Episode 58: Erica Maholmes
Erica Maholmes 0:00
Music.
Rachel Kobus 0:09
Welcome to Redbird buzz. I'm Rachel Kobus from alumni engagement. Today, we are thrilled to have Erica Lauren Maholmes, an accomplished lighting designer, storyteller and technician whose work has illuminated stages across the country and beyond. From Broadway to regional theaters, Erica has designed and assisted at prestigious institutions like Steppenwolf Theater Company, Alley Theater and Trinity Repertory Company. Her portfolio has even been showcased internationally at the Prague Quadrennial, and she was recently featured in collected light volume, three women in entertainment lighting. A 2022, Master of Fine Arts alum from the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts at Illinois State. Erica's journey has been shaped by a commitment to artistry and advocacy. She has served on the executive board of design action, working to advance equity for BIPOC designers in theater. Whether mastering the technical side of stage lighting or shaping new work as a design wing fellow, Erica brings a wealth of experience and insight to the world of live performance.
So let's give a Redbird buzz welcome to the beaming Erica Lauren maholmes, So Erica, what's the word redbird? Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Erica Maholmes 1:16
Hey, Redbirds. I am a theatrical lighting designer, Assistant, associate, all of the above. I'm based in Kansas City, but I travel for work right now. I'm in New York City. I spend a lot of time in Chicago. I just did a show in Oregon, which was so much fun because it's beautiful out there. Weekend off so you can go hiking, because they love the state out there in
Rachel Kobus 1:39
Oregon, love it. And you're in New York can you say while you're in New York City right now, what are you doing?
Erica Maholmes 1:47
in New York City, assisting on the new Broadway musical Just in Time, the Bobby Darin musical featuring Jonathan Groff.
Rachel Kobus 1:54
Oh I love it. I was we talked a little before I hit record, and I thought, oh, so jealous. I would love to see Jonathan on stage. So how long does the show? How long do you do that kind of show? Then are you on with it? Yeah,
Erica Maholmes 2:06
I'm usually on for about eight weeks on show of this size. Um, it's about that. For this one, I got here March 3. I'll leave april 26 to come to, oh, yeah, you come to Normal,
Rachel Kobus 2:17
I know. And we'll talk a little bit more about that. So, Erica, again, thank you for being here, knowing that your schedule is very hectic, being in New York working with Broadway, and like I said, we'll talk a little bit more about your professional career as a lighting designer. So that makes me want to get started with what drew you to lighting design.
Erica Maholmes 2:36
What's fun about lighting design is that I didn't start there. I went to Westchester University of Pennsylvania, just outside of Philly for undergrad, and I was a musical theater major. I wanted to do musicals in like any capacity that I could. I stitched corsets, I painted sets, oh yeah, I held the screw gun. Not well, but I did it, and it was a full service program, so in order to graduate, you had to do everything. You had to run the soundboard, you had to be the Usher and switch the corset, yeah, and lighting fit into my schedule really perfectly, because it didn't matter when you did it. It just mattered that the work got done. So they wanted all of the lights hung on a pipe in order by color. I could do that. I could, on my hour, go up, do the whole thing and get my credit. So I did that every semester, for a bunch of semesters, okay, ended up master electrician in a lot of shows coming in to fill in, when people were like, Oh no, I have an audition in Philly. Can you come fill in and do this? This, I mean, track for today. So I would do that. [Very cool.] My final year, they asked if I wanted to design a show, which was terrifying, as somebody who hadn't designed a show, never teach back to works, didn't know any of them, yeah, need the stuff. So I designed the show. It was so much fun, so stressful, and it won a ton of awards. I went to the Kennedy Center with it. I won the regional award for our region. Wow. I got a scholarship to go to Vegas and study at Cirque du Soleil, which was incredible, my gosh. And then I got a grad school offer while I was at the Kennedy center. Was like, I guess this is what I do now.
