger and Deborah Hazlett at Broadway Press who turned words and images into this beautiful volume and who create lasting artistry from words and images every quarter in USITT’s journal, TD&T. Kudos to the authors of the essays who obviously loved their subjects and also were patient with the editorial process (see “About the Authors” on page 250). Thanks also to those who helped the authors with access to archives, illustrations, and insights (see “Acknowledgements” on page 10). Merci bien to Arnold Aronson for his excellent introduction that places the designers in this volume in context.

Mucho gracias to my friends and colleagues in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, including Lynn Roundtree, editor extraordinaire, and the support provided to me by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from the top levels of the administration to the ranks of faculty and support staff, including Judy Adamson, Emily Elledge, Paula Goodman, Rachel Morris, Laurie Holst, and Randy Medlin—all of whom helped me balance my “day job” with this project. Warm thoughts to my lifeline and life partner, Gordon Ferguson.

This book is dedicated to all the designers included within the pages for their art, craft, and inspiration. We can no longer thank them in person but can thank those others among us who continue to inspire.

Bobbi OwenChapel Hill, North Carolina

March 2010

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lighting

abe feder

1909 – 1997

Abe Feder

ighting By Feder—three words that defined a company, a career and an unmatched credit in the theatre. As early as 1934, these words identified a young lighting wizard fresh from Carnegie Tech. Abe Feder went on to collaborate on hundreds

of productions for the Federal Theatre Project. When the country mobilized out of the Great Depression into World War II, Sergeant Abe Feder joined the uniformed ranks, shifting his talents, like many in the entertainment industry, from the commercial stage to supporting the war effort. After VJ Day, the post-war economy opened doors to a second vocation of illuminating buildings, bridges, airports, and works of art. Throughout his seven-decade career, Abe Feder’s favorite slogan was, according to Mel Gussow in his New York Times obituary, “Push back the darkness.” Feder laid the foundation for the profession of stage lighting and for what he later came to describe as “the larger stage of life.”

Born in 1909, Abraham Hyman Feder grew up in the working class city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His long-time associate, LaVerne Roston, reminisced in a 2009 interview that “He was always involved with lighting. When he was a young boy, he was mystified by how the embers looked in the fireplace…” He spent a good deal of time around stage doors instead of attending school and was especially fascinated with the stage illusions of the popular magician, Thurston, who had the largest traveling magic show on the vaudeville circuit. Feder’s sister took him

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written by

Annie O. Cleveland and M. Barrett Cleveland

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to a performance, and when Thurston solicited the audience for volunteers to come to the stage for part of the act, young Abe jumped at the opportunity for a back stage view. Surrounded by the lighting equipment and mechanics for the illusions, he soaked up the experience like a sponge—apparently too much for Thurston’s comfort. “He (Feder) saw all of the lights backstage deceiving the people out front… He began asking questions, and Thurston said ‘get that kid outta’ here.’” He was quickly shooed off the stage and returned to his seat, but Feder had already witnessed the power of light to reveal or disguise action and form.

A bright and inquisitive boy, Abe worked in the family’s butcher shop to help make ends meet. Consequently most of his grades were average, with the exception of the A+ in “Electricity” noted on his report card. When

Abe Feder on lighting bridge, c.1950. Courtesy Lighting By Feder.

Trick for Trick, lighting design by Abe Feder, 1932. Photo by Elite Studio, courtesy Lighting By Feder.

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110 Abe Feder

graduation approached, his high school principal encouraged Feder to find a university where he could combine his passion for the stage with his aptitude for figuring out how the world can be manipulated by light. At the time there were no courses of study in lighting design, but Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon) offered programs in both theatre and engineering. He traveled to Pittsburgh to meet with university administrators to plead his case for admission. After passing a rigorous written test with flying colors, the dean agreed to admit Feder with the understanding that he focus on his studies and maintain high marks. Lighting his first production as a freshman, Romeo and Juliet, he soon carved out his niche at the university. As a sophomore, he was responsible for lighting effects for eleven productions and eventually persuaded the university to purchase a new lighting switchboard. Although he thrived at Carnegie Tech, he left after his second year to pursue his career.

His first stop was New York, which he entered by walking through the Holland Tunnel on the day the stock market crashed in 1929. After stints at the short-lived Bronx Art Theatre and the Young Men’s Hebrew Association (now the 92nd Street Y), Abe was given his first Broadway lighting assignment in 1932 for Trick for Trick, aptly a production with a magic theme. Although not credited for the lighting (that went to director Harry Wagstaff Gribble), New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson noted in his review of February 19, 1932, that Trick for Trick “…is pure prestidigitation…Harry Wagstaff Gribble has directed the

Two scenes from Macbeth, lighting design by Abe Feder, 1935, Federal Theatre Project production. Courtesy Library of Congress.

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production with an enjoyable relish of wind-machines, compressed air, and lighting hokum.” At the age of twenty-three, Feder already had a toe-hold as a professional in New York.

