Anne McMills '99 shares thoughts on the challenges of teaching lighting designers today
Millikin University graduate Anne McMills '99 was recently featured in Live Design as part of its "What's Trending" column with focus on education. Live Design is a creative and technical online magazine for live entertainment professionals in lighting, sound, staging and projection.
Live Design writes, "What is going on in the theatrical design programs these days, and what advice do the professors have to offer those about to step over the threshold into the vast unknown of the industry?"
McMills, a lighting designer, is the author of two books—"The Assistant Lighting Designer's Toolkit" and "3D Printing Basics For Entertainment Design." She is also professor and head of lighting design at San Diego State University, and co-moderator for LDI's annual portfolio review for lighting and projection students and young pros. She shared her thoughts on training the next generation of successful designers.
"Training lighting designers in today's day and age is a tricky one," said McMills. "Balancing the needs of the students in a technology-driven field alongside the sluggish funding models of an educational system can be a challenge. Similarly, teaching tried-and-true 'old-school' techniques parallel to directors raised in the moving light age may seem to have its pitfalls. I think the key is trying not to focus so much on the technology, but instead to instill in the students an understanding of becoming life-long learners. In a world with exponential technology growth, the students need to understand that a piece of equipment introduced to them within their first year of study may be on its way 'out' by their third."
In addition to designing her own work, McMills has assisted many award-winning Broadway lighting designers, including Ken Billington, Brian MacDevitt, Howell Binkley, Peter Kaczorowski, Jason Lyons, David Lander, Brian Monahan, and others, as well as projections designer Elaine J. McCarthy. She has mounted productions in the United States, Japan, Australia, England, Scotland, France and Germany.
"In addition to creating life-learners, I think we, as educators, have a responsibility to introduce a broader world of entertainment to our students," said McMills. "Gone perhaps are the days that a designer can make a living working solely in the regional theatre circuit. We need to introduce lighting styles in various fields in order to broaden the students' outlook and career possibilities. I'm by no way saying that one cannot make a living in theatre, but I think the ability to work in other areas of the industry allows the young designer to expand his/her reach into any market and further develop as a versatile designer."
McMills received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Design – Lighting from Millikin in 1999 and her Master of Art in Lighting Design from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. While pursuing her thesis research, McMills interned at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden and the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith in London, England, as well as the Opéra de Lyon in Lyon, France in order to analyze the comparison between American, British and European lighting design practices and technologies.
"Teaching lighting designers today is not the same as when we may have been in school," said McMills. "The world is much more immersive and multi-platform than it used to be. In order to create the successful designers of tomorrow, we need to prep them for that world today."