Jean Rosenthal
{{Short description|American lighting designer}}
File:Horse-Eats-Hat-36-Jean-Rosenthal.jpg production Horse Eats Hat (1936)]]
{{about|the lighting designer|the translator|Jean Rosenthal (translator)}}
Jean Rosenthal (born Eugenia Rosenthal; March 16, 1912{{snd}}May 1, 1969){{Cite book |last=Owen |first=Bobbi |url=http://archive.org/details/broadwaydesignro0000owen |title=The Broadway Design Roster: Designers and their Credits |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-313-31915-0 |location=Westport |pages=392}} is considered a pioneer in the field of theatrical lighting design. She was born in New York City to Romanian-Jewish immigrants.{{cite web|url=http://www.northern.edu/wild/jr.htm |title=Jean Rosenthal biography |access-date=2009-05-20 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020824231526/http://www.northern.edu/wild/jr.htm |archive-date=August 24, 2002 }} northern.edu, retrieved May 20, 2009Fippin, Carol.[http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/rosenthal-jean Biography]Jewish Women's Archive, 2005, accessed May 24, 2009
In the early part of the 20th century, the lighting designer was not a formalized position; the set designer or electrician handled the lighting of a production. Rosenthal helped make the lighting designer an integral member of the design team. She also said that lighting "was a career in itself".Dunning, Jennifer.[https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/27/arts/lighting-the-way-into-a-sense-of-space.html "Lighting The Way Into A Sense Of Space"],The New York Times, October 27, 1996 As well as particular lighting innovations, she created an atmosphere specific to the production, and she was in demand as a Broadway lighting designer.[http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/theatre_topics/v007/7.1boone.html Boone, Mary Callahan, "Jean Rosenthal's Light: Making Visible the Magician"],Theatre Topics, March 1997, pp. 77-92
Career and education
File:Horse-Eats-Hat-45.jpg during a rehearsal of Horse Eats Hat at Maxine Elliott's Theatre (1936)]]
In 1929, Rosenthal was introduced to Martha Graham at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. She became Graham's technical assistant, which led to a lifelong collaboration with Graham. She worked with Graham on 36 productions.Freedman, Russell., Martha Graham, a dancer's life (1998), Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, {{ISBN|0-395-74655-8}}, p. 106 Rosenthal studied lighting design at the Yale School of Drama from 1931 to 1934 with Stanley McCandless and George Pierce Baker.{{Cite news |date=1964-07-08 |title=A Woman's Touch Is Lighting Broadway Stages; Jean Rosenthal Has Served the Theater Since 1930's |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/07/08/archives/a-womans-touch-is-lighting-broadway-stages-jean-rosenthal-has.html |access-date=2024-08-07 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite magazine |last=Sargeant |first=Winthrop |date=1956-01-27 |title=PLEASE, DARLING, BRING THREE TO SEVEN. |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1956/02/04/please-darling-bring-three-to-seven |access-date=2024-08-07 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}
She returned to New York City, where she joined the Federal Theatre Project in 1935. This led to collaborations with Orson Welles and John Houseman. She later followed them to the Mercury Theatre, where she was credited as a member of the board in addition to production and lighting manager, although not as lighting designer.
She was lighting designer for hundreds of productions, including numerous Broadway shows, Martha Graham's dances, the New York City Ballet, and the Metropolitan Opera.{{Cite news |date=August 9, 1967 |title=Metropolitan Opera Gives Lighting Post To Jean Rosenthal |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/08/09/90389496.html |access-date=2024-08-07 |work=The New York Times |language=en |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite journal |last=Boone |first=Mary Callahan |date=1997 |title=Jean Rosenthal's Light: Making Visible the Magician |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/35172 |journal=Theatre Topics |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=77–92 |doi=10.1353/tt.1997.0001 |issn=1086-3346}} On Broadway she lit musicals such as West Side Story (1957), The Sound of Music (1959), Take Me Along (1959), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Fiddler on the Roof (1964), Hello, Dolly! (1964), Cabaret (1966), and The Happy Time (1968).
