Theatre Production: Design Program Prepares Hope Debelius '22 to Shine as a Professional Lighting Designer Alumni Profile
Meet Hope Debelius '22
- Job Title & Employer
- Freelance Lighting Designer
- Major/Program
- Theatre Production: Design
- College Activities
- Lighting design for student-produced theatre and dance productions
- Hometown
- Hampstead, Md.
- High School
- Manchester Valley High School
- Hobbies & Interests
- Reading, watching horror movies and TV shows, exploring new restaurants and bars, listening to music, spending time with family and friends
"I chose to study theatre production: design because of the program's many opportunities. Being able to volunteer to design student productions, in addition to any production assignments I was given as part of the curriculum, gave me a way to customize and increase the amount of experience I was gaining each semester."
Why did you choose Point Park University for your major?
I chose Point Park University to study theatre production: design because of the program's many opportunities. Being able to volunteer to design student productions, in addition to any assignments I was given as part of the curriculum, gave me a way to customize and increase the amount of experience I was gaining each semester. There were always productions — like the One Act Festival and Student Choreography Project — that allowed me to work on my lighting design skills on an intimate, collaborative level with other students who were just as excited to learn and work on their craft.
Which faculty members and courses had a significant impact on you?
The faculty member who had the most significant impact on me was Cat Wilson, who taught all the lighting design courses I took during my last three years at Point Park. Cat shared her love of lighting with me from the start. Learning from someone who is so passionate about their work and wants to share it with her students is an amazing experience and it helped me discover so much about my own design and collaboration style.
Highlight your career path since you graduated from Point Park.
I started receiving job offers from theatre companies around Pittsburgh before I graduated from Point Park. I was the assistant lighting designer on "Murder on the Orient Express" at the Pittsburgh Public Theater during my last semester. My first design job after graduation was designing a show with Prime Stage Theatre, which led to being asked to design several other shows for them that season.
I received offers from Throughline Theatre Company, South Park Theatre and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, and I eventually applied for a job teaching lighting design at Pittsburgh CAPA. I spent the year after graduation teaching at CAPA and designing nearly 20 shows in the Pittsburgh area and assisting on five shows in Pittsburgh, Baltimore and New York.
After a year freelancing and teaching in Pittsburgh, I started the M.F.A. in Lighting Design program at Boston University and will graduate this spring. While living in Boston, I’ve designed shows for the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, the Greater Boston Stage Company and the College of the Holy Cross. During graduate school, I was looking for an internship that would allow me to serve as an assistant lighting designer on different shows in the Boston area, which led to assisting on productions at the Huntington and the American Repertory Theatre (ART).
Tell us about your recent Broadway debut as an assistant lighting designer.
At ART, I assisted on a musical making its U.S. debut, "Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)." The entire team was amazing to work with, and I learned so much throughout the process. In August, I was asked to serve as the assistant lighting designer on the same show as it transferred to the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. I left Boston for a month to move to New York and work on my first Broadway show. It was an amazing, surreal experience that I am so grateful to have been able to have in my life.
You were hired as a professional lighting designer for "Contemporary Choreographers" at Point Park last fall. Tell us more about that.
As the lighting designer, I was responsible for communicating with choreographers to understand their vision for their piece and translating that into a lighting design that enhanced their choreography and the dancers’ movements. I was also in frequent communication with the student stage manager, making sure the lighting cues were called in the correct places and sharing the vision to make things easy to understand and implement. I worked with the staff to ensure the light plot I was using had everything I needed to create four distinct pieces, and the process was very smooth.
What was it like being on campus as a professional?
Being on campus as a professional was very exciting. It’s always fun to meet new students and work with them during productions. I’ve worked as a professional at the Pittsburgh Playhouse since graduating, so I’ve had the opportunity to meet many new students, faculty and staff members. It’s exciting to come back, hear more about the program, see students grow and excel in their art and catch up with everyone.
What advice do you have for a prospective student considering the theatre production program?
The number of opportunities outside of coursework really elevates your experience in the program. There are so many opportunities to volunteer on productions and gain even more experience, which will only help you feel more confident and ready to enter the industry. Take every opportunity you can, and you will come out of the program with more skill and preparedness than you’d ever thought possible.