Knightly News

The sights and sounds of the Visual & Performing Arts Center stage are vastly different on a regular school day than compared to a performance night. The whirr of electric screwdrivers and the pounding of hammers greets you as you approach the stage. Students chat about their progress and plans for one day performing on stage. At the center of this flurry is Episcopal Technical Theatre Director Louis Gagliano. For several years now, Gagliano has taught an Upper School Technical Theatre Class popular among students. He and his student technicians work behind the scenes to transform the stage into a fantasy world where actors and dancers share their talents with admiring audiences. 

To say that Gagliano is talented is an understatement. He is meticulous, adaptable and creative. He loves the challenges that arise when designing light plans for unconventional spaces, and he has more than 30 years of experience choreographing a story and setting a scene with light. How did he get here, and what exactly is a lighting designer?

Gagliano's lighting sets a dramatic stage for Episcopal productions.

Quiet and reserved, Gagliano had limited exposure to theater growing up in New Orleans. He enrolled at LSU with plans to become a mechanical engineer, but those plans changed once he began a required theater elective. Gagliano was inspired by the effects that are created with lighting, and he began helping with campus lighting projects. He eventually earned a master's degree in lighting design from Ohio University.  

Gagliano returned to Louisiana as an LSU Professional in Residence and Assistant Professor. After considerable time lighting productions at Swine Palace Theatre, he says the old livestock pavilion turned arts venue is unlike any other. That unconventional setting is something Gagliano loves. Two of his favorite lighting projects occurred in the space. He designed the lighting for “Jesus Christ Super Star,” which meant lighting both the interior and exterior of the theater. He also designed the lighting for “Metamorphosis,” requiring him to light the water in a swimming pool and design a plan for the refracting light.

Gagliano’s reputation as a lighting designer is well-known beyond Swine Palace. He has designed lighting plans for productions everywhere from New York City, Chicago and Sag Harbor to North Carolina and Tennessee. He shared his passion for and knowledge of unconventional lighting as a presenter at the International Federation for Theatre Research Conference in Lyon, France. In 2019, Gagliano earned the BroadwayWorld New Orleans Best Lighting Design Award for his work on “Cabaret” at Theatre Baton Rouge.

Gagliano carefully plans each lighting cue.

Gagliano and the Technical Theatre Class students create sets that transform the Visual & Performing Arts stage.

Such success requires rigorous attention to detail. For the upcoming Episcopal presentation of “Les Miserables,” Gagliano reviewed the script line by line to create a lighting blueprint of cues, colors and angles. The production that Episcopal audiences ultimately enjoy will feature more than 200 light cues, each carefully planned and adjusted by Gagliano. Gagliano loves the work so much that he works with Baton Rouge area theater companies on additional lighting projects. If you have attended Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre’s production of “The Nutcracker a Tale from the Bayou,” you have been immersed in Gagliano’s lighting.

Episcopal Upper School students are fortunate to learn from someone with Gagliano’s tremendous experience. The Technical Theatre class spotlights his adaptability as he has taken on the roles of set designer and builder in addition to lighting director. The course also introduces students to a range of skills. “It’s not woodshop,” Gagliano says of the course which he infuses with lessons on design, line, shape, form and mass. The months of work of Gagliano and his team of students behind the scenes is often an untold story of Episcopal’s theater performances. You have the opportunity to see that work on display this spring when students present “Les Miserables.”

Mark your calendars now.

April 1st – 3rd at 7 pm

April 5th – 7th at 7 pm

The Episcopal School of Baton Rouge 2024-2025 application is now available! ​For more information on the application process, to schedule a tour, or learn more about the private school, contact us at [email protected] or 225-755-2685.