Rachel Kobus 4:32
This is my calling. Well, I feel like, after all those experiences, that is a true calling. Like, stroked your positive face real well. Like, yep, you keep doing you then with this. So that's amazing, and the fact that you mean this the travel you got to do in undergrad and then ended up at Illinois State University. So and because you got your Masters of Fine Arts at Illinois State University. So how did your experience at ISU then shape your approach to lighting design and continue to prepare you for that? A career in the industry.
Erica Maholmes 5:02
Totally. It's perfect segue, because I came to ISU without a lot of experience. I only planned one show. I was primarily an electrician, and I was being asked to design all these shows, which was amazing. So I really cut my teeth at ISU. I did everything. I came in behind. So like all the other grad students have been using Vectorworks and lightright, and then they know all the tools. I did catch up hard and fast that first year, and was finding every opportunity that I could to work right? Yeah. So I designed some free stage shows. I got in trouble for designing some free stage shows, because you weren't supposed to do that without asking
Rachel Kobus 5:43
whoever you are. Now, it helped, right?
Erica Maholmes 5:49
I assisted the other grad students any chance I could get. So I ended up graduating from ISU designing 13 plays, musicals, operas and concerts. I assisted on four I was the master electrician on eight, and I designed over 90 dance pieces in my time. No big deal. Also working as a carpenter during the day, an electrician, the concert hall lighting supervisor and the CPA main stage lighting shop supervisor. Wow, that was so much stuff so fast, and you really learn a lot when you're trying to do things that fast. You make a lot of mistakes. I learned the hard way about LED tape and its ratings. There's this, like, shiny plastic coating that comes on LED tape. Okay, I like, bright eyed and eager. I was like, let's just peel it off. It's reflecting. Let's peel it off. And that degrades the IP rating of the tape. So sometimes you make big mistakes. Okay, that's fine. They didn't have quite the consequences you would have out here in the real world, but yeah,
Rachel Kobus 6:58
so it's a good thing to make the mistakes while you're going that's the whole part of education, is figure out the mistakes and learn from it. So when it, when it really, truly counts, it can be a make or break for your career. Mm, hmm, that was not to do it. So, you know, at ISU, then can you share maybe one of your most memorable or most challenging projects that kind of got you going once you graduated, or something that just stuck with you, that, I mean, you're kind of shared one experience of a learning moment, but maybe something that a memorable moment, then too. Yeah,
Erica Maholmes 7:30
the last show that I designed at ISU was called Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, and it was an entirely white set, which is terrifying as a lighting designer, because white reflects everything right? Like you can't get a true blackout. You can't ever go dark. So it was really scary for me at the time, but it just meant that all of a sudden, I had a full stage canvas to paint with color. So instead of it being like this dreary, spooky, like shadowy show that I had envisioned before. We had this all white set. It ended up being this really colorful Alice in Wonderland, like fever dream of a show instead, which was, like, a great learning experience. And like, Okay, now we have to pivot. We talked about all this stuff, and now we have to pivot. There's no other way to proceed. Yeah, yeah. Well,
Rachel Kobus 8:25
and you know, I guess you know, going through some of my questions, this kind of leads me into, how do you become that storyteller, or help tell the story through lights? Then too, I think this is a great segue into that, where you you know, we have the actors on stage that you know are what people I think look at the most obviously in costumes and set design. But I think people take for granted the lights, until you start hearing something like the the background that goes into and the thought that goes into them. So how do you feel that story come to light? When it light come to life, the lights
Erica Maholmes 9:06
totally like. The first things that you learn is that, like, you're there to make the people look beautiful. You're there to make the stuff look beautiful when it's not right. Like we did this show called Bowman Gilead, when I was there, if we put the audience on the stage. It was this, like, immersive piece set in this grimy diner, right? So the people weren't supposed to look beautiful. They weren't supposed to look sickly and yellow. So we had all these lights with, like, slightly green tints and slightly yellow tints to make them look jaundice. The angle was a little steeper to make their eyes look a little sunken. But you're thinking about all these things of like, do we need to make the actors look beautiful? Do we want the audience to feel a little unsettled? How? How do we want people to feel when they come into this space and when they see the show?
