Laurel Shoemaker focused on students
“I
just thought now is a good time to be solely a lighting designer instead of an instructor,” said Laurel Shoemaker on her decision to retire from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln last spring. “That’s my passion, and I thought this would be a good time to focus on that.” Shoemaker has been working as a lighting designer and theatre artist for 30 years. When she came to the University of Nebraska– Lincoln as an undergraduate, she thought she might want to teach high school theatre, but eventually gravitated toward lighting design. “As a young design/tech major, I really wanted to be a scene designer, but I can’t draw,” she said. “At the time, when I was being encouraged to be a costume designer, I was also told that to be a scene designer, you have to be able to draw a sketch of what the set would look like, and I
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thought that would be so frustrating. But since then, I’ve figured out that I am happy to build a model, and I can show you how it looks because I can think spatially in my head, but my hand is not interested. I still wanted to be in the theatre, so I thought I’ll try this lighting thing. And you
HIXSON-LIED COLLEGE of FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS | FALL 2021
know, it’s been great. I love lighting. I love to tell a story through the subtlety of lighting. Since then, I’ve designed both scenery and lights. I just switched the communication tool from sketching to a building a scale model.” Shoemaker liked lighting design.