Contributions
Some of her major contributions were the elimination of shadows by using flood lights from upstage positions and controlling angles and mass of illumination to create contrasts without shadows.{{cite news |last= |first= |date=May 2, 1969 |title=Jean Rosenthal Dies Here at 57 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/05/02/archives/jean-rosenthal-dies-here-at-57-designer-of-theatrical-lighting.html |work=The New York Times |location= |access-date=January 29, 2023}}
"Some of the signature lighting she did for Balanchine and the diagonal shaft of light she created for Graham (lovingly referred to by her as 'Martha's Finger of God'), are now in such widespread use by dance companies of every style that they have become standards of the lighting repertoire."West, Martha.[https://archive.today/20120708214324/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1083/is_n2_v70/ai_17878931/pg_2/?tag=content;col1 The light fantastic],Dance Magazine, February 1996
''The Magic of Light''
Jean Rosenthal's book, The Magic of Light: The Craft and Career of Jean Rosenthal, Pioneer in Lighting for the Modern Stage, (Little Brown & Co, {{ISBN|0-316-93120-9}}) was published posthumously in 1972. Lael Wertenbaker assembled the book, a long-running project between her and Rosenthal, from tape-recorded dictation sessions.[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316931209 listing] amazon.com
The book begins with an autobiography, and goes on to detail the history of illumination, and methods for lighting plays, musicals, operas, and the house. It later details theatrical lighting equipment in use at the time of its publication. The Magic of Light concludes with samples of Rosenthal's paperwork (light plots, hookups, and focus charts), and a list of her lighting credits.{{Cite book|title=The Magic of Light|last=Rosenthal|first=Jean and Lael Wertenbaker|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|year=1972|location=Boston}}{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Robert Lewish |date=May 1975 |title=Book Review: The Magic of Light: The Craft and Career of Jean Rosenthal, Pioneer in Lighting for the Modern Stage |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_tdt-theatre-design-technology_1973-05_33/page/n59/mode/2up?q=%22jean+rosenthal%22 |journal=Theatre Design & Technology |issue=33 |pages=61–62 |via=Internet Archive}}
Death
On May 1, 1969, she died of ovarian cancer at the age of 57.{{Cite web |last=Bowker |first=Brittany |date=2019-07-10 |title='Lighting by Jean Rosenthal' |url=https://www.mvtimes.com/2019/07/10/lighting-jean-rosenthal/ |access-date=2024-08-07 |website=The Martha's Vineyard Times |language=en-US}} Rosenthal shared her apartment and her vacation home on Martha's Vineyard with lighting designer Marion Kinsella; for a period of time, she also lived with another lighting designer, Nananne Porcher.{{Citation |last=Chipman |first=Jay Scott |title=A Lifetime in Light: Jean Rosenthal's Careers, Collaborations, and Commitments to Women |date=2002 |work=Staging Desire |pages=365–390 |editor-last=Marra |editor-first=Kim |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.11520.18 |access-date=2024-08-07 |series=Queer Readings of American Theater History |publisher=University of Michigan Press |doi=10.3998/mpub.11520 |jstor=10.3998/mpub.11520 |isbn=978-0-472-06749-7 |editor2-last=Schanke |editor2-first=Robert A.}}
References
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External links
- {{IBDB name|25879}}
- [http://www3.northern.edu/wild/jr.htm Jean Rosenthal, 1912-1969 by Larry Wild, Northern State University] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090611003551/http://www.northern.edu/wild/jr.htm |date=2009-06-11 }}
- [http://thelightingarchive.org/archive.php The Lighting Archive, online examples of Jean Rosenthal light plots, hookups, shop orders, cue sheets and focus charts]
- [http://archives.nypl.org/the/22711 Jean Rosenthal professional files, 1954-1970 (bulk 1961-1969)], held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
{{Authority control}}
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Category:American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
Category:American lighting designers
Category:Artists from New York City
Category:Yale University alumni