Lighting Designer Neil Austin talks Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Neil Austin is the lighting designer on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. He talks about working on the show and how he broke into the industry.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child continues to tear up the floorboards in London, where shows are booked well into 2017. BroadwayWorld caught up with Neil Austin, the lighting designer on the production, to chat about the show and his career in the theater. Apparently, working on Cursed Child has been different than his other experiences in commercial theater.

"In the subsidised sector there’s very little interference, but in commercial often the producer is standing behind you saying “No no no, I want it pink here!” and you think “What are you talking about?” But they’re bankrolling, so it’s difficult. Cursed Child has been the complete opposite – just an utter delight."

As Austin points out, the English are more apt to subsidize theater with public funds than are Americans. Still, commercial theater still exists in England. But seeing as Cursed Child is the biggest play to come around in decades, the normal rules didn’t always apply. For example, Austin was involved in the rehearsals for the show from the beginning. Usually, he gets called in only for the “intense block of work at the end.”

"Unusually for Cursed Child I was in the rehearsal room for the whole period. It was revelatory, watching what everyone else did. I hadn’t realised how much time they have to experiment – like the actor trying things out 100 different ways, or the writer redrafting. I did sit on my hands sometimes, desperate to jump in, but it was definitely worthwhile being able to point out a few bits, knowing if you do X on that part of the stage it might not work, but here it will."

Photo: Official Site/Manuel Harlan

Yes, well, when a play is as huge as Cursed Child, you take the time to do it right.

And what was the biggest challenge of lighting Cursed Child? According to Austin, it involved lighting everything just right so the audience didn’t see any of the complicated shenanigans happening just offstage. “We call it facilitators versus ninjas,” he said. “Facilitators can be seen, like the actors pushing the staircases, versus everything you’re hopefully unaware of in the shadows.”

If you read the Cursed Child script, you know that there’s a lot of complicated staging involved. I can only imagine how hard it is to light it all properly. Austin had a lot of technical tools to accomplish this, but ultimately, he knows he has to keep his priorities straight:

"But all of this technology is at the behest of one thing: telling the story. Our work should always be aiding the playwright to do that. I’m so proud of Harry Potter, because it’s a love letter to theatre. We’ve got people coming who’ve never been to the theatre before, and as a creative, you can really say “Yes, this is the one to come to – if you’re not dying to come back to the theatre at the end of this, it might not be something you’re going to love.”"

Next: The 100 star Bob Morley breaks out Harry Potter cosplay at Dragon Con

To hear more from Austin, including advice on how to break into the industry, head here.