He joined the creative team assembled by Orson Welles and John Houseman for their production of Macbeth (sometimes referred to as Voodoo Macbeth) produced by the Negro Theatre Unit of the Federal Theatre Project. Established in May 1935, the Federal Theatre Project was the government’s ambitious attempt to organize and produce theatrical events. Houseman had engaged Feder for his short-lived 1933 production of Three and One. He notes in his memoir, Run-Through (1972), “My only stimulation came from a pale-faced, garrulous, exhaustingly eager and ambitious young light expert just out of Carnegie Tech. He was called Abe Feder.” The

…stage deceptions used for vanishing acts and mysterious appearances “black magic.” Employing a series of plush black velvet draperies, the audience’s sense

of depth and perspective are all but lost under effective lighting.

Dr. Faustus, lighting design by Abe Feder, 1937, Federal Theatre Project production. Courtesy Library of Congress.

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1937 production of Dr. Faustus, with Orson Welles playing the title role, was the company’s most technically challenging production to date. Save for a thrust which extended the stage over into the first three rows of the theatre, there were no scenic elements. Welles shared Feder’s fascination for magic and magicians. Conceived as a magic show, Faustus incorporated one of the most effective of all stage deceptions used for vanishing acts and mysterious appearances—“black magic.” Employing a series of plush black velvet draperies, the audience’s sense of depth and perspective are all but lost under effective lighting. Houseman continued in his memoir: “Orson, with Feder’s assistance, elaborated and extended this device. By using almost no front light and crisscrossing the stage with parallel light curtains and clusters of units carefully focused on the sides and from overhead, he was able to achieve mystifications that would have impressed the great Thurston.”

Puppeteer Bil Baird, who was fabricating and operating the puppets representing the Seven Deadly Sins, described the apparatus as “miles

Dr. Faustus, lighting plot by Abe Feder, 1937, Federal Theatre Project production. Courtesy Library of Congress.

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of black velvet and tubes of about five foot and maybe twenty foot long on the inside of which he had Lekolites—and they made columns of light.” Included in the 114 fixtures in Feder’s lighting plot were thirty-one 1000W beam projectors—the brightest fixtures of the day. As reported in Orson Welles–The Road to Landau by Simon Callow, “So many lights were hung from the grid that it broke under the weight.” Brooks Atkinson opened his New York Times review of January 9, 1937, by saying, “Although the Federal Theatre Project has some problem children on its hands, it also has some enterprising artists on its staff.” He continues noting that the play, presented on a bare stage, was “relying upon an ingenious use of lights to establish time and place.” Feder’s lighting for Faustus became legendary, but he paid a heavy price for the tumultuous times spent with Welles and the Federal Theatre Project. The opening of Faustus proved to be such a monumental task that he moved into the theatre and was later hospitalized with a breakdown after opening. Adrian Dannatt, in the Independent (London), speculated that “Some of this may have been occasioned by his ferociously antagonistic relationship with Welles (amusingly documented in Simon Callow’s recent biography) and Feder’s own short temper.”

Abe Feder’s tenacity would later win him a landmark case arguing for the rights of designers to their work. In 1957 the producer of My Fair Lady, Herman Levin, planned to take that show on the road. Feder informed Levin of his fee for relighting the show for the road, but

My Fair Lady, lighting design by Abe Feder, 1957, Mark Hellinger Theatre, New York. Courtesy Lighting By Feder.

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He was also directly responsible for the development of the workhorse PAR56 and PAR64 sealed beam reflector lamps. Between 1945 and 1990 he filed U.S. patents on several

architectural fixtures and accessories

Feder was recognized as a “Houdini of the switchboard” and dubbed by critic George Jean Nathan as “a genius with light.” Lighting By Feder credits include some of Broadway’s biggest hits: The Boy Friend (1954), Inherit the Wind (1955), My Fair Lady (1956), Camelot (1963), and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965). Reflecting back on his long career in David Masello’s article in Architectural Record (1990), Feder emphasized that “there is no such thing as creating with light. Light is the nature of its revealment. In terms of the revealment of something, the talent comes out not in the search for an effect, but in how you reveal it…The great confusion is that lighting is not engineering.”

Abe Feder was a determined problem solver. “Heroic failure never bothered me, because if you don’t try, nothing happens.” If there was not a way to make an effect work, he invented one. He worked tirelessly developing more efficient lamps and collaborated with Clarence Birdseye (of frozen food fame) on the first reflector bulb (R40) back in the 1930s. He was also directly responsible for the development of the workhorse PAR56 and PAR64 sealed beam reflector lamps. Between 1945 and 1990 he filed U.S. patents on several architectural fixtures and accessories. On occasion, however, his determination to produce the lighting effects he envisioned caused problems. John Conklin designed only one show with Feder, the 1971 Broadway production of Archibald MacLeish’s Scratch. Conklin, who had designed the set, recalled:

The set was this barn that covered the whole three sides. Of course he kept saying “how am I going to get side light in, back light and stuff.”

