Pioneering Deaf Lighting Designer Annie Wiegand Brings Clear Vision to Theater
Annie Wiegand
Independent Theatrical Lighting Designer and Professor
Gallaudet University
It’s commonly known in Deaf culture that every time a Deaf social is held at someone’s house, the group tends to gather in the kitchen. According to Deaf theatrical lighting designer Annie Wiegand, “When they’re talking and talking, they will naturally migrate to the kitchen, because the kitchen usually has the brightest lighting in the house. That shows you how important lighting is to me as a Deaf person.” Because Deaf individuals relate to the world primarily through their eyes, they may be more sensitive to lighting transitions, visual distractions, overload, and important cues. Wiegand believes her Deafness lends some advantage as a lighting designer.
She advocates for inclusion and accessibility in the performing arts, citing grants and sponsorships available to organizations that hire diverse technical and on-stage talent. And she believes that having a more diverse staff, and catering to a more diverse audience, leads to a better, more creatively exciting production.
Wiegand discovered a love for theater as tot, performing in dance and mime. Today she is the only Deaf lighting designer working in theater in the US. She has been freelancing in New York City for more than a decade and teaches theater full time at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. Noted for her use of color, her contributions to the Off-Broadway production of I Was Most Alive With You earned a Tony nomination. Two casts—one hearing, one Deaf—performed the play simultaneously on a stage split into two levels. Wiegand identifies as Deaf, female, and queer, a rare intersectionality among the white-male–dominated technical theater trades.
Getting work
“College was when I started to really zero in on lighting. I loved hanging the lighting instruments and wiring things together, all the physical labor that goes into that. After I graduated from college, I freelanced for a couple of years at different theaters. I learned that strong lighting can really carry a show. And without it, the show can fall flat. So I decided to go back to get my master’s in lighting design from Boston University.”
She credits BU College of Fine Arts professor Mark Stanley as a mentor to this day. Stanley has been the lighting designer for the New York City Ballet for nearly 40 years. “He was the one who told me that my path was not going to be the same as any of my colleagues. I was not going to have the same kind of opportunities, because of how the industry is set up,” Wiegand recalled.
Traditionally, a young theatrical lighting designer would assist another lighting designer, and most communication inside the theater happens via headsets. “But that's not an option for me. I can speak into the headset, sure, and I have many times. That’s how I program a show. But I can't receive information,” she explained. One-on-one or with a small group Wiegand relies on her lip reading ability, and Zoom supplements that with closed captions. She admits that she is less likely to multitask during meetings because they require her full attention.
“When it gets to be a larger group or a noisy environment, or I have to talk through the headset, that's when I need an [sign language] interpreter,” which adds to the production’s (usually tight) budget. “So I really had to creep my way up the ladder: Off-Broadway shows in little dirty basements and tiny theaters around New York. I had to work my way up to better shows and meet more people.”
As a pioneer
Though she is not currently working in architectural lighting design, Wiegand definitely knows bad lighting when she sees it. “The more design I do, I realize how ephemeral lighting is. It’s something experiential that you enjoy mostly in-the-moment. When we were all at home during the pandemic, it just became more apparent that it's something very powerful, and you should be in the room to experience the light.”
She expressed eagerness to learn more about the power of lighting in architecture and is especially fascinated by light artists like James Turrell and Anthony McCall. She enjoys amazing her students both with science of light and its capacity for storytelling.
“I feel like [architectural lighting] might be a better career path for a younger Deaf person. As a teacher, I'm always thinking about opportunities, not just for myself, but for students that I work with. If I were to meet a student that had a passion for lighting like I did, I would probably push them to consider not just theater, but architectural [lighting design] and a broad array of lighting careers…
“There was no precedent for me. I was the first one, the first Deaf person to do lighting for entertainment. I didn’t know they used a headset to communicate, and that if we used a sign language interpreter, that was going to cost additional money. Those things I had to learn on the fly.”
Beyond the stage
As many theatrical lighting designers have found supplemental work or dedicated careers in architecture, it’s a possibility for Wiegand. “At the end of the day, it's all directing attention and emotions. Just the amount of light you give something has so much power. The fact that you can elicit emotions from a group of bystanders... It’s amazing to have that kind of impact on people.” She notes especially the dynamics of light, often finding herself impacted more by rhythmic light patterns than music. “I’ve always found that color and patterns in light trigger a more powerful reaction than from pigments and fabrics. The light is drenching, more immersive. You’re experiencing it; it’s completely different.”
She cited the tools common to both theatrical and architectural lighting design. “People need to keep an open mind when it comes to hiring people with disabilities. In a perfect world, I would be designing full time. But that's not my path. I need an income, so I teach. I just want people to embrace the differences in people – and disability is one type of difference to be prized…. We all have different paths.”
