BY LUCIA MAURO
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A love of poetry and an urge to take apart VCRs may not be the first attributes that pop into an aspiring lighting designer’s mind. But Jaymi Lee Smith–whose metaphoric lighting sculptures can be seen in countless Chicago theatre productions–is drawn to both the technical nature of her craft and those provocative intangibles inherent to the theatrical art form.
Born and raised on a farm outside Indianapolis, Smith notes that her father ran the Research and Development Department for a major telecommunications company. So computers were a common sight in their home. Her mother writes children’s books. Not surprisingly, the designer has always been an avid reader.
"Lighting design is the perfect blend of right and left brain," says Smith, shortly before tech rehearsals begin for Seanachai Theatre’s production of Dylan at Victory Gardens. "It involves logic and the problem-solving process. Yet I’m also intuitive."
At the same time, she insists, "I hate lights!" But Smith clarifies, "It’s not lights I enjoy; it’s the process." So, once she gets past the necessary gadget fiddling and scientific equations involving refraction and absorption of light, she can plunge into her greater passion–the ideas and symbolism emerging from the text.
"I’m not a techie designer," says Smith, 28. "I don’t care what gears do. But I do believe in the story being the central part."
Smith’s designs–which encompass Naked Eye Theatre (for which she is an ensemble member), Steppenwolf, Court, Victory Gardens, Next, Writers’ Theatre and many more–rarely, if ever, exist on a literal plane. She recently crafted the lights for Rivendell Theatre Company’s staging of Naomi Wallace’s The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek at Breadline Theatre. The structure of the play is fragmented and surreal at times. And Smith’s lighting mirrors that quiet sense of mystery. A jail cell is evoked by beams of light forming a cross-hatched pattern on the floor; autumnal hues bathe the play’s troubled Depression-era characters in nostalgic yet ominous shafts of light and shadow.
The designer talks about her choices for The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek. Interestingly, her initial reactions to a play are more sound- than light-based.
"When I first read a script," Smith explains, "I hear the pacing of it–what does it sound like? Is it a percussive drum beat or the low moan of a cello? I work closely with scenic and sound designers to evoke the tone.
"But realism is not my forte. I’m not of the David Mamet school of lighting design. I want to take audiences on a journey. I design based on memory. Think about how you recall a moment in your life. Say you were in a bar. You don’t remember exactly how it looked, but you remember the down light over the bar. I want to recreate that feeling, and I look at different ways of achieving it–through angle, color, compressing or opening up the lights."
Smith points out that, with Trestle, she had not worked in such a small space for a long time. So she was able to tap into her natural resourcefulness.
"It was a wonderful challenge," she continues. "When you have 20 lights, your choices must be so much more distinct. I still wanted to sculpt light. Wallace’s work is so lyrical and laden with images. You almost had to create a piece of poetry on stage. [In the play], the light sneaks through this trestle. [The set] was the ravine I played in as a child. I pay attention to one simple moment. It’s those simple moments that change us."
Smith acknowledges that her process varies depending on the needs and individual styles of directors and theatre companies. With Naked Eye, the process is completely collaborative. While working with director JoAnne Akalaitis on Mary Stuart at Court Theatre, she had to be "very fluid." The director needed to see all the elements together on stage before making definitive choices. In addition, Smith had to remind herself to follow her own instincts rather than try to replicate the style of Jennifer Tipton (Akalaitis’ longtime lighting designer).
At times, she is hired at the last minute and must operate in "reaction mode" toward the set, sound and costume designs already in place. Or she can spend several months plotting the illumination for large-scale events, like Hades Haunted House. Yet basic principles apply to these varied situations.
"Lighting for me is all about composing the painting," says Smith. "I think of lighting as 'visual noise’–like background static. Designers and directors need to determine how much stimuli they’re going to give to audiences.
"Determining whether the lights will be at 20 percent or full is just as important as deciding to place an elaborate winding staircase in a scene with a powerful monologue. You need to ask the question: How much do you want the audience to hear that monologue or be immersed in the visual universe? It’s all about creating a cohesive world."
Smith–who announced at the age of four that she wanted to be a medical astronaut and a painter–has had a strong sense of personal goals since a young age, while remaining open to new possibilities. Her parents enrolled her in a 12-year Indianapolis school for the gifted, which tailored its classes to the individual needs of students. It also fostered a sense of continuity and progression. Smith landed her first job backstage at the age of 12.
"I was a rebellious child," the designer admits. "My homeroom teacher was also involved in theatre. And one day she dragged me into shop and put me on a backstage crew. The play was The Boyfriend, and I caught beach balls backstage.
"I connected immediately to theatre. You’re always learning something new."