Rachel Kobus 9:53
Yeah, and again, just, how amazing. Just this is where I tell everyone when you go see any type of live performance, whether. It's a concert, a show on Broadway, a show at Illinois State, a play, a musical, a music concert, an Opera Orchestra. Pay attention to the lights around you, too. I mean, just thinking about as and again, I know this isn't you, but watching the lights go down and getting ready for the lights on stage to go up, it just makes you go. It's time, and it sets you right there. And it's the lights that really start a show, typically, too. Before anyone comes out, it's what light's going to happen first. Yeah, so I just find that, you know, don't take the lights for granted, for sure. Um, and so, you know, you've worked in a variety of capacities, a designer, a technician, you talk, you know, a carpenter, electrician, working as an assistant. So how these roles shaped your approach now to lighting design, to figuring out that story working in these different capacities?
Erica Maholmes 10:48
Yeah, so it changes the it changed the a lot the way that I communicate with people, and the types of collaborators that are really exciting to me, like I like to look at the work that people are doing and see how they integrate, like lights and set together. Or if everybody's siloed, it can feel a little isolating when you look at something and you're like, oh, that set piece is lighting up, and then the actor can, like, interact with that. That was a conversation that, like, all of those people had to have, or we did a production of Gaad, G, A, A, D section point at ISU that involved a lot of collaboration with the costume department. We had these glowing center chess pieces that, like, represented their soul. Yeah. What involved doing some like, we called it heart surgery. It was their their little heart piece. So I was like, in there, digging into the costumes, popping off things, and, like, soldering the wires back together and then giving it back to see if it'll scan the costume, if the actor can operate the buttons Correct. Yeah, that's amazing. The kind of projects that are really exciting to me. Yeah,
Rachel Kobus 12:01
well, and it's funny, you know now, going back to what you did in undergrad, the fact that you had to be in an immersive program where you had no costume scenery lights, all that it makes sense, because it all comes together. They all overlap each other. So to understand how costumes would look under lights, and how to put lights into costumes, how lights affect the scenery, and how the paint on the scenery can affect the lighting. So you having that experience coming to Illinois State to then just grow the lighting portion of that experience makes sense why you're doing what you're doing Erica, and where you're at right now, in the middle of Times Square. No big deal. I'm just going to keep saying that. So you know, again, speaking of Times Square. You've worked in a lot of major theaters across the country, Steppenwolf in Chicago, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, obviously on Broadway. What's been a standout experience for you?
Erica Maholmes 12:51
Ooh, the the combo of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. My first Broadway show, The Notebook was, I think, kind of a pivotal career show for me, because I'd been designing a lot, doing a lot of small storefront shows, some smaller regional shows, and this was my first big musical of that scale, where it like was huge and fast and furious, and it was a totally different skill set. I'd only called Follow spots once or twice before, but it was my first time designing them. We were using this. It's called The Roby ground control system, where all of the follow spots are operated through a computer, so you can put them in like, hard to reach places where you wouldn't want a person to be like, stuffed into a corner for two hours, put the light there, and then they can operate a computer in an air conditioned room somewhere else,
Rachel Kobus 13:50
living the big life then at that point. So,
Erica Maholmes 13:55
but then you're looking at, okay, I need to call this queue a couple of beats ahead, because there's like the delay between me calling the cue, them hearing the cue, and their machine reacting, yeah? Because it's also like a little bit of a delay in their machine. So like thinking about how to call a show, yeah, um, so that the things happen when you want them to happen. So
Rachel Kobus 14:20
when does lighting take so you come into a Broadway show like The Notebook, when do you come in to, you know, from when they're they casted, they're practicing, when does the lighting start taking place? And how long do you typically, I mean, you kind of said you're there for your current show for eight weeks. Is that typical to be like an eight week and be there, or when you start with the show itself, to get the lights ready and do things like call and make sure your time together.
