Lighting designer Ben Pilat is the winner of the 2010 Rising Star Award, sponsored by Live Design and LDI and presented annually at the USITT Conference and Expo. Pilat, who received his MFA from Boston University in 2008, has assisted LD David Lander at The Muny in St Louis on several occasions. When Lander nominated Pilat for this year’s Rising Star Award, he described him as: “A solid designer, communicator, design conceptualizer, and in total, a great person worthy of being recognized with your Rising Star award.”
The following photos illustrate this young designer’s work (with his comments on each production):
La Sylphide (Los Angeles Ballet): Guests enjoy a party in the hall of a Scottish farmhouse before the magical Sylph makes her first appearance. The warm and inviting interior is contrasted by the mysterious night visible through the window. (photo: Reed Hutchinson)
La Sylphide (Los Angeles Ballet): Three Sylphs dance in a sunny clearing of their forest home. (Reed Hutchinson)
Moonchildren (The Attic Theatre Company): This tightly focused scene at the kitchen table in a college apartment was motivated by a bare fluorescent fixture hanging overhead. (photo:Julia Noulin-Merat)
The Magic Flute (BU Opera Institute): Sarastro, the Sun King, visits Pamina's terrace. He brings with him a strong sense of warm sun and directionality. (photo: Ryan Connealy)
Dark Rapture (The Attic Theatre Company): Moonlight streams through a kitchen window to illuminate this nighttime fight scene.
Dark Rapture (The Attic Theatre Company): This noir play called for bold stokes of directional light to aid in the composition of each scene. (photo: Julia Noulin-Merat)
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Ben Pilat Winner of Sixth Annual Rising Star Award