Not only did Smith and a technical-oriented friend get to work on shows. The school invited them to design their own theatrical design program. Initially, Smith focused on scenic design and painting; her friend on lighting and sound. As teenagers, they worked on shows for theatres, like Phoenix and Civic, in Indianapolis. And, at the age of 15, Smith was one of the youngest instructors at Interlochen Center for the Arts.
While still in school, she landed a job as a board operator at Indianapolis’ American Cabaret Theatre (a musical-revue house built, incidentally, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s grandfather). She advanced to set design and stage management. Then, one day, a director asked her if she knew how to design lights. And, despite an intense fear of heights and not a lot of experience in that technical genre, she said yes. Smith basically gave herself a crash-course in lighting design.
But lights sparked her curiosity. And she welcomed the challenge. After all, her childhood Christmas wish lists were not exactly conventional. They included frogs to dissect, materials for building spaceships and books on Chaos Theory, quarks and Quantum Physics.
"Lights are such an enigma," Smith enthuses, then mentions how ancient cartographers, in their maps sketched with dragons, referred to light as "illuminating ether."
She received a scholarship to the Theatre School at DePaul University and, in 1996, received her BFA in lighting design. Smith worked closely with current Dean and prolific Chicago lighting/scenic designer John Culbert, and praises her well-rounded training.
"I didn’t want to train to be a technician," she states. "I wanted to train to be an artist. We would have eight-hour rendering classes and survey of fashion design. We learned about the dimmers and the physics, but we also read scripts to help us understand and justify our [design] choices."
Smith was especially inspired by her Visual Concepts Class, which rotated teams of designers to create an installation. Sometimes she was a scenic designer; other times, lighting or sound. The project she remembers fondly is a tactile room her team forged out of beads and coins embedded in stucco. Rose petals mingled with shattered glass to suggest the dualities of love.
The designer also did not wait to graduate before seeking work in the Chicago theatre community. During her sophomore year, she designed lights for Denise LaGrassa’s Bite Me for Center Theater and the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival. More collaborations followed.
After she received her degree, Smith worked for one year as a system designer at DesignLab Chicago. Clients included universities, theatres, film and video, rock 'n’ roll and display companies. She worked in systems design, sales, training and bidding. Smith also served as a freelance electrician/technician, carpenter, scenic painter and, of course, lighting designer.
She has designed or assisted on more than 40 shows in the last five years, including Among the Thugs (Next and Goodman), Uncle Vanya (Steppenwolf Studio), Terrible Girls (About Face), By the Bog of Cats (Irish Repertory), The Odd Coupe (Apollo), Jackie Mason at the Park West and several shows for Naked Eye and European Repertory Company.
One of her most extensive projects to date was Hades Haunted House, which incorporated Cyberlights, Intellibeams and Dataflashes, as well as several prototype designs. This project encompassed 70,000 square feet and had a $15,000 lighting budget.
"That was my first venture into moving lights," says Smith. "It was an extensive process, involving different rooms and special effects–like glistening flesh walls and alien-attack cities. We built a lot of prototypes; a lot of stuff was homemade."
She no doubt drew on Hades Haunted House when designing lights for the "Frankenstein table" in About Face’s Terrible Girls. She paired plumbing parts with floodlights.
The house of horrors also put her in touch with the producers of John Astin’s one-man show, Edgar Allan Poe…Once Upon a Midnight. Smith designed lights and essentially became Astin’s tour director. They traveled by car to 40 theatres in New England for close to four months.
"I had to be flexible," she recounts. "John [Astin] would change the blocking every night. So I had to readjust the lights. And you never knew what to expect. Some theatres had 14 dimmers; some had 500 dimmers. The challenge was adapting to new environments while maintaining the integrity of the original design."
In addition, Smith has designed lights for a UDV marketing expo in Madrid, Spain; the Indy 500 Festival at Deercreek Ampitheater and several arts festivals at Chicago Arts Program. Since 1995, she has served as a freelance production coordinator. Clients include the League of Chicago Theatres’ retreat and Sears Theatre Fever; and Mrs. T.’s Chicago Triathlon. Teaching experience encompasses the Interior Architecture Department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Northwestern Settlement House and the West Humboldt Park Arts Program.
Current and future lighting-design projects are Nocturne for Naked Eye; Cherry Docs at Next; and The Dazzle at Steppenwolf.
As much as Smith has mastered the nuances of lighting design–which she calls "a living, breathing creature"–it remains elusive to her.
"I feel like I’m always chasing it [light] down," she admits. "It’s something that’s not tangible. I think surprises are always so wonderful. It’s the mystery of it that fascinates me."
And it’s okay if Smith does not capture those fleeting rays. She believes that lighting design is not the end of her artistic journey. Installation art, film and writing burn brightly on the horizon.