BYU Senior Explores the Art of Lighting Design From High School Follow Spot to Mainstage Productions
Most theatergoers don’t think twice about the light above them. But for BYU senior Allison Bertasso, every shadow, color and cue is part of the story.
“The most concrete moment that I became interested in lighting design was in the technical theatre class I took as a freshman in high school,” she said. “I came into this class knowing I wanted to do something in the booth — I enjoy working with computers and I wanted to be able to watch the shows while working on them. From there it was lighting that really clicked, and that winter I worked my first show running follow spot.”
Since then, Bertasso has grown as a lighting designer at Brigham Young University, shaping the stories audiences experience one cue at a time. Her work has appeared in productions ranging from intimate plays to large-scale musicals, each one requiring precision, creativity and collaboration.
Lighting design begins long before opening night. “The process can vary a little bit from designer to designer and production to production, but it always starts with the script,” Bertasso said. “Understanding the story being told, getting to know the characters and understanding what they are feeling as they experience the story, and how the audience is meant to react to those characters” are the first steps in her process. She explained that her work depends on aligning with the director’s vision. “Sometimes the answers to those questions can vary widely for the same script depending on how the director wants to tell the story, so getting in their head and understanding the director’s vision is just as important.”
As rehearsals progress, she creates a light plot, mapping where every fixture will hang and what it will illuminate. “During this process I also create a cue list, which is a list of every look and change in the lighting that I want to happen throughout the show,” she said. “Smaller plays may only have a few cues; larger ones have a few hundred.” Once rehearsals reach the final week, Bertasso programs each cue into the lighting board, balancing timing, color and intensity to bring the show to life.
Although some seasoned designers develop signature looks, Bertasso sees herself as still exploring. “I do particularly enjoy working with interesting shadow textures and saturated colors,” she said. Her work at BYU has provided a range of opportunities to experiment and grow. She was assistant designer on “The Secret Garden” (Fall 2023) before taking the lead on productions like “Men on Boats” (Fall 2024) and “High School Musical” (Spring 2025). She is currently designing “She Loves Me” (opening in November) and “Twelfth Night” (opening in March).
“‘Men on Boats’ was a really fun project to work on because we had an all-female cast and design team,” she said. “That production was also a lot of fun to light because I got to figure out how to make the stage look like water when they were on the river.” Beyond her individual projects, Bertasso values the collaborative environment of BYU’s theatre program. “One of my favorite things about working on any production at BYU is reporting,” she said. “Every week on Friday, the student designers for all of the shows currently in production get together to talk about our progress and to be one another’s sounding board as we navigate both design and communication struggles throughout the process of bringing a production to life.”
For Bertasso, lighting is a medium for storytelling. “The lighting design is a critical part of any production,” she said. “Beyond visibility, it places the audience in the world and offers emotional context. A shift in color can often flip a scene from happy to sad all on its own, but if I do my job right you will rarely notice what I’m doing to help tell the story.”