Hubbry Logo
Lee WatsonLee WatsonMain
Open search
Lee Watson
Community hub
Lee Watson
logo
7 pages, 0 posts
0 subscribers
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Lee Watson
Lee Watson
Lee Watson
View on Wikipedia
from Wikipedia

Leland H. "Lee" Watson (1926 – December 8, 1989)7 was a Broadway and television lighting designer and theatre educator.5 His 1990 bio states that he worked "extensively in nearly all fields of lighting design."6

Early life and education

[edit]

Watson was born in Charleston, Illinois and is a graduate of the University of Iowa. After military service that included fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, where his left hand was paralyzed,[1] he returned to the US and received a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University in 1952.7 Lee often spoke of his Yale classmate, Lighting designer Tharon Musser and struggling to survive in New York, "eating oranges that fell from fruit trucks."[2]

Broadway Lighting Design

[edit]

Watson designed lighting for 42 Broadway productions,6 from 1955-1961. Watson's first Broadway design was Harbor Lights which opened on October 4, 1956. Watson was lighting designer for the Tony Award-winning world premiere of The Diary of Anne Frank alongside Tony Award-winning Scenic designer Boris Aronson and Tony award-nominee Susan Strasberg as Anne in 1956. Other noted designs included the world premiere of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge with award-winning actor Richard Harris (1956), and A Moon for the Misbegotten at the now-demolished Bijou Theatre (1956).6 7

The Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) notes that Watson also designed Girls of Summer and Protective Custody in 1956, the musical review Mask and Gown, The Cave Dwellers, Miss Isobel, and the musical comedy Portofino in 1957. Lighting Designs in 1958 included the musical comedy review The Next President for which he is also credited as Scenic Designer, The Night Circus and Suddenly Last Summer off-Broadway at the York Playhouse with Anne Meacham. In 1959, he designed The Legend of Lizzie. 1960 brought A Lovely Light (also Scenic Design), The Importance of Being Oscar (also Scenic Designer), and in 1961, Do you Know the Milky Way?[3] The New York Public Library now holds his papers. The Lee Watson papers date from 1941 to 1989 and document his career as a lighting educator and designer for theater, opera, and other live events. The collection holds lighting and scenic designs, photographs, slides, and production files that contain programs, newspaper articles, scripts, and technical lighting materials.[4]

Off Broadway, TV, Opera, Ballet Lighting Design

[edit]

For 12 years, he lighted numerous Off-Broadway productions and worked in New York City with CBS network TV and other television groups.7 His lighting credits include over 60 operas, The Seattle World's Fair, The Cincinnati Ballet, regional theatres, industrial shows, and many architectural projects.6 The Internet Movie Database shows that Do you Know the Milky Way? was actually a documentary short directed by Colin Low.[5] Watson is listed in the IMDB as the lighting director in 1951 for one of the first episodes of the 1950s game show Down You Go, filmed in Chicago for the Dumont Television Network.[6]

Teaching at Purdue University

[edit]

Watson taught lighting design at Purdue University in the graduate scenography program and undergraduate theatre core until 1989. His students remember his precise questions about a project's clues as to the design needed.5 The dancer Loie Fuller was a favorite subject when describing the integration of light with performance.10

Death

[edit]

Watson died at home in Lafayette, IN in 1989 after a long struggle with Leukemia.5 After his death, a bright, periwinkle bowtie was attached to the lighting grid in the (now defunct) Experimental Theatre in Stewart Center on the Purdue campus.5 He was survived by his parents, Dallas V. and Hazel Dooley Watson of Charleston.7

Affiliations

[edit]

Watson served on the board of directors of the International Association of Lighting Designers and of United Scenic Artists local #829 in New York City. He was formerly president of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (1980–82)[7] and a USITT Fellow, as well as holder of a USITT Founders' Award.

Watson Memorial Scholarship

[edit]

The Watson Memorial Scholarship Endowment Fund[8] in memory of Dallas, Hazel and Leland Watson is given by the Hazel Watson Scholarship foundation, which was established through private contributions as a tribute to Mrs. Hazel Watson, one of Coles County's most prominent community leaders,9 and is offered to a student who is currently accepted and enrolled at Eastern Illinois University with a major of study in business, political science, or theatre with a preference given to theatrical lighting.8

Books

[edit]

Watson spent his final years revising two books, one on the practice of lighting design and also the history. Watson lamented that his publishers had asked him to separate the history books into smaller projects, which he agreed to do, then ended agreements with several publishers. Watson worried on more than one occasion that his parents, who were his only living family, would dispose of all the history materials, stacked neatly with hundreds of photos in his Purdue office. At the time of his death, the history was not published.[9]

  • Theatrical Lighting Practice by Joel Rubin and Leland H. Watson, 19683
  • Lighting Design Handbook (1990)4
  • History of Lighting Design (unpublished at the time of his death)5

Notes

[edit]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Lee Watson

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Lee Watson is an American lighting designer and theatre educator known for his extensive contributions to Broadway, opera, television, and regional theater productions throughout the mid-20th century. He designed lighting for hundreds of shows, including notable Broadway works such as The Diary of Anne Frank, A View from the Bridge, and A Moon for the Misbegotten, as well as numerous operas and off-Broadway productions. Watson earned a master's degree in stage lighting from Yale University in 1951 and went on to teach at several institutions, including Purdue University, the University of Houston, and Iowa State University, where he mentored emerging designers and contributed to academic programs in theatrical lighting. He co-authored Theatrical Lighting Practice in 1954 with Joel E. Rubin and saw his Lighting Design Handbook published posthumously in 1990. His career spanned diverse venues, from the 1962 Seattle World's Fair to regional festivals and university theaters, establishing him as a versatile practitioner and influential educator in American theater. Watson passed away in 1989 in Lafayette, Indiana. His papers, documenting his designs, photographs, and production materials from 1941 to 1989, are preserved in the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library.

