LIGHTING DESIGN PROJECTS

​Google Stephanie Anne Johnson and you’ll likely find a Wikipedia page written about her as both visual artist and lighting designer. The Afro Urban Society wanted to know a little more about her than a Wikipedia entry. After all, Wikipedia won’t tell you that she is a biblio-holic with a house filled with books. Or that she wants Black folks to VOTE, VOTE, VOTE and run for elected and policy-making commissions and committees. Or that she is one of very few professional Black lighting designers in California.

 See highlights from the Afro Urban Society's interview 
From October 10, 2020

"KILL MOVE PARADISE ​Exposes Minstrelsy & Murder"
 at Shotgun Players, Berkeley - Theatrius.  (July-August, 2019)    

"Stephanie Anne Johnson’s lighting and Theodore J.H. Hulsker’s video effects, conjuring sudden blackouts and eerie blue rivers, make the actors’ sudden entrances gripping and impressive."

"And we learn a lot from them, while a white printer on a cross-shaped white shelf spits out a long, long list of Black victims."

​~ Review by Jesse Marley & Barry David Horwitz

See the Review

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 Photos by Robbie Sweeney - ​Click on images below to see largest versions:

LIGHTING DESIGN WORKSHOP

​Dance Brigade's Dance Mission and Afro Urban Society prepped for another round of Lighting Design & Tech Fellowship Series for people of African descent.

They kicked it off with an amazing lecture/demo with the master artist Stephanie Anne Johnson on Sunday, August 4th at The Ubuntu Theatre Project in Oakland.

​Dr. Johnson will continue to work with the Fellows in this year long training program. 

See more about the Fellowship>

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​Click on images to see largest versions.

 Comments from workshop participants

Thoughtful lighting has the ability to add dimension to a piece of work on a visceral level. I am also always willing to show up in spaces where a person of my skin tone and gender are not expected.”  ​

My joy was compounded by having the opportunity to collaborate fearlessly with and draw creative confidence from other Black women.”

I recently performed as an emerging artist in this year's  QCC Queer Arts Festival Program. One of the trainings we had access to was lighting design with Stephanie Johnson, it was amazing.”

The Dance Mission
Afro Urban Society's  Lighting Tech Fellowship
​for People of African Descent program. 

​"I have been waiting for many decades to train people of African descent in the craft of lighting design. With Black film, theatre, and art projects around the world, it is now reinforced that African culture has much to offer. Indeed, our contributions are helping to disseminate knowledge, promote balance, and add beauty to this troubled world. With my visual art and theatre design work, I am privileged to be a small part of fostering global well-being, cultural restoration, social equity, and spiritual harmony." Stephanie Anne Johnson

Photos by Brooke Anderson

FOR COLORED GIRLS
​Written by the late Nztozake Shange, Directed by Elizabeth Carter

​For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf 
Produced by The African American Shakespeare Company at the Taube Atrium Theater,
San Francisco – September, 2018
Nominated for awards by Broadway World – San Francisco.
 
Statement by Stephanie Anne Johnson:
​
​"The first version of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf was performed in San Francisco in 1974. When this piece returned “home”, I was deeply honored to have been included on the creative team as the lighting designer. Ntozake Shange came from a very talented family. As a young woman her Aunt, Thelma Williams, tutored me in music.
 
Following Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun in 1959, Ntozake Shange was the second African American woman playwright to have a play produced on Broadway. In 1976, her “choreopoem”, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf changed the history of theatre forever. May her memory be cherished for eternity."

​*****

​A Sparkling Diffraction of Stories and Spirit:

See the review:
Theater & Such - Christine Okon. September 18, 2018

"Ntozake Shange’s 1975 choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf lives again in a remarkable new production directed by Elizabeth Carter that bursts, vibrates and sings its stories of loss, joy, pain, strength and most of all, resilience.... The lighting design by Stephanie Anne Johnson subtly suggests a cityscape..."
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Nominated for Best Lighting Design (Local) by Broadway World

​Stephanie Anne Johnson was nominated for a 2017 Theatre Bay Area's Outstanding Lighting Design for To The Bone - Ubuntu Theater and, Hela -TheatreFirst."

​TheatreFIRST closes its first season of in-house new works with the world premiere of HeLa -- by Lauren Gunderson and Geetha Reddy, dramaturgy by Lisa Marie Rollins, and directed by Evren Odcikin.

​HeLa evokes and explores the story of Henrietta Lacks, the African-American woman whose hard life and young death produced the most powerful line of immortal cells the world has ever seen. This lyrical theatrical mash up will explore the science, legacy, tragedy, poetry, and universal truths that one woman’s story and biology can offer the world.

​“In remembering Henrietta Lacks as more than just a bunch of cells, “HeLa” posits that it’s important that we name her, but also that stories and memories are part of what allow her, or any of us, to become fully human. In so doing, the show proffers a subtle metatheatrical tribute to the power of performance itself. Theater doesn’t just tell us good stories; it testifies that we existed and that we meant something.”

-- Lily Janiak, San Francisco Chronicle

“There’s a cumulative power to this story that feels both intimate and epic, another chapter in our history of taking that tells an essential story that should keep being told.”

