VCU news

By Eric Peters

Theatre VCU student Mike Farmer is one of six students from around the world chosen to participate this weekend in an all-expense-paid trip to the Lighting Design International (LDI) tradeshow in Orlando, Fla.

Farmer, the only undergraduate student in the group, is majoring in technical production, with an emphasis on lighting design, and the tradeshow is “arguably the biggest annual conference for theatrical lighting design,” says Robert Perry, Theatre VCU assistant professor.

“To be able to garner one of these awards says a lot about Mike's work ethic and dedication to his craft,” Perry says. 

Farmer lives and breathes lighting design, which is evident when he talks about the places it has taken him, and the passion it has created.

“I crave design,” he says. “Manipulating light, form and color on stage is like a painting, and the reward is seeing a finished picture.”

Within the past year Farmer has traveled to Wisconsin, Ohio and New York to work on various lighting projects and even paid his own way to go to last year’s LDI tradeshow in Las Vegas.

Locally, he has worked for Theatre IV, the Barksdale Theatre, various Theatre VCU productions and on the sets of “Wicked” at the Landmark Theater and Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln.” He currently works for the Firehouse Theatre Project.

“Lighting is definitely an actor in plays,” he says. “It creates emotions just like an actor and is just as important.”

“But the other half of design is equipment,” Farmer says. “You can talk about emotion all day, but you need the right equipment.”

One of the biggest manufacturers of that equipment, ETC, is the company treating the six students to the conference.

In addition to the free trip, the students - five from the United States and one from China - will be paired with mentors for the weekend and given “backstage access to ETC’s tradeshow booth, an insider’s look at the latest technology and the chance to network with other professionals,” according to ETC’s Web site.     

Farmer says he’s looking forward to asking his mentor everything he possibly can about the lighting design business, and to “finding a new point of view, a new way of looking at myself as an artist.”

He isn’t the only one, however, who will benefit from the networking opportunities and exposure the conference will provide.

“Those attending the conference will want to know where these award-winning students have come from and Mike will be able to say with pride, ‘Virginia Commonwealth University,’ Perry says. “This is one of the best ways that our school and program can be recognized, which can directly result in recruitment on a national level into our lighting program, thus helping VCU to become a top contender for theatrical design schools across the country.”

Students like Farmer will continue to burnish the program’s reputation.

“He is a problem solver and someone who is always willing and eager to seek knowledge on any task that is thrown his way,” says Perry. “He never bows down to a challenge and I think in winning this award it is evident that he will go far.”

“Maybe I will go somewhere,” Farmer said before he left for the conference.  “Well, I already am, I’m going to Orlando!”