As part of a Q&A series with our faculty, the USC School of Dramatic Arts asked faculty member Elizabeth Harper about her career, working with alumni and why students need to get ready to be lucky.
What are you teaching this year?
Elizabeth Harper: This fall I taught Stage Lighting, a course primarily for performance students, Lighting I for our BFA and BA design and technical direction cohort (and students from cinema, themed entertainment and architecture!), as well as the lighting portions of Introduction to Theatrical Production, two courses on dramaturgy and design for Principles, Pedagogy and Practice, and mentored the lighting designers for Marat/Sade and Machinal. In the spring I’m teaching Introduction to Theatrical Production again, Advanced Theatre Practicum, and mentoring Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches.
Tell us a little about your professional career.
It’s been pretty scrappy. I was in drama club but not particularly talented. I found some old lights in a closet and took them to my friend’s dad who was an electrician and realized I could say basic things about a play—give a sense of time of day or a mood. I got very into reading scripts and imagining what they would look like. The school wound up hiring me because I was always in the auditorium and they realized they could rent it out on weekends. In the summer I stage managed at Six Flags and realized this could be a job and it was better than anything at the career fair. I went to a conservatory and worked at an architectural firm where I lit a bunch of Bass Pro Shops. I saved up and went to grad school at NYU and bounced between firms and freelance work doing restaurants and clubs, amusement parks, a party for a literal princess, conferences for tech companies. I was squeezing in theatre too with companies like Boston Court and IAMA. All of this pivoting in between those shows had a lot to do with the economy. When certain sectors busted, others were still afloat. When the housing market crashed, the bigger theatres couldn’t fly in designers from New York anymore, and I was there. I met a lot of directors who work all over the country so it grew from there. I’ve done some high-profile shows lately but it’s not like a guy in a suit showed up and said, “You! Kid! You got talent!” First I had to design a party where a certain celebrity showed up so intoxicated he tried to fight the rainbow lights.
What is the most rewarding part of teaching?
I love to see when it all clicks together. It’s like when the art and skill and ability to communicate works for the first time and you can see them design from a place of creativity, not anxiety. They also constantly surprise me with the work they do outside of class that they bring to their designs that enriches them—they’re voracious readers or tap-dance or publish their own magazine. All of a sudden those passions show up in their work and open up a whole new perspective I hadn’t thought of. Like, yes, I want to know more about making chain mail, it works perfectly in the show and I know nothing about it.
What is your favorite advice to give to students?
Be ready to be lucky. You’ll learn a professional design process in school and it’s difficult and time consuming. On a small show you can get away without skipping steps, but when an opportunity happens to show up, that muscle’s not going to suddenly be there.
I also tell students to think about what kind of life they want to have outside of work. I think we don’t talk enough about that in the arts. I would be miserable if I designed concerts and toured on a bus but my friends who do it love it! Maybe you want to live in a small town, or be close to family, or have kids. You’ll find that certain kinds of work stress you out more than others. A lot of young designers say their goal is to design Broadway shows. That’s cool but it requires a pretty specific lifestyle. You can always change your mind but you have one wild and precious life to find happiness in. (And don’t get me started on “Broadway.” So many different shows find themselves there in different ways. All it means is yours is in one of 41 theatres.)
You’ve worked on a number of new plays in the past few years and received acclaim and awards for your lighting design. Are there any productions that stood out as particularly meaningful or memorable for you?
I’ve been working on a play called Between Two Knees since 2019. We’ve done it at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Yale Rep, Seattle Rep, The McCarter, and it was part of the inaugural season at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York. It’s written by five guys, The 1491s, who started as an indigenous sketch comedy troupe. When we showed up in Oregon, I think we had 35 pages of the script. It was built sketch comedy style and every day was a trip. We added a rap number in the middle of tech. I think we put the finale song in during previews, it’s called So Long White People, it’s in outer space. I was raiding the warehouse for any ancient light I could use. Every time we do the show it’s different and a living organism. There is no way we could do it if we didn’t have the environment that’s been cultivated, particularly by the director, Eric Ting and the cast. We like to socialize but we also have really honest and sometimes hard conversations with respect and appreciation for each other. That is sadly really rare.
The play itself is amazing. It’s a multi-generational story about an indigenous family. It doesn’t pull its punches—it’s moving, hilarious and uncomfortable for a lot of people. As the avuncular narrator says: “We’re gonna make this fun. We gonna talk about war and genocide and PTSD and molestation. So it’s ok to laugh.” The design is 100% maximalism. Hundreds of light cues, bubble machines, disco balls, confetti, a light shining out of the fly of a character’s pants. And it’s a choice. When regional theatres do shows about marginalized communities, they’re often in smaller theatres. This rejects that. We spend all the money. It’s huge.
You’re known for recommending students and alumni to work with you on projects, as you did with the 2023 production of Stew at the Pasadena Playhouse. Why is that important to you?
My students are insanely talented. I do it because I think they’re interesting and want to work with them. I also know how tough it is to get your foot in the door and I want to see them paid and credited for everything they bring to the table. I did Stew with Yajayra Franco (BFA Theatrical Design ’23) because she has an incredible eye for composition and is a real intellectual. She understands the meaning of the design as well as the execution. Erica Ammerman (BA Theatre ’23) assisted me on POTUS at the Geffen and collaborated with me to design some difficult scene changes and keep adapting them after I left for another show. She moves seamlessly between the crew, design team and director. Edward Hansen (BFA Theatrical Design ’21) is my right-hand man in New York. He’s done work with me on Broadway and has been my associate off-Broadway and all over the country. We’re doing an off-Broadway show in February. MJ Adamson (BFA Stage Management ’24) was indispensable in Minneapolis and Brian Tien (BFA Theatrical Design ’21) assisted me on The Father at Pasadena Playhouse while he was still a student. I want everyone, like directors and artistic directors, to meet all of these people and see the kind of artists they are and what’s next for American theatre.
What is one thing about lighting design that you wish audience members knew?
You already know about lighting design! It’s not mysterious or too technical to understand. You put lamps in your house and turn them on and off because you want a mood or have a need. Same thing.
Is there a piece of theatre, or a film or television show that has recently resonated with you?
I’m a big reader and we have a particularly rich season this year. The class I taught for Principles, Pedagogy and Practice was on Marat/Sade which I mentored Billie Oleyar on and I got to dip back into Foucault’s Abnormal that changes the way you see the history of class, mental health, incarceration and the character of the “wise fool” in France. I hadn’t really been a fan of the play but that was my path towards a new appreciation of it and how it wove in and out of the lives of Brecht, Artaud, Peter Brook and Peter Weiss. I’m doing the same thing with Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches now with Charlotte Baklarz. It’s a rich text.
Any fun facts we should know about Elizabeth Harper?
I’m writing a play. I’m really saying this to hold myself accountable and finish the play.