Susan Kelleher is a course director who shows her students the light. 作为 照明的概念 & 设计 和 项目 & 组合四世 in 满帆的节目制作 程序, Susan helps students tackle the ins 和 outs of professional stage lighting from start to finish. Her years of experience with touring productions 和 her commitment to her students have made her an essential 满帆 faculty member for the past 24 years.

Susan’s interest in live productions took hold in fifth grade, when her teacher had the class put on a family-friendly version of the rock musical 头发. She worked backstage in theater productions throughout high school, then entered college as a pre-med biology major. Susan ran backstage productions while she earned her degree, 跳过医学院, 和 continued working on theater shows in New York while she had a full-time day job. She was an analyst for Nielsen’s television ratings division when she decided to leave the traditional working world behind 和 go on tour with the National Shakespeare Company as a stage manager 和 technical director.

During her three years with the National Shakespeare Company, Susan toured the country with 11 actors 和 helped them put on Shakespearean comedies 和 tragedies at high schools, 大学, 还有社区中心. She gained plenty of experience managing the elements of a live production on a tight schedule.

“We traveled with a full production, with a lighting system, with an audio system. And we would go to a lot of places that probably never would see a Shakespearean production if we hadn't gone there. It was three years of traveling, 和 it was one-offs. 我们要进去, 我们建立了, 我们会做节目, 我们会拆毁, 我们可以住旅馆, the next morning we'd drive 和 do it all over again,苏珊回忆道.

One of Susan’s proudest accomplishments was designing lighting for a summer stock theater production of 大河. Her designs were stunning on the musical’s outdoor stage.

“这是一场有趣的演出. 这是一个露天剧场. There were trees behind us, 和 so much of it happens on the Mississippi River. It was just a great environment to be able to light in, lighting up the trees behind it,” she says. “It turned out to be one of the most beautiful shows I've ever lit.”

The equipment 和 software Susan used on those productions gave her the insight she needed to teach those skills to 满帆的节目制作 students. She drafted her lighting designs using Vectorworks, a software 程序 used to create lighting designs throughout the live production industry. She also used professional-grade lighting consoles from ETC, which are used in churches 和 schools throughout the country, 和MA控制台, 在百老汇和巡回演出中常见的是什么.

Susan’s classes cover everything from the basics of lighting fixtures to designing 和 lighting a live production. 照明概念 & 设计, 学生开始与Vectorworks, 了解传统的照明控制台, 和 discover how they can use color 和 other design elements to create beautifully lit productions. 在项目 & 组合四世, students set up 和 light a mini-concert with a live b和, 程序 a light show for a song of their choice, 和 dive further into designing with Vectorworks.

Susan loves imparting crucial technical skills in her classes, but it’s her connections with 显示生产 students 和 graduates that make her job really special.

“Hearing from [my students] 和 their success stories 和 what they're doing, 还有人写信给我说, “我讨厌灯光，是你让我爱上了它,’ or, “你是我最喜欢的课程之一, 是的, 我知道我抱怨了，而且工作太多了, 但是我的天啊, 我学到了很多.’ Just hearing their stories makes it all worthwhile,” she says. “That's what makes me get up 和 go to work in the morning, is my students.”