#63 Michael Whitfield / by Michael Kruse

Michael Whitfeild

Michael Whitfeild

This time the final conversation from my trip in Vancouver at the end of 2018. Michael Whitfield was the head of lighting design at the Stratford Festival for over 25 years from the mid 1970’s through to the early 2000’s, so he is perfectly placed to round out our discussion about the history of the design of the festival stage. He also has designed opera across North America and we talk about his take on the important communication strategies when building your show in a team.

Links

The Stratford Festival

University of Victoria

Richard Pilbrow

Villanova University

The National Theater at the Old Vic Theatre

Josef Svoboda

Robert Ornbo

Strand Electric

Traditional Broadway resistance control boards

McPherson Playhouse

Desmond Healy’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Nathaniel Merril

Gil Wechsler at the Metropolitan Opera in New York

Jean Rosenthal

Tharon Musser

Joe Melziner and the new kind of lens for a spot light and his book

A Chorus Line and the first elecronic lighting board PDF download

University of Windsor

Barnard Hewitt, history of theatre at University of Illinois

Robin Philips (english background?) Two Genltlemen of Verona and Comedy of Errors 1974

York University Theatre Dept.

Hart House Theatre

The Opera School at the University of Toronto

Lotfi Mansouri at COC, directed Candide at Avon in 1978

Yale Drama School

Satyracon, Directed by John Hirsch at Stratford

Robert Scales

Strand IDMQ dimmer, first memory board (Instant Dimmer Memory Cue)

Strand MMS modular memory system (playback,memory)

Virgina at Avon Theatre 1980 with Maggie Smith

Mikado at Stratford that toured to Old Vic after Ed Mirvish bought and refurbished

Who owns the Old Vic in London now after Mirvishes sold it

Canadian Staging Projects, founded by James Fuller

Rigoletto at COC in 1992

David Hockney’s Turondot

The McCandless Method of Lighting the Stage

Paul Gallo, the lighting designer for the Titanic

The Festival Stage at Stratford designed by Tanya Moiseovitch

Strand Light Pallette

New Theatre Stratford Upon Avon

Chris Wheeler, tech at Stratford Festival