Nominated for The Fear of 13, as well as Bug, Heather Gilbert was faced with the challenges of lighting a new play on Broadway. Her former Tony nominations were for Good Night And Good Luck, Parade, and The Sound Inside. In addition to her work on Broadway, she has also designed extensively in regional theatres, received the Michael Merritt Award for Excellence in Design Collaboration in 2023. In 2012, she received the 3Arts Award in Chicago. She was a recipient of the prestigious NEA/TCG Career Development Grant for Designers from TCG.
She received her BA from Trinity University in San Antonio and her MFA from The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, and teaches Lighting Design at the University of Michigan.
Production: The Fear of 13 by Lindsey Ferrentino
Opening: April 15, 2026, James Earl Jones Theatre
Seaview, Wessex Grove, and Gavin Kalin Productions
Director: David Cromer
Collaborators:
Scenic Designer: Arnulfo Maldonado
Costume Designer: Sarah Laux
Sound Designer: Lee Kinney
Hair and Makeup Design: Rob Pickens and Katie Gell
Production Props: Buist Bickley
Music Supervision and Arrangements: Bryan Carter
Dialect & Vocal Coach: Gigi Buffington
Intimacy Coordinator & Fight Director: UnkleDave’s Fight-House
Production Stage Manager: Richard Hodge
Stage Manager: Vanessa Coakley
Production Manager: Ross Leonard/Juniper Street Productions
Heather Gilbert chats with Live Design about the lighting for The Fear of 13:
Live Design: What was your intent with the design, and where did your inspiration come from?
Heather Gilbert: The Fear of 13 is a completely different kind of play than Bug in that it is essentially a person telling another person the story of their life. Most of the play is Adrien Brody as Nick Yarris telling Tessa Thompson as Jacki, about his 22 years on Death Row and how he did not commit the crime that put him there. It’s a play about conversation, and sometimes Adrien sits in a stool and we can imagine the moment as the audience, and sometimes he gets up and moves and an entire prison choir joins him to illustrate it, or perhaps a full pawn shop emerges from the set for him to enter.
So lighting had to be incredibly nimble and able to follow whatever version of the storytelling style we were in at any moment. Lee Kinney, the amazing sound designer, and I really partnered with Adrien on this since the very turn of his head could trigger a shift in the world, and we all needed to work together to make this happen. I have a serious shout out for our PSM, Richard Hodge, here, who really knew Adrien’s rhythms and could guide us through them, and who also can take 43 notes after a morning session of dark time including two dozen new cues he won’t get to rehearse and seamlessly incorporate them into the show that night.
LD: What gear did you rely on for your design choices?
HG: For The Fear of 13, we suddenly had a challenge right before tech started, where we needed to have specials for eight stools that had a few locations each during the show, and also needed the flexibility of changing if one got moved during tech as well. And they were all grouped together so we were never going to be able to have 8 big movers do this job. Brad Gray at Christie Lights suggested that we use Martin Mac Ones, which are just the cutest little movers in the world, and fit inside the rig we had already hung perfectly. We (I, was it just me) called them the Babies and would do a little baby voice for them “One day, we’ll be big lights too!” But honestly, those Babies were life savers over and over. I actually feel like I need to start speccing them for every show so I have something to add that is small and flexible.
LD: What was the biggest challenge?
HG: Honestly, it was the floor. In a Broadway house, a lot of our energy is what the light is doing on the floor because so many people are looking at it behind the actors, from the mezzanines and balconies. And in a play like Bug, the light from a practical lands on a floor like it does in your house and it’s a lot easier (although we do cheat and fill in weird dark spots on the floor on those shows, too) . But in a play where lighting the actors sitting on stools, with different heights and skin tones, is a key function, trying to make the light for them land on the floor artfully is a serious challenge. Jeff Englander and I (same programmer as Bug so these are very much his nominations, too) would stare at the floor for hours, and try to will a big idea into place. I think ultimately we did just that—found the big idea of how light moved in shapes and swoops across the floor toward Arnulfo Maldonado’s beautiful textured walls and ultimately joined them.
LD: What do you think made this design so successful?
HG: I think that the flexibility of my team coupled by the focus and care of the rest of the design and production team was the key to the lighting design. A new play on Broadway is hard. With a show that has been done before, you have the luxury of knowing what the first draft is when you make the plot. In a play you haven’t made yet, you need a team that is willing to add and move and try and fail and then try and soar. It’s harder to do this on Broadway than in a basement theater in Chicago, and I will forever be grateful for all the electricians and programmers and associates that work tirelessly to make it happen.
Lighting team:
Associate Lighting Designer: Abby May
Lighting Programmer: Jeff Englander
Substitute Programmer: Brad Gray
Special Effects Programmer: Henry Wilen
Production Electrician: Ron Schwier
Advance Electrician: Rob Lilly
House Electrician: Dave Karlson
Lighting Equipment: Christie Lights
Rental Rep: Brad Gray