From 1981 to 2020: Allen Lee Hughes’ Tony-nominated Lighting for A Soldier’s Play

Allen Lee Hughes designed the lighting for the original off-Broadway production of A Soldier’s Play in 1981, and now, in 2020, he has been nominated for a Tony Award—as well as shortlisted for Live Design's 2020 Design Achievement Awards—for his work on the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Broadway production at American Airlines Theatre. The play snagged a total of seven nominations, including Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design, Best Direction, Best Featured Actor, Best Lead Actor, and Best Revival of a Play.

Live Design chatted with the lighting designer about the recognition and the design across productions.

Live Design: Congrats on the Tony nomination! How do you feel about the recognition for this lighting design?

Allen Lee Hughes: I feel great about the recognition for this design. I liked the way the lighting turned out and the process was pretty great. I’m always pleased when the whole production is recognized.

Photo by Joan Marcus

LD: How did you get involved with A Soldier’s Play, and what was the design directive going in?

ALH: I have worked with the director Kenny Leon many times and had designed Toni Stone for the Roundabout Theatre in the preceding summer. In addition, I had designed the original off-Broadway production of the play in 1981.

The narrative of the play fluctuates between past and present, sometimes in an instant, so a key role for the lighting on this show was to help the audience follow the time shifts. I did this with contrasting color palettes on both the off-Broadway and Broadway shows, with cooler tones for scenes in the past and warmer colors for the present. The movie also used color but used the opposite logic in its design.

Scenes in the past also had some more license to push into abstraction, occasionally using isolated pools or shafts of light or highlighting the geometry of the scenery. In the final scenes, the rules relax a bit as the events of the past become fully revealed to characters in the present. For the past scenes, I also utilized the negative space between horizontal slats in Derek McLane’s set, which transformed the feel of the stage fairly significantly.

Photo by Joan Marcus

LD: Describe the collaboration among the creative team and how it impacted your design.

ALH: I think the tops and bottoms of Acts and the transitions evolved the most out of the collaborative process. Charles Fuller’s script calls for a number of specific locations as well as a few scenes “in limbo.” The first iteration of the set utilized a lot of automation for scene shifts, but when that became impractical with the budget, Kenny really leaned in to using manual labor for the transitions, reflecting the labor expected of the Black regiment depicted in the play. Kenny also worked with [sound designer] Dan Moses Schreier to layer in African American folk songs sung by the cast and choreographed transition beats to time out perfectly with the music. The result was an opportunity to think of lighting transitions like dance pieces, and to have moments that helped build context and emotion for the play and avoided having them feel like breaks in the action.

LD: What kind of aesthetic were you striving for with the lighting design?

ALH: While the play shifts between memory and present spaces (with the present being 1944 Louisiana) and has a few moments of direct address, the dialog and characters are very grounded in reality. One of our challenges was to keep shifts of time and location fluid and poetic while still being part of a cohesive and relatively naturalistic world.

I paid a lot of attention to composition of each scene as a way to define space, give audience information about time and place, and to focus attention as needed. The cast had a wide range of skin tones, making attention to the balance of the stage even more critical. I always like to see the show from the balcony as soon as possible, and often sit there for the first preview. I like to make sure the design succeeds for as much of the audience as possible, but you also can really learn a lot about your design from that perspective. Changing vantage points helps you see the show as it exists, rather than what you have in your mind, and seeing the floor reveals a lot about intention, composition, and layers.

Photo by Joan Marcus

LD: Describe the lighting system. What were the main workhorse fixtures, and why? How/where were they positioned?

ALH: Supplementing our systems of lekos, we had 16 Martin MAC Encore Performance WRM, with four on the FOH truss and the rest distributed over the stage. They were a real workhorse and a substantial part of every scene. They did everything from provide specials, to light scenery, to form systems of washes. These are great lights; they are fast, quiet, repeatably accurate, and the native warm LED engine looks great on skin tones and blends well with the conventional units while still providing a lot of punch. They also fade quite smoothly. The top of the show begins with a capella voices in darkness, the actors’ forms slowly emerging over a three-minute cue. We utilized a single Encore for this, and it handled the low end of the fade curve beautifully.

For color changing fixtures—scenery, box boom washes, head highs, and backs—we relied on ETC Source Four LED Lustr Series 2. They were a very useful tool to instantly change or crossfade color for the past/present scenes and for transitions without double-hanging every system.

We backlit the upstage drop, which was visible through the slat wall, using a bounce and rows of Chroma-Q Color Force II 72 strips at top and bottom. Space was very tight, so having high color output with minimal maintenance concerns was key.

Photo by Joan Marcus

LD: What was that programming process like, and what console did you use?

ALH: Ben Fichthorn programmed the show on an ETC Eos Ti. We relied heavily on our moving lights to shape the specificity and composition of each scene, so for a straight play, programing was deceptively complex, both in tracking usage and understanding that small adjustments could have a big impact.

LD: Who supplied the lighting equipment?

ALH: The American Airlines has a fairly substantial house inventory, supplemented by a rental package from PRG.

LD: What were the biggest challenges overall, and how were they overcome?

ALH: One particular challenge was lighting the oversized American flag that provides the backdrop for the final image of the play. Finding a way to provide even front light proved challenging. With only 15'' of clearance, traditional cyc lighting was not an option, and the set’s full-height wooden posts and raised wooden walkway prohibited lighting from front of house. Fortunately, two of the posts provided the perfect location to mount City Theatrical QolorFLEX Adjustable White LED Tape.

Photo by Joan Marcus

LD: What was your favorite lighting moment in the show?

ALH: There were many favorite moments often based on how the audience reacted. I liked the opening (described above), the ending of the play, and the moment when Blair Underwood turned upstage and was lit in only backlight.  These were fun moments but I also felt good about the office scenes and transitions.

LD: Anything else you’d like to add?

ALH: Josh Benghiat, the associate lighting designer, was a godsend. Dede Ayite’s costumes were a great asset to the production, and we owe much thanks to Head Electrician Brian Maiuri. It was a wonderful ensemble piece, and I’m happy we made it through most of the run before the COVID-19 shutdown.