Hotlight on... Tom Cooper

Tom Cooper, Lighting Designer, talks about how being involved with heat&light has helped him kick-start his career:

I got involved in heat&light back when it first began and I was still at school. I have always been more interested in the backstage side of theatre, so this is where I started. I began assisting the in-house technician in the Michael Frayn Space and operated the lighting and sound on numerous productions.

In 2007 I was offered a place on a three year degree course in Theatre and Performance Technology at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), which I’m sure was helped by my involvement with heat&light. This course gave me an excellent grounding in all aspects of technical theatre and stage management. Although lighting design is what has always interested me most, as theatre is such a collaborative art form, I feel that learning about the roles of everyone involved in putting on a production has put me in good stead.

I am just about to graduate from LIPA and have recently moved back down to London. Since I’ve been back, I have designed the lighting for the heat&light project involving five short plays at Hampstead theatre, a graduate production of Arabian Nights at Chelsea Theatre and have been lucky enough to shadow Colin Grenfell, a well-established lighting designer on productions of Fidelio and Don Giovanni at the Opera Holland Park.

heat&light has given me a fantastic opportunity to work with young, talented, up-and-coming directors in a well-equipped space, with an excellent support network –a brilliant environment in which to experiment and to push my own boundaries, which is invaluable experience for me as a young designer just starting out.

To find out more about Tom, visit his website.