Guest Instructor Sean Savoie

Lighting Designer Sean SavoieLighting designer Sean Savoie will be spending the semester as a guest instructor at SIUE. A faculty member of Washington University, Savoie heard about the guest position through Laura Hanson (Department of Theater and Dance) while they were working on a play together.

“Actually ironically I’ve worked with most of the faculty here before.” Savoie commented on how he’s frequently worked along side SIUE faculty on Saint Louis productions.

Going on his sixth year in the area Savoie has been active with numerous local theater groups including: Hot City Theater, Insight theater co, The Black Repertory Theater, the United States Institue of Theater Technology, and Plaza. Additionally Savoie was a production manager at the Muny for four years.

During his stay here Savoie will be teaching advanced lighting design. In the class students will be working with Vector Works, a computerized lighting design program, to create full lighting designs for three different shows.

“I’ve affectionately called it lighting boot camp in the past,” Savoie shared.

Savoie spoke with great enthusiasm about teaching students to work with new technologies that make the world of lighting design a rapidly changing field. With technologies like LED’s and computers rapidly expanding what is possible.

“We follow how quickly computers upgrade themselves. Lighting consoles are becoming so much more advanced these days it’s unreal.”

Savoie also tries to educate students about all the different areas in which lighting design is being applied outside of the theater including: rental houses, consulting firms, and architectural lighting.

“It’s one of the few jobs in the world where there’s almost zero monotony. You can Stay inside the same box for twenty years but always be challenged to change it every time you walk inside of it.”

Aside from his work here at SIUE Savoie is currently working on a number of upcoming shows in the St. Louis area including: “Goodbye Ruby Tuesday” (Hot City Theater), “Cabaret” (Washington University), “Annie” (Variety Club), and “No Child” (Black Repertory).

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