Lighting designer, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis
By Kevin M. Mitchell
Photograph by Dilip Vishwanat
As the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis celebrates its 40th season, Peter Sargent stands quietly in the shadows, lighting the world of the imagination. Dean of the Leigh Gerdine College of Fine Arts at Webster University, he is also head of stage management and lighting designer for the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and he, too, is celebrating his 40th season; he’s been with the Rep since day one. It all started in 1966, when a connection at Yale, where he earned an MFA, got him a gig at what was then Webster College. Sargent promised his young wife that they’d only spend two years here ...
You didn’t leave. Why not? The job never got boring. What happens between the Rep, the opera and Webster is nationally unique and nationally significant. One of the best things for me is the ability to cross over from professional theater to opera and then to teaching. It really is rather amazing, because there’s no other place I know of that shares those things.
Imagine we’re at a cocktail party: “What does a lighting designer do?” My joke is “I turn lights on and off.” They say, “Oh.” But that’s essentially what I do. The art of designing lights is to not be noticed. You have to contribute to the environment of a play without intruding.
What’s your favorite part of the job? Tech rehearsals; the interchange I have with the director and production staff, all of us working to create the moment. It’s absolutely frightening—but exhilarating. Theater is all about collaboration, and when you get everyone in that space in that one instance, it’s wonderful.
High points? An early high point was Of Mice and Men [1972], then 1940s Radio Hour [1984], Little Shop of Horrors [1985], Sweeney Todd [1997] and The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? [2003]. Something becomes a favorite when you’ve had a positive collaborative experience. You’re working as part of a creative team to bring the text to the stage, and you can never predict how that’s going to go. It’s not just having the most talented people in a certain field; a lot of it is chemistry.
And ... low points? The time the stars didn’t align was the year before Steve [Woolf] became artistic director. That season rings low points—even though it was the year we first did Of Mice and Men.
Tell us about Urinetown, opening November 15 in the Off-Ramp series. It’s a musical about people having to pay to ... er ... go to the bathroom. How’s that going to play in St. Louis? I first saw the show on Broadway because the original stage manager, Julia P. Jones, was a Webster grad. I enjoyed it tremendously. It’s a good tongue-in-cheek musical that is quite witty—and has a terrible title.
How are you going to light it? It’s an edgy piece, and I expect that it will have a lot of strong color, a lot of white and steel blue. It’s an angular piece, and the lighting needs to reflect that. It needs a composed type of lighting. But it’ll be a fun piece to light because of the humor.
Does the Rep serve St. Louis well, and vice versa? I’m prejudiced, but yes. I think the thing about St. Louis is, we don’t know how strong the Rep is. It’s a nationally significant theater. One of the most remarkable things that St. Louis should feel good about is the Off-Ramp season. Nationally, audiences are declining, yet the Rep was bold enough to add an entire season of plays.
So is the theater community in St. Louis healthy? I was shocked at the Kevin Kline Awards: I sat there and counted to 24—that’s 24 professional theater companies in St. Louis! That’s pretty healthy.
Why does lighting affect us so powerfully onstage? Part of the answer is the technology, which is allowing us to do things we couldn’t even think of doing 10 years ago. We’re keeping up with the visual activity people are used to, the barrage of images on TV and movie screens, the quick cuts. Our eyes are used to being active—and technology’s allowing us to bring that to theater without having it be distracting.
Is there more pressure these days to razzle-dazzle the audience, to mimic cinema? Yes, but it depends on what the play is about. The difference between the first and second shows this season is a good example. Of Mice and Men took on a more ambient look; Ace requires a more stunning visual approach.
How is technology affecting your work? The exciting thing is, we’re getting better instruments and sources and more control. But there’s a difference in approach to regional theater as opposed to commercial. With regional theater, you can focus on enhancing storytelling. With commercial theater, you sometimes get incredible productions in which the technology is larger than life—to the productions’ detriment.
Is St. Louis, as a city, well-lit? It has its high points. You can’t help notice what a remarkable piece of architecture the Equitable Building is. With the outside made of mirrors, it really reflects the skyline.
