Patricia MacKay Honored With A Life In Light Award at LDI2007

Patricia MacKay, a maverick in our industry, founded LDI in 1988 as the entertainment technology industry was starting to come of age. This year as LDI celebrates its 20th anniversary, MacKay will be honored with A Light In Life Award, for the vision, dedication, and insight that helped put the industry on its feet. The award, sponsored by Theatre Projects Consultants, will be presented at the LDI Awards Ceremony at 6:00pm on Saturday, November 17, in Orlando, FL. This will be preceded by a cocktail party beginning at 4:40pm in the Live Design booth #626.

The publisher of leading industry trade publications, MacKay purchased Theatre Crafts in 1981 from Rodale Press, where she started working in 1970 and became editor of the magazine in 1975. She remained at the helm of the publication until 1996, adding Lighting Dimensions to her folio in 1986, and expanding it from its roots in rock and roll lighting to include theatre as well as architectural projects as many LDs began to “crossover” from one discipline to another.

In 1988, MacKay added another publication to her list when she acquired Cue, a small British technical theatre publication, and renamed it Cue International. This was eventually folded into Theatre Crafts when it became Theatre Crafts International (TCI) then Entertainment Design. These publications were the predecessors of Live Design, the official publication of LDI.