Showlight, an international conference and networking events organized specifically for lighting professionals, by lighting professionals, is a quadrennial, taking place every four years. Due to the pandemic, the last version of Showlight was in Florence, Italy in 2017. This year, Showlight 2025 – May 19-22 - is back in full force in the charming French city of Dijon, with Robert Juliat as the lead sponsor, which means they also host a dinner for 400 people in a “secret” location to be revealed as the buses roll to the doors. The event has always been in the UK or Europe.
Day One featured an interesting series of 12 sessions, all 20-minutes in length and presented in groups of three with a Q&A following each grouping. The morning began with an intro by committee chair Jim Tetlow, the first American chair of Showlight, but as he said, “if you can have an American pope…” He noted that there are many students from around the world as well as 20 attendees in their new young professionals’ program as they support the next generation of lighting professionals.
Kicking off the morning was Anne Militello, who presented a session on “The Power Of Light” — myth, science, control & power, and celebration of lighting — taking us from the first sun gods to the contemporary use of lighting, lasers, strobes, and color at Tomorrowland.
She was followed by Dr. Yaron Abulafia, whose session “Working Light: Realising Light Spaces in the Spectators’ Minds” delved into using light to stimulate the mind’s eye through his work and the meaningful impact and mental processing of light in his dance lighting.
Third up was Willie Williams on the topic of “The Future Of Live Entertainment” covered his 40 years working as creative director for U2, with powerful images of their tours such as Zoo TV and Pop Mart to their recent show at Sphere in Las Vegas, U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere, which pushed the boundaries of video design to new heights. His towering designs on the huge domed video screen kept in mind the emotional attachment to the audience as well as transporting them to another place by maintaining the illusion and never breaking the immersive spell. These three sessions were moderated by Tracy Eck.
The second group of sessions, moderated by Rick Fisher, featured Christina Thanasoula who talked about the integration of cameras on stage and their impact on her lighting, as the video adds an extra layer for visual storytellers. Next was Nick Schlieper, a current Tony nominee for Best Lighting Design for “The Picture Of Dorian Gray” in which video is integrated into the fabric of the theatre-making with careful choreography of moving screens, and a balancing act of film lighting VS theatre lighting. Third in this group, Elanor Higgins took us to the coast of Wales for Galwad, a site-specific performance for the National Theatre Wales.
Following lunch with such local specialties as gougères (cheese puffs) and boeuf bourguignon, and visits to the sponsors’ tables in the tech area, the first round of afternoon sessions was moderated by Fiffi Thorsteinsson. Clara Daguin is a light artist and fashion designer who adds LEDs to costumes and specialty items, and she spoke about her collaboration with the House of Dior for the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics (closing the scene with the illuminated costumes and a burning piano for John Lennon’s “Imagine” on a barge in the Seine). David Gray followed with his work on custom feature design for theme park projects based on such films as “Kung Fu Panda.” Closing this group was Roger Simonsz, BSC, who delved into his dramatic film lighting for “The Piper,” where sodium fixtures added an eerie light to the forest scenes.
The final three sessions of Day One, moderated by Sophie Pierronnet, included: Ezequiel Nobili on a site-specific work in Madrid, Spain; Phil Stuppe on “Embracing The Blue Hour,” as he addressed working in outdoor lighting under an open sky; a look at Dijon's architectural heritage by Saffran Popile; and an architectural lighting creating emotions and memories presentation by Marco Miglioli. The day represented the breadth and depth of the various aspects on lighting design, and I was glad to see there were more women and a more international roster of speakers than in the past.
With heads full of illuminating images, the attendees headed off to company sponsored dinners around town. Thanks to Robert Juliat for our dinner in a packed restaurant, L’Hemiscycle, with other lighting company dinners there as well, in front of the historic Palais des Ducs in central Dijon.
Speaker bios and additional details at https://www.showlight.org