Early life and education

Birth and family background

Leland H. "Lee" Watson was born in 1926 in Charleston, Illinois. He was the son of Dallas and Hazel Watson of Charleston. He was a native of the small Midwestern town in Coles County, though little additional detail is publicly documented about his early childhood environment.

Military service

Lee Watson attended Eastern Illinois State Teachers College for one year before enlisting in the military. Given his birth in 1926, this likely occurred during World War II, interrupting his early college education. Details of his enlistment date, branch, specific assignments, or discharge are not documented in available sources. No further information on lasting effects from his service is confirmed in reliable records.

University education

Lee Watson graduated from the University of Iowa. He subsequently attended Yale University, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1952. While studying at the Yale School of Drama, he was a classmate of lighting designer Tharon Musser.

Professional career

Early work and television lighting

After earning his master's degree in stage lighting from Yale University in 1951, Lee Watson began his professional career in the field of lighting design through work in the emerging medium of television. His earliest documented credit came that same year as lighting director for one episode of the quiz show Down You Go, broadcast on the DuMont Television Network and filmed in Chicago. This initial television experience marked Watson's transition from academic training to applied professional practice in broadcast lighting. Prior to his Broadway debut, he designed lighting for CBS-TV network productions in New York City over a period of five years. These early contributions in television provided practical foundation in the technical and aesthetic demands of lighting for live and recorded media during the medium's rapid expansion in the early 1950s. This period of television work preceded his shift to theatrical lighting design.

Broadway lighting designs

Lee Watson's most intensive Broadway period occurred between 1955 and 1961, during which he served as lighting designer for 42 productions. This era marked his emergence as a key figure in New York theater lighting, with credits spanning dramas, musicals, and other forms. His Broadway debut included lighting for A View from the Bridge (which opened September 29, 1955, in a joint bill with A Memory of Two Mondays) and The Diary of Anne Frank (which opened October 5, 1955). Among his most notable designs were the world premiere productions of The Diary of Anne Frank (1955), which received a Tony Award for Best Play, and A View from the Bridge (1955). Other significant works included A Moon for the Misbegotten (1957), Portofino (1957), and Do You Know the Milky Way? (1961). In addition to lighting, Watson occasionally took on scenic design responsibilities for shows such as The Next President, A Lovely Light, and The Importance of Being Oscar. These contributions highlighted his versatility within the Broadway ecosystem during this concentrated phase of his career.

Off-Broadway, opera, and other designs

In addition to his work on Broadway, Lee Watson designed lighting for numerous Off-Broadway productions during the late 1950s and early 1960s, including Garden District in 1958 and The Blacks: A Clown Show in 1961. He designed lighting for over 60 operas, with multiple productions of Carmen, La Bohème, Turandot, Aida, and Madama Butterfly staged in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Houston. Watson's non-theatrical and regional work included lighting for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, where his designs encompassed production materials for The Threshold and the Threat, including light plots, scenic designs, and stage lighting equipment inventories. He created lighting designs for the Cincinnati Ballet between 1974 and 1979, covering spring and fall seasons as well as specific productions such as The Nutcracker, Coppélia, and a ballet performed to Francis Poulenc's Concerto for Organ. Watson's regional and university theater designs formed a substantial part of his output, particularly from the 1960s through the 1980s, with credits at venues including the University of Houston and its Theater Under the Stars festival, Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Missouri Repertory Theatre, Philadelphia Drama Guild, Purdue University, the University of Michigan, Long Island University's C.W. Post Theatre Company, and the Virginia Shakespeare Festival. He also provided lighting for industrial shows such as the Statler Hotel Fabric Show in 1962 and the Chevrolet Product Show in 1963, along with a 1969 sculpture exhibition by Louise Nevelson at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Overall, his collection documents lighting and scenic designs for over 100 plays, musicals, operas, ballets, and other live events beyond Broadway.

Academic teaching career

Lee Watson served as a professor of lighting design at Purdue University, where he taught in the graduate scenography program and the undergraduate theatre core curriculum. He joined the faculty as a noted expert in the field, contributing to the education of students in theatrical lighting principles and practice. His teaching was characterized by precise questioning that probed students' understanding of design clues and often included references to pioneering dancer Loie Fuller as an early innovator in the integration of light and movement. Watson continued his academic role at Purdue until his death in 1989.

Publications

Theatrical Lighting Practice and other works

Lee Watson made significant contributions to the field of theatrical lighting through his authorship and co-authorship of key reference works that drew upon his practical experience in design and education. His first major publication was the book Theatrical Lighting Practice, co-authored with Joel E. Rubin and published in 1954 by Theatre Arts Books. This work served as an early practical guide to stage lighting techniques, covering topics such as equipment, mounting positions, color media, and cueing across diverse formats including proscenium, arena, open-air, and puppetry productions. Decades later, Watson completed the Lighting Design Handbook, which was published posthumously in 1990 by McGraw-Hill following his death in 1989. Presented as the first comprehensive handbook on the subject, it addressed nearly every aspect of lighting technology, design principles, and professional practice in the field, featuring hundreds of illustrations, lighting plots, and a color insert demonstrating color principles in lighting. These publications reflect Watson's effort to codify and share the knowledge gained from his career in theatrical, operatic, and other lighting design.

Awards and professional recognition

Personal life and death

Legacy

Add your contribution
Related Hubs
User Avatar
No comments yet.