— Chad Jones, Theater Dogs

See slideshow of scenes

 
“Working on a unit set by Bailey Hikawa with lighting by Stephanie Anne Johnson and sound by Kevin Myrick,  the stage was dominated by a large sculpture made of plastic balls which, when bathed in different colors by Johnson’s impressive lighting design, almost seemed to quiver with life.”  “Dr. Stephanie Anne Johnson, an African American member of TheatreFirst’s Board of Directors who, as a theatre artist and cancer survivor, was especially proud to be part of this deeply moving world premiere.”  See complete article>

— George Haymont – New Works from Female Playwrights, My Cultural Landscape - May, 2017

​To The Bone - written by Lisa Ramirez, Director: Michael Socrates Moran, Set Designer: Giulio Cesare Perrone, Set Designer and Builder: Marcel Castanchoa, Ubuntu Theater, 2017 Season.

​When you are unseen, how can you seek justice? When you don't have a voice, how can you defend your rights? Diving into one of the most explosive conversations of the American political landscape, TO THE BONE follows five undocumented immigrant women struggling to survive the harsh realities of life at an East Coast poultry factory. The limitations of friendship, family bonds, dignity and dreams are put to the test in this timely, textured drama from Lisa Ramirez (EXIT CUCKOO - nanny in motherland, Ubuntu Theater Project 2016).

"A tight and thrilling show... every moment captivating"  — Theatrius
"Impressive in the truest sense" — Berkeley Daily Planet
"Subtle and sure... demands that the invisible world of immigrant workers be  seen"  — KQED

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Lighting design by Stephanie Anne Johnson for To The Bone

Shown here, a video montage of lighting cues for the show.

REVIEW: “To The Bone Hits Home at Ubuntu Theater, Oakland. The striking and innovative lighting by Stephanie Anne Johnson make the bare circle into an effective theater in the round.”

​ — Robert Gardner – Theatrius - June 4, 2017

​
​Classic Black

June, 2015
S.F. International Arts Festival
Southside Theater, San Francisco
Performed by Brian Freeman and Devorah Major

Written by Devorah Major
Directed by Ellen Sebastian Chang
Music composed by Destiny Muhammad
Lighting and Projection design by Stephanie Anne Johnson

“Ellen Sebastian-Chang directs Third SF Poet Laureate and performance poet Devorah Major’s Classic Black featuring the author and actor/poet Brian Freeman with musical accompaniment of the acclaimed Destiny Muhammad Trio. Classic Black uses a series of persona poems and stories to have 19th century African-Americans tell their own stories of struggle and survival in pre-Civil War San Francisco. Freedom fighter Mary Ellen Pleasant, carriage house owner, political powerhouse George Washington Dennis, and escaped enslaved African Archy Lee are among the characters who tell their own stories. This is a world premiere of the work that turns poetry into theater, history into pleasure.”

​The Island is an anti-apartheid play written by Athol Fugard in 1973. The characters are two imprisoned men who perform their version of Antigone.  Danny Glover and Carl Lumbly performed this TheatreFirst fundraising event in 2016 . It was directed by Delroy Lindo with stage directions read by Leontyne Mbele-Mbong. Lighting Design by Stephanie Anne Johnson.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Aimee Suzara
Performer, Playwright, Educator

“Stephanie Johnson provided lighting design for my theatrical project, A HISTORY OF THE BODY. Bringing decades of experience in theater, and an impeccable eye, her designs are beautiful and thoughtful; she literally, and figuratively, "lit up" my production and the actors and dancers in it. But more importantly, Stephanie was and is positive, compassionate, and a committed presence in the collaborative team." ​

Allen Lam
Sound Designer

“I've worked on a zillion shows with Stephanie. She's the best lighting designer ever. Period.”

Kathy Perkins
Professor and Lighting Designer

“Stephanie Johnson is an outstanding and talented lighting designer. There is richness to her designs, great contrast, as well as clarity. Her work is innovative, daring and exciting. ... It is invaluable to work with such an illuminating artist, leader and spirit. She helps me remember that anything is possible... She has designed lighting locally, nationally, and globally. I strongly recommend her as a designer who can work with anyone, anywhere in the world.”

SCENES FROM EARLIER WORKS

​The Breach
​Produced by Cultural Odyssey.  Performers: Idris Ackamoor, Rhodessa Jones, Johanna Haigood -- Buriel Clay Theater, San Francisco, CA - 2010

Unsing The Song
Performed by Anne Bluenthenthal and Dancers at Theater Artaud, San Francisco, CA 2006
Projection and lighting design by Stephanie Anne Johnson

REVIEW: "….its blood red backdrop alternating with projected images of shoes and bones, amidst streams of asymmetrical white cloth torn like shrouds hung-out-to-dry add to the immense emotional impact of the evening…." — Linda Ayres-Frederick, San Francisco Bay Times  -- The Healing Arts: Speaking The Unspeakable, Surviving Genocide, Unsing The Song, March 2006

Jesus Christ Superstar
Director -- Rufus Collins, Gent, Belgium --1984

REVIEW: " 1. "Mainly the setting is made by the smart and brilliant lighting."  2. "While the whiplashes from 1 to 39 are being counted, the light slowly changes from white to dark red so that the mass of people in front of the gate start to look more frightening." — Anita Lowenhardt, De Trouw  -- Rufus Collins' Makes a Rock Opera Into a Punk Opera Amsterdam, Holland, November, 1984

The Kingdom
Director -- Rufus Collins,  Amsterdam, Holland — 1985