Erica Maholmes 14:47
Yeah, I think eight weeks is a bit of a luxury, like some of the bigger musicals do eight weeks. Some of the other ones do four. I was the associate on Mary Jane at Manhattan Theater Club, which was my second Broadway show. Yeah, and they had four weeks of on site designers, because that was a straight play. Wasn't like this giant musical, but it did have, like, a lot of care to the show, but you had less time because it's a smaller stage, a smaller scale of work.
Rachel Kobus 15:19
Okay, okay, yeah, just curious, because I see, like, how fascinating just to bring all these parts together for any type of show, too. Of you know, it's not just about calling in the actors and choreographers, but the musicians, the scenes, the costumes, the makeup, and when they all start differently, is very fascinating, right?
Speaker 1 15:36
And the lighting designers typically been on a year before they call me, oh, unique designers been on probably six months before then, right? That's insane, like two years ahead of a show. They're also thinking before the show's cast. Yeah? They're thinking about, they're dreaming of, what this what this space looks like, what this play looks like, yeah,
Rachel Kobus 15:56
yeah. No, that makes sense. That's crazy. So, you know, then that leads me into, you know, lighting can be this emotional and atmospheric for all the different plays. It brings them, like we talked about, you know, to light. So how do you approach those different types of performances? So whether it's you've talked about, you did dance recitals at ISU, you've done theater, done opera. So how do you take the emotion, the atmosphere, and approach your lighting designs for all those various different components, I guess based on what the show is? Yeah,
Erica Maholmes 16:32
different shows have different ways of approaching them. So like when you're doing a dance piece, everything is about sculpting the body and making it really clear, like the lines of bodies moving through space. So it's a lot of like side lights, I love a boom in a dance piece, so that you can get the light off of the floor and just sculpting their body. And it feels like they're floating in these big black voids. So or you see the lines of their legs?
Rachel Kobus 17:03
Yes, I love it. So have you done anything, I guess, when it comes to more instrumental too, or are you solely more theater and dance like and does that make a difference then, too, when it comes to more focusing on instruments and lighting up a concert? I guess, in a sense,
Erica Maholmes 17:21
I did a couple of concerts. I was the supervisor at the concert hall at ISU. I did music for the holidays and Firebird concert, which is less less drama, right? It's more like make sure that you can see their faces. Make sure that one is bright and well lit, and you can see their hands, their fingers, and then, like, maybe you can put like a tint of like a snowflake or something for music for the holidays, or you can put like a Goble on the wall for the your bird recital. Maybe you get a red cue, yeah, but
Rachel Kobus 17:57
even just something like that, just it just brings that fun to, you know, a music component where, you know, bring some extra, uh, lifting, I feel like to instruments, but, I mean, think about the lighting just to see everyone's fingers, because how fascinating it is to watch someone play an instrument. So you want to make sure you light up the stage so people can actually see what's going on, versus a dance recital, where you're trying to, like you said, showcase the body and the legs and the muscles and the movements and how, again, still think we take lighting for granted, because how amazing it is that it lifts up the qualities that are needed in each of these shows, too. So kudos to you for sure. Can you talk a little bit about how it's how it was being the assistant lighting designer on the notebook? How did that make you feel when you found out I'm going to get to do The Notebook do because that was your first big Broadway show.
Speaker 1 18:47
It was my first Broadway show. So
Rachel Kobus 18:51
how did that experience make you feel when you found out, all right, I get to go to Broadway.
Erica Maholmes 18:56
It was terrifying at the time. We did the out of town, everybody, it's was like presuming that it was going to go to Broadway, not presuming that's a bad word. They talked about it as if, like this show, could go to Broadway. Okay, yes, yeah. And everyone on the team was from, from New York. They brought in this New York team, except for the three follow spot operators. But the like design team was all from New York, so they were old hat at this. They're professionals. They've done dozens of Broadway shows. And then I was like, This is my first time. And I everything's so scary, I tried my best.
