For lighting designers and lighting production students, the theatre is the studio. There is a direct link between the experience of learning about light in the classroom and the development of skill sets during production. BU’s BFA lighting design program provides high-level conservatory-style training with an emphasis on theatre, storytelling, collaboration, and finding a unique voice as an artist.

Lighting design students work collaboratively on every aspect of a production from planning to creating the design ideas, hanging lights, programming, cueing, and executing the design in performance. Working with light in production provides a unique opportunity for a young student designer to discover how light can support stories, themes, text, music, and movement. It is the place where all the elements of theatre come together.

Program of Study

Before officially declaring a BFA Design & Production major, each first year student entering the BU School of Theatre is admitted into the First Year Design & Production Core. The First Year Core experience establishes a base vocabulary that serves as the foundation for a student’s progression into their chosen BFA degree program. In addition, the First Year Core is designed to provide an appropriate context for faculty evaluation of each student’s strengths, interests, and potential for success in the upper years of training. At the end of the first year, each student will declare a BFA major; these decisions are reviewed and mentored by members of the School of Theatre faculty before a student is officially enrolled in their BFA program.

Lighting design majors critically analyze a wide range of texts, music, movement, and design. They create and interpret visual, conceptual, and emotional responses. They communicate through light and design these responses to an audience in support of the theatrical experience by learning to provide mood, visibility, composition, and environment, and create a unified stylistic vocabulary within the production.

Students also acquire the essential technical understanding of the equipment and tools used in contemporary theatre design as well as geometry, physics, color, electrical theory, software, hardware, and organizational paperwork, along with leadership, communication, and collaborative work skills. Average class size ranges from five to eight students, in state-of-the-art facilities exposing students to an advanced tool kit for the study and creation of lighting design.

Situated within a large, top-tier research institution, students pursue coursework in the University Hub, the University’s general education program that is integrated into the undergraduate student experience. This provides students with the chance to dive into other topics, from other colleges and schools, to enhance their studies.

Opportunities

Explore your creative process through supervised production assignments and hands-on workshops, working with professional faculty members who are leaders in their fields. Enjoy exposure to the current practice and philosophy of design and production through associations with professional theatre organizations and the vibrant arts community in Boston.

Develop professional skills through production work, internships, and mentored work and design that will serve as a basis for your transition from the academic world to the larger community of theatre professionals.

Meet with professional guests from all areas of lighting design and production who come to BU to host workshops or complete a residency, allowing students to network and learn about all the facets of professional lighting careers.

Faculty

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  Jorge Arroyo

  Assistant Professor, Lighting Design

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  Ben Sigda

  Lighting and Sound Shop Manager

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  Victoria Sweetser

  Lecturer, Lighting

Faculty Highlights

• Jorge Arroyo: Freelance lighting designer for over 25 years whose work has been seen at venues such as The Huntington, The Alley, The Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and many others. He has created designs for over 50 shows at both the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center for artists such as Alicia Keys, Gabriel Iglesias, The Wayans Brothers, and more.

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