The ALPD is delighted to announce that the Design Lumière for 2023 is Danny Vavrečka
A pathway scheme for emerging lighting designers, the Design Lumière Scheme gives the successful candidate valuable experience of working professionally as an assistant lighting designer for six months. For the second year running the ALPD have partnered with Glyndebourne for the first three months of the scheme. Danny started at Glyndebourne this week, where he will assist visiting lighting designers within the lighting and AV department.
In the second stage, Danny will work with a number of established lighting designers in a variety of venues, giving him an excellent range of experience. He will also receive mentoring and support.
Danny gained an MA in Performance Lighting from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 2021. Since then, he has been working both as a lighting designer and a lighting technician.
Danny commented: “I’m thrilled to have been selected as the 2023 Design Lumière. The opportunity to work closely with the incredible lighting designers on this year’s scheme is a dream come true. I’m so excited to continue learning and developing my skills over the next 6 months.”
Vic Pyne, Head of Lighting and A/V at Glyndebourne said: “We at Glyndebourne are delighted to be continuing our commitment to the Lumière Scheme this year. This is a fantastic opportunity for Danny, and we are very much looking forward to working with him. The learning curve here will be very steep - producing repertory opera is a whole other world of wonderful, and to be able to offer this scheme once again at Glyndebourne is a tremendous privilege.”
At a time when there is concern about the shortage of skills within the profession, the ALPD is delighted that thanks to donations received from individuals and the industry, they have been able to offer some shorter spells of mentoring to two more applicants to the scheme. Lucy Adams has been offered three placements between April and July – she has already successfully completed one placement with Mark Jonathan. Jon Stacey completes his placement with Peter Mumford in May. All of the other candidates who reached interview stage were offered a shadowing placement with an established lighting designer over the course of the summer.
Johanna Town, Chair of the ALPD, commented: “We are very grateful to Glyndebourne for helping us make the 6th Lumière Scheme possible and I am really looking forward to working with Danny later in the year. It is always a pleasure to meet, work with and mentor with the younger professionals as they start to forge their future careers in our industry.”
The ALPD would like to thank Glyndebourne, Christie Lites and all those who generously donated to the ALPD Christmas Fundraiser 2022 for making this year’s Design Lumière Scheme possible. If anyone reading this would be interested in offering sponsorship to the scheme and to a Production Lumière Scheme in future years, contact [email protected]
The Association for Lighting Production and Design (The ALPD) is the body representing all those who work in or are interested in the creation of lighting for live performance and events. It is an association that welcomes lighting designers, technicians and programmers across the full range of performance lighting disciplines.
Between 2015 and 2019 we have supported five successful participants of the Design Scheme, and in 2020 provided mentorship between 38 participants and 35 Lighting Designers through Lumière 20:20, as well as group discussions and talks with the 22 participants of Team Lumière. In 2021, we launched our pilot Production Lumière Scheme for emerging production electricians and programmers with 5 participants all receiving mentorship, a paid work placement opportunity and weekly online workshops. We intend to create a full Production Lumière Scheme in the future.