Rachel Kobus 19:44
So then did you get, you know, a better feel for like, did the terror go away eventually?
Oh, yes, okay, once we got into like, probably the third day of tech was like, Okay, I understand how the machine works. I understand how I need to talk to my operators to. Get the outcome that I want. And working with a programmer while the designer is also working with the programmer, is a high stress situation where they are the person in the room, the programmer is the person in the room who everyone wants something from them all the time. Yeah, so you're trying to get time from them. Is an exercise in, like, patient. It's like, a lot of hurry up and wait. Like you're waiting, you're waiting. He's they're programming. They're programming a beat of silence. Okay, go, go, go. My time is now.
Oh, well, see, and you learn stuff like that too. Okay, if I just inch my okay, I'm taking it before someone else jumps in. Uh huh, uh huh. All right, I got it. So I'm glad you mentioned, though, actually, like the terror and getting into that part of your career for someone you know, being younger, obviously. And I have to mention here that you it's a brag moment, right? That you, like you said, are going to be at campus because this year you are Illinois state's Alumni Association 2025, outstanding young alum recipient. And kudos to you. And obviously, just from this conversation Erica, you so well deserved for everything you've done so far. And you know saying that, and having you know you say and be so genuine about being terrified, right? And and having, you know, those learning moments, and then coming out of terror to say, like, I could do this. I'm sure you're not the only one that thinks like that, too. I'm sure anyone breaking into a career, I mean, especially in theater, that's high it's quick, it's high paced, it's high stress. You know, what kind of advice would you give to young designers, especially those maybe from underrepresented groups. Whether it's being a woman, it's being a person of color, you know, someone that may just think of themselves as, I don't know if this is for me. What kind of advice do you give them to say, yes, you can do this. In this field.
Erica Maholmes 21:55
Besides like, yes, you can do this, there's people that are doing what you do poorly, and if they can do that, you can do anything.
Rachel Kobus 22:03
Doesn't echo for every career.
Erica Maholmes 22:06
Find the people that you want to be. I found like the people that I wanted to be in 10 years. And was like, Hi, I'm a recent graduate. I'm a big fan of your career. Can we get coffee? Can we zoom and just talk about, like, how you got to where you are, because I want to be in the seat you're in in 10 years. And people are really gracious with their time and willing to, like, I asked a couple of people if I could come sit in their tech I went to the Bradley King's Water for Elephants on Broadway. And, like, sat there and got to listen on headset while they programmed the Who's Tommy? I went and sat in and just like listen to the way that all of these different designers talk to their program, programmer talk to their assistants, associates, their team, how they interact with their directors, and it's wildly different depending on the designer and the director.
