Of madmen and geniuses, the magic of light

"Lighting affects everything light falls. As you see, what you see, how you feel
on it, and how to listen to what you hear. Replace the "A" with an "e" and you get lighting effects! Jean Rosenthal

While the world celebrated choreographer George Balanchine Centennial in 2004, the little woman who has turned his work for over 20 years has remained an ethereal whisper behind the scenes. Jean Rosenthal examines the American stage, with the mastery of their art and magic oftheir art. A futurist and innovator, who was my older cousin and mentor.

After three years at Yale University School of Drama, Jeannie was about to make history. During the mid-1930s, his years with John Houseman, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater apprentice is entitled "Lighting Designer" does not exist until it has invented. By the early 1950s was the most sought after lighting designers in America and Europe. Angela Lansbury told her: "I remember how I felt every time I movedJean had created the atmosphere of light for me ... until the last place on my face, rainbow, and I was grateful for the cover of darkness to hide her tears. "

At the age of forty-three Jeannie hundreds of Broadway shows, operas and New York City Ballet productions had in their account, would affect all forms of theater with its revolutionary lighting technology and fresh artistic style. In its most creative, if the lighting of the dancers, Jeannie maintained a permanent collaboration with joyfulMartha Graham. At first, when his mentor, Orson Welles was asked to come with him to Hollywood to produce Citizen Kane, Jeannie had hit the hardest decision of his life. Think of Goliath against the girl elf. It 'was the buzz around the dinner table when I have to pee in my pants. Years later, at a meeting of the Rosenthal family home in Martha's Vineyard, Jeannie, is how difficult it was for them to say no was to Welles. Memory often eludes me, it is clear that the memoryand clear.

"The Colossus was a madman with his charisma and strength to resist, not" said Jeannie. But most thought it was impossible for her to leave the theater. After the fourth or fifth time Orson asked her to come to Los Angeles, he prayed he would stop to ask. "When she heard that I was praying, I'm sorry." They do not have. As unconventional as the man is the way last films, Jeannie shared in common with him who was his personal motto: "I passionatelyI hate the idea with her, I think that an artist should not always be in line with his time, Orson Welles.

As a passionate and just as brave, was pint-sized Jeannie's heartbeat to Broadway and beyond. Maria Callas called "his magician." Martha Graham could not imagine life without them. George Balanchine controls everything and everyone with his collection of dance divas, the three he married Vera Zorina, Maria Tallchief, TanaquilLeclerq ... and it does not, Suzanne Farrell. But when his four temperaments and opened a flop because they consume drops European saved, Jeannie is at the heart of the city with its "less is more" blue cyclorama lights and unique. An immediate success, it remains one of the four temperaments New York City Ballet and Balanchine repertory ever be another production without them. Despite the monumental egos of these madmen and geniuses, my feisty cousin a big step forward.

Whilethe golden age of American theater, the 1930 to 1960 (I think), as Jeannie is also the happiest person in the world. In his words, "at length in a time when Martha Graham was creating and Lincoln Kirstein was supported by George Balanchine to create new jobs and fresh form of ballet come." Many of their designs are used today. Their plots have been adapted for changing technology, but their original concepts and cue the same ranking. Plaza Suite, "directed by a young MikeNichols, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Barefoot in the Park, Judy Garland At The Palace, John Gielgud Hamlet, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret to take more than 300 productions of the credit line, "Lighting by Jean Rosenthal.

Although Jeannie saw the world with huge blue eyes, the dwarf was pulling a load of five times its weight. From Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera, Theatre Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut, in the Dorothy Chandler PavilionLos Angeles and Dallas Civic Opera, was their beam of light. And the actress Mary Martin, it was always pink jelly. Fresh and spontaneous like a child blowing bubbles, Jeannie has inspired everyone around her with their intuition delicious ". If you change your way of seeing things, things you look at change" This way of thinking profoundly influenced my life . Although some would follow in their footsteps, that fate had other plans for me.

I do not know yet, a Fresnel lens from aKliege lamp. The technical aspects of some papers focus Jeannie's Hello Dolly are synonymous with quantum mechanics. An engineer and a designer, Jeannie created magic with their subtle use of gel with the light and the absence of light. The deep color washes away from the rear and side, are the artists of light that surrounded them made jewelry. Some of their complicated plots hook-up tables, cue sheet and lighting are resulting in the Wisconsin Historical SocietyArchive of the University of Wisconsin and the research archives of the Lincoln Center, New York.

Have respect for their inherent history to give the Europeans in showing the boundary of the sound and light? The French are quick to remind us, invented the form, in early 1950. Jeannie was appalled by the lack of inspiration in the American architectural lighting. While Europeans revered historical sites, the Americans, their history Blase, tends to ignore or replace them withParking. In 1964 she was asked, a light and sound for the Boscobel Restoration in Garrison, New York to create. At that time, was the family of Wallace Reader's Digest of the Hudson building, now a museum. He wanted to Boscobel for example for the other aristocrats of the Hudson River and the houses of the surrounding countryside to be included in the rich American history and the different quality of light on canvas by artists of the Hudson River School.

Jeannie gathered the best technicians and artistssociety, including the director John Houseman and actor Gary Merrill and Helen Hayes. Together they created the atmosphere and the rhythm of time and place in the lives of peasants Hardy Dutch sailors mouth before the Half Moon, the war on the country, is booming cannon West Point on the river and the pretty villa Boscobel same. He used computer technology state-of-the-art for its time, described in detail in his book, the magic of light, which he wrote with LaelWertenbaker. Published in 1972 by Little, Brown and Company, three years after his death, the book now out of print, the bible of the student designs.

While Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller have been converted to the drama of the twentieth century theater, Jean Rosenthal has revolutionized the lighting design. theatrical and architectural lighting of today have evolved from their original storylines, control panels and ideas. And even though she had little time for anything in his life, butThere was free theater tickets for me at the door, free makeup kit for my school play, lunch often my favorite restaurants - Schrafft's Restaurant and the machine. I was the only child in William Howard Taft High School, Maria Tallchief and George Balanchine to Igor Stravinsky got to see "Firebird" from the center of the orchestra, the seventh row on the aisle. Performance remains the most exciting of my life.

In 1969, when my cousin was sick in his hospital bed, too weak to hold a pen,dictated his book in his tape recorder. At the time I was working abroad and could not be with her. I had written about my encounter with the Touring Igor Stravinsky in the house of our ambassador in Tokyo, Japan. When I shook hands with Stravinsky, I cried, "I'm cousin Jean Rosenthal. With a red face, I wanted to go beyond the next screen. But the champion threw his arms around me, the mother of all bear hugs. I could not move. "Oh my leetle Jeen," he shouted and pushed theBlow me. "I luff. She's my vondaful Firebird." I like the idea of my letter gave her a good laugh.

After the premature death of cancer Jeannie, the following icon to this request for quotation on board their next book to be printed: "I loved Jean, I work, the worship of their presence I have not seen enough of her, curled up because it was usually with the technician. Design people. But the little that I wanted to see her was a constant joy, refreshment and inspiration. "-LeonardBernstein

If the lighting design progressed, when Jeannie Welles went to Hollywood? Sure. But designers of their generation, focused on art, while she was an artist, engineer and visionary whose influence on life. In a recent performance of The Lion King while fascinated by the magic of designer Donald Holder and Julie Taymor, I was still aware of a whispering ethereal family behind the scenes. Genius can never die.