At The Rose Center Theater - Saddleback College

Theatrical Lighting Designer 

Chris Caputo 

At The Rose Center Theater 

Kathy Cannarozzi Harris 

Theater Teacher 

Mission Viejo High School 

Saddleback Valley USD

The Rose Center Theater 

A 400 seat community theater in Westminster with a 

proscenium stage. It produces 4 musicals a year and 

hosts a variety of community events.

Lighting Designer’s Responsibilities 

• To meet with directors of each production to 

find out what their needs are for their event. 

• To create lighting designs to enhance the 

production so that the performers can be seen, 

to set a mood and to focus the action on stage. 

• The designer must have artistic abilities and 

technical skills.

Experience 

• Chris Caputo has been a 

freelance lighting designer for 25 

years in the Southern California 

Area. 

• As a designer at The Rose, he 

often has new events coming into 

the theater every week which 

need his lighting expertise. These 

can be dance concerts, 

orchestras, award shows or a 

beauty pageant.

Experience 

• The Rose Theater 

• Curtain Call Dinner Theater 

• West Covina Playhouse 

• Camino Playhouse 

• San Juan Hills High School 

• Mission Viejo High School 

• Industrial lighting design 

• California State University, Fullerton 

• Saddleback College

Curtain Call Dinner Theater 

Anything Goes design by Chris Caputo

How he got started….. 

• He was an actor/singer at Mission Viejo High School in 

the 1980’s. In his junior year, they needed someone to 

design the set for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and he 

volunteered. 

• Began to design other sets in high school including Skin 

of our Teeth and Our Hearts were Young and Gay 

• Hired by the school district as a student theater manager 

– to work when outside groups would rent the theater. 

His job included running the lights and microphones.

First Designs…. 

• While in High School he designed the set 

and lights for The Caucasian Chalk Circle

Education 

• Decided to major in college in set and lighting 

design at Cal State Fullerton 2 yrs and 

transferred to University of California at Irvine 

where he graduated with a degree in theater. 

• While he was in college he was given the 

opportunity to design lighting for productions 

and also was hired by area high schools to 

design sets and lighting.

Skills 

• Chris is also the technical director at The 

Rose Theater and designs and builds the 

sets for the 4 musicals produced each 

year. 

• The ability to design a set and lighting are 

great skills to have together as they often 

compliment each other. 

• In lighting, he must also have expertise in 

electrical engineering.

Skills needed to be a designer 

• work as a team member 

• collaborate ideas 

• learn to compromise 

• stay in budget 

• communication skills 

• problem solve 

• be creative 

• research skills 

• ability to analyze a script 

• knowledge of electricity 

• art/drawing 

• computer design and programming skills

Valuable Courses 

• Valuable courses to take in high school – 

theater, geometry, physics, drafting, architecture, 

drawing, 3-D art, art history, English, history, music. 

• Valuable courses to take in college – 

theatrical design, drawing, stagecraft, art history, 

dramatic literature classes, theater history, lighting 

design, directing, business, marketing.

A day in the life…. 

• A designer must be able to attend meetings with 

production staff and communicate design ideas, 

adjust and collaborate. 

• A designer needs time to read and analyze a 

play and understand the mood of the piece and 

the intent of the director’s concept.


• A designer needs time to research the 

various periods, types of lighting and 

special effects for each scene. 

. 

• After designing a light plot, the designer 

works with the light crew to hang the 

lights.


• Lighting designers work irregular hours, 

particularly if they’re working on an 

upcoming play or other performance that 

requires hours of rehearsal setting the 

lighting. They often work late at night. 

• They are usually expected to be present at 

performances and openings, which 

typically happen at night.

Designing phase 

• First, he reads the play and 

takes down notes about the 

places, time of day, mood, time 

of year and any special lighting 

effects required by the play. 

• Next, he looks for some pictures 

that might help to see the look 

that is needed such as 

moonlight or fire.

Moonlight 

Picture of moonlight 

Moonlight in “Further 

Adventures of Hedda Gabler” 

design by Chris Caputo

Fire 

Picture of 

fire 

The Triangle Factory Fire Project design by Chris Caputo

Creating a light plot 

• A light plot, is a document similar to a 

construction set) blueprint used to 

illustrate and communicate the lighting 

design to the director and other designers.

• The light plot 

specifies how 

each lighting fixture 

should be hung, 

focused, colored, 

and connected. This 

can be given to the 

lighting crew to 

hang. 

Light Plot

The Lights 

• Chris has to know all of the different types 

of lighting fixtures such as fresnels, 

ellipsoidals, scoops, spotlights and 

intelligent lighting (lights that move).

Color 

Knowing and Understanding color theory and light is very 

important to a lighting designer. He must choose the color 

gels for each light

Creating the lighting cues 

• After watching rehearsals for the production to get some 

idea of where the actors are moving in a scene or dance 

number, Chris meets with the director to determine 

where the lights need to change during a dry technical 

rehearsal. 

• At this rehearsal, the stage manager, assistant director 

and director are working together to create the cues on 

paper in the script. Then the lighting designer can begin 

to program the lightboard.

The Technical Rehearsal 

• At the technical 

rehearsal, Chris 

works to 

program the 

board as the 

director sits next 

to him and they 

go cue by cue 

with the actors to 

light the show.

Performances 

• Chris is usually present at performances 

“running” the board. This means that he is 

working with the stage manager during 

the show operating the lightboard. He 

often is supervising a community member 

or student who is working on the lighting 

crew.

Job Opportunities 

• As a freelance designer, Chris works at various 

theaters but he has to be able to market himself 

and budget his time. 

• In the Southern California area there are more 

opportunities to work than in other areas of the 

country so there are more jobs in lighting design 

available. However, it is a competitive field.

Designs by Chris Caputo 

Carousal


Man of La Mancha


Oklahoma


The King and I


Singin’ in the Rain


Beauty and the Beast


Crazy for You


The Odyssey - underworld


The Odyssey


The Odyssey- the heavens

Salary 

• The current labor statistics state the 

average yearly salary is $40,000. 

• This varies from professional theater to 

community theater. 

• But on the bright side…Lighting designers 

can negotiate their own per show rate 

based on their experience.

Credits: 

Photography Chris Caputo, Kelley 

Moody, and DSM Photography

At The Rose Center Theater - Saddleback College

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