I came back from lunch one day and heard this strange noise. I came out on stage, and it was like a little saw sort of coming through the set. Abe Feder was on top of a ladder sawing a hole in the back wall of the set himself.

I said, “Abe you can’t do that.” He was going to cut a round hole for a light!

instead of paying for Feder’s design, Levin hired the head electrician to light the tour based on the original lighting plot. Feder sued and eventually won a settlement—$1.00. Sonny Sonnenfeld, a USITT Fellow with over fifty years in stage lighting development and manufacturing, commented on the legal precedent established by Feder’s settlement, “Now any original design modified to take out on the road is a new design—not just for lights, but sets and costumes too.”

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Two nights after the opening of Angel Street on December 5, 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor. During World War II, Feder lit only three productions before joining the Army Air Corps, which assigned him to light Winged Victory, which opened in 1943. Following the war, he did not return to Broadway until 1950 when he lit the short-lived

RCA Building as lit by Abe Feder, c. 1985. © Bo Parker, courtesy Lighting By Feder.

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The Gioconda Smile. This hiatus from Broadway did not mean that he was not busy lighting—he was just illuminating buildings instead of actors.

Lighting By Feder company records for 1946 show only a single production, The Fighting Jew, a pageant staged by Jewish war veterans at Madison Square Garden. In the same year, however, Abe Feder shifted into architectural lighting with almost thirty projects. These included residences, shops, restaurants, beauty salons, and apartment complexes. As Feder’s fame spread, he was commissioned to light a variety of major projects, including the Terrace Plaza (1946), and The United Nations (1949), and Idlewild (now Kennedy) Airport (1956). In 1957 he lit 666 Broadway—The Tishman Building—which was the first illuminated New York skyscraper. The RCA (now GE) building at Rockefeller Plaza in 1985 was his most famous architectural lighting design. Taking a seventy-story building which virtually disappeared into the night sky, Feder made the RCA building the first in Manhattan to be lit from top to bottom on all four sides. He personally placed 342 custom-designed fixtures on the roof tops of nine adjacent buildings where they bathed the structure with fifty million lumens. Feder reflected on his architectural commissions: “Theatre is the most wonderful training possible for the profession, but how can you get excited about a fifty-foot stage after you’ve lit a fifty-story building?”

While lighting design was integrated into most theatre curricula at the time, it was generally not taught as a distinct discipline in architecture and interior design programs. Beginning in 1980 Feder developed and offered a series of hands-on architectural lighting workshops. He was a dedicated teacher of lighting design, and although he was never a permanent member of a teaching faculty, lessons from him were definitely a hands-on experience. At Juilliard he conducted his classes on a stage, employing various teaching aids like levels, walls, scrims, and a ceiling piece loaded with a variety of architectural fixtures. Interior designer and teacher, Terri Weinstein, took a master class from Feder. She relates that “The seminar he gave that day in New York was astonishing, because it was like a master magician teaching a bunch of little magicians how to maneuver in the world of lighting. It was all about residential lighting; he was showing all the new miniature stuff and he was saying this is what we use in the theatre and you can use it residentially.” Taking Feder’s class to heart, she installed forty new incandescent lamps he demonstrated inside a soffit in a client’s bedroom for indirect lighting. The effect was stunning, but the clients called the next day to say that there was so much filament noise in the bedroom that they could not sleep. In a panic, Weinstein called Abe. He started laughing, and barked, “Listen to me. I want you just to do what I am saying and don’t ask me any questions. So just do it—we’ll talk about it later.” He instructed her to buy an automobile transformer and have her electrician install it in a remote location to dissipate the

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filament noise. The bedroom was silent. Weinstein exclaimed, “Abe is my hero!” Jules Fisher sums up Feder’s passion for the field: “He talked about architecture, talked about inspiration, about dedication. He loved everything he did…it was contagious.”

The Tony Awards for Lighting Design were not presented until 1970, leaving Abe with only four award-eligible productions. His lighting for the 1975 production of Goodtime Charley received nominations for both the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award. In 1969 Carnegie Mellon University presented Feder with an Alumnus of Merit Award. He was the founding president of The International Association of Lighting Designers in 1969 and in 1976 named Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society. USITT recognized Abe Feder as its first Distinguished Lighting Designer with a special citation which reads: “In recognition of his contribution to the theatrical and architectural lighting worlds as pioneer, inventor, leader and master of light.”

Abe Hyman Feder died after a long illness on April 24, 1997. He was preceded in death in 1990 by his wife of thirty-eight years, Ceil Grossman Feder. Despite declining health, Abe Feder had big plans to the very end. LaVerne Roston recalled, “At the end he was meeting with the Cardinal at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He wanted to light the Sistine Chapel—he was already preparing letters to the Pope.” On April 28, 1997, as a fitting tribute the illumination Feder gave to New York, lights at Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building were turned out for one hour. Although the New York skyline he loved to light was dimmer for a while, Lighting By Feder had forever changed how we see and use light. n