Rachel Kobus 22:59
That makes sense. You have to figure out those partnerships that you have to have with each different show, because every director, I'm sure, every designer, every person's different. So on top of figuring out your own storytelling, your own lighting design, you have to be a relationship builder and a compromiser and a collaborator too. So a lot of, again, stressful situations, but feel like you're opening the door Erica, that if people need some advice. You're a really good person to reach out to as well, too. You are. I mean, how amazing is that? And amazing in the fact that you give your time to all these different shows, but you're also actively involved in design action and other initiatives, advocating for bipoc designers. So for those that know, it's black, indigenous and people of color. So how do you see yourself being that advocate and watching this industry evolve in terms of equity and representation? And why is that important to you to be involved with your busy schedule, something like design action too? Yeah,
Erica Maholmes 23:59
I feel like either these opportunities didn't exist when I was a student, or I didn't know about them at the time, but coming out of the pandemic, there's so many initiatives, opportunities for students from like high school age to graduated from grad school, to Get involved in things, to find resources, funding, people, community, mentors, whatever they need, just to, like, name a few, the wing space mentorship program partners, established designers with early career designers and students to ask questions, to learn things that you want to learn more about design actions. Springboard to design provides high school students from underrepresented backgrounds with opportunities to come to New York City and learn from Broadway and off Broadway instructors, and it's totally tuition free. They provide housing, which is huge, and I don't think that's something that existed when I was in high school. I didn't know that there were these things you could apply for and come tuition free and be housed in New York City in the middle of Times Square, and come see immerse yourself, yes, yeah, and work with these people that, again, are like people that I want to be in 10 years
Rachel Kobus 25:17
Well, and again, it's people like you and you're young in your career, young enough in your career that you can see both sides of it, of it wasn't there, or maybe it was, and it just wasn't communicated as well for you. But now you can be that advocate to say, but you can do anything, no matter what age you are, whether you're in high school, you're in your undergraduate, you're in your graduate. You find the right mentors, you find the right programs, and you being involved in these kind of organizations and knowing how to educate others, I think, just builds the industry and gives everybody the chance, no matter what group you're from, too. And I think that's that's amazing, too. I mean being being a woman, and both of us being women, like underrepresented groups all the time. Come on. Cheers for like, be like, support, support. Support is what I say. And like what I feel like you're doing, too. And again, the theater background having that, you know, busy schedule, so to make time for that, I think so impressive, Erica, so you know, again, kudos to you. Everything you do. Kudos to you, minus the time squares, you know. So with that, Erica, thank you again, and congratulations again on being the outstanding young alum recipient. Your your career is amazing. The trajectory you're going all that you've done so far. I just it's so it's so compelling. And it just this conversation. I'm probably going to go to every musical and play now and go, What lighting are they using? What color lighting is this how that, like, I very much going to take in more obviously, love, love the actors that are there on the stage, but take in everything about a theatrical performance. And that's the point to all that goes into it, is what makes the show a show, in a successful show, too. So, so with that, I guess I want to end with what's next for you.
Erica Maholmes 27:01
what's next for me? I have a slew of things on my calendar. Okay, I'm doing double ones on this island this summer. I'm doing one in North Carolina at Cape Fear regional theater and one in New Hampshire at Winnipesaukee Playhouse. Okay, in Meredith, New Hampshire. And then I'm also doing blues for an Alabama sky in Providence, Rhode Island at Trinity Repertory Company for the incandescent Jackie Davis. She is one of the most fantastic black female directors I had the opportunity to work with.
Rachel Kobus 27:37
That's amazing. And that's just your summer. I mean, really, this is your summer,
Erica Maholmes 27:42
I know. But just, and I didn't even talk about the big one, The Notebook, first national tour. Oh, which is this
Rachel Kobus 27:51
fall? Okay, so that your summer
Unknown Speaker 27:53
and fall is taken
Rachel Kobus 27:57
again, because for you, I'm sure it's okay. I've done Broadway now I just get to go on tour with this group instead. So wait. So right national now, I'm now, I'm interested, very interested. When you say national tour, how long does that like, do you stay with a tour then too? And how does that work? As a lighting designer, it's
Erica Maholmes 28:13
fun because I haven't done one yet, so I'm going to find out. Oh, okay,
Rachel Kobus 28:17
alright. Oh, I can't. Oh man, this is my first. I kind of feel like you need to have, well, like an Instagram or a Tiktok that you just do a play by play, of a story of a designer on the road sort of thing, because this would be very interesting to me too. Well, Erica again, congratulations and best of luck with all the amazing things that you are doing. It's it's truly remarkable, and maybe we'll hear from you soon of your next big adventures.
Erica Maholmes 28:46
Yes, thank you so much for having me.
Rachel Kobus 28:54
And that was 2022, Master of Fine Arts, alum and literal shining star, Erica Lauren Maholmes, thanks for listening to Redbird Buzz and tune in next time for more stories from beyond the quad.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai