Mary Bennett
BA Production Arts
Mary is specialising in Theatre Lighting Design and Programming in her third year of BOVTS’ Production Arts BA. She is especially interested in accessible theatre and strives to make her work as accessible as possible. As well as designing lighting for Troilus and Cressida, Absolute Scenes and Far from the Madding Crowd at BOVTS, Mary is also the lighting designer for a tour of Walter and Dulcie around East Anglia. Mary’s ETC console programming credits include The Laramie Project and Nicholas Nickleby – both at the Bristol Old Vic.
Absolute Scenes
Mary worked close alongside AV designer Ping to create an ‘in the round’ atmosphere for the audience, Mary not only focused lights onto the staging, but also the audience so that when the cast were dancing – the audience felt like part of the action too.
Absolute Scenes
Mary used non -conventional theatre lighting angles. To catch the entire space, lights were needed to be rigged and focus on the balcony railings, working around the action of the piece to be able to catch the faces of the actors.
Troilus and Cressida
Mary was inspired by Eliza’s designs of the football flags, recreating a blue and orange side-lighted state that acted as a recurring motif throughout the performance. Mary designed the lighting for both stage and screen and loved the challenge, making sure that whether the audience was digital or in the theatre in person, the show could been portrayed as accurately as possible to the director’s and designer’s vision.
