The
LIGHTING CAREER
of

Richard Bonner

Richard is a lighting designer and director from Dartmouth,
Nova Scotia, Canada. He has a distinguished career in the
performance industry. Here is a look at that career:

The EARLY DAYS

    The genesis of Richard's involvement with stage lighting began at elementary school with his Grade Four Christmas pageant. He did not personally handle any lighting equipment, but took an interest in it at that time. He actually played a shepherd in that production but was more interested in what was happening off the stage rather than on. His final elementary school year saw him painting scenery and doing stage work for Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado.

    In junior and senior high schools he continued working on the lighting and with the technical crews for school events. These included assemblies, lectures, and Christmas and Winter Carnival specials. He also worked for two major school stage productions during that period: The Pirates of Penzance and The Pajama Game. Richard was lighting designer & director for the latter.

Tech Crew Dartmouth High School Dartmouth, Nova Scotia Likely February, 1969

Richard, with cable in hand and back to the camera, works with some of the crew on Dartmouth High School's Gymnasium Stage. The wheel at the upper right is part of the mechanism for raising and lowering the basketball net that hung in front of the stage.

    During part of this era, he played bass in the band Sylvan for which he also operated the lights by using a foot controller. As his interest in lighting grew, he began to purchase some lighting and projection effects, as well as building equipment on his own. Because of becoming known for this, he was asked to help out with plays and events at churches and at schools other than his own by designing the lighting and supplying the necessary equipment. From there, he was asked to light recitals for local dance instructors or to provide them with his special effects.

    Richard also improved on the popular noon hour recorded-music playing in his high school's audio visual room by bringing in a larger sound system with lights, strobes, and projected effects as additional entertainment. Now the students heard the music at live band levels accompanied by lights focused on the audience and a visual display on the walls. This was the first time it had been done to this level in the local area.

  Hand-Made Effects

    In the late 1960s, Richard began to improve upon the typical band lighting of the day by using higher wattage lamps with gel wrapped around them. This gave his lighting higher intensity and a wider colour range as compared to the 100-watt, outdoor Christmas floodlights being used by other bands.

    In addition, he built a number of his own lighting effects. The earliest was a mechanical strobe light. He also incorporated a different twist on the idea when he built one with two light sources. Each was gelled a different colour so the device gave a blurred colour-flash effect on the band. He also made some light boxes using small, self-flashing coloured lights within that played against a diffused screen at the front of each box. They would appear to accompany music when a suitable song was selected that coincided with the flashing interval of the lights.

    His most unique ideas were those which were moving-light / moving-beam effects that manoeuvred images and beams of light in inventive ways. Although primitive by today's standards, they nevertheless predated current moving-lights / moving-beams in the Atlantic Provinces by about two decades.

Used strictly for band and dance shows, there were
a number of variations, but below are descriptions
of the five main moving-beam effects.

Those not interested in these details may
skip farther down the page to Band Lighting

  Moving Beams

    The first consisted of a four-way screw-base socket which was mounted to a motor. This was set atop a stand which stood about a metre and a half off the floor. Richard designed his own electrical contactor assembly, part of which actually consisted of a spent rifle bullet shell! Four PAR 38 spot lamps completed the assembly, with each opposite pair being gelled the same colour. This unit spun the lamps much like a police car beacon. Speed was controlled by switching the motor off & on while running, and then later by an autotransformer. The lamps were controlled by a separate switch. This allowed Richard to set the speed of the unit before the lights were turned on.

    Typically, this effect was set behind the drum kit to give moving beams/colours around the stage behind the band and a silhouette of the drummer as each beam passed by and shone on his back.

    A similar idea was incorporated in a unit utilising a three-sided mirror setup. The mirrors were stood on edge and were arranged to be angled 60 degrees opposed to one another. This formed an equilateral triangle of mirrors that was then placed upon a variable-speed turntable taken from an aging record player. Initially, a spot light was used to reflect off each mirror in turn as it rotated to face the light source. This sent a beam of light around the stage behind the band.

    Later, Richard used a slide projector to send images around the stage instead of a light beam. The main reason for this was to separate the effect from that of the first moving-light described above because they were too similar in operation. Another way he made it look different was to set the light or projection source at a lower height and allow the images to appear much higher over the band members' heads.

  Hand-Operated Effects

    Richard's most inventive ideas were two hand-operated effects. The first consisted of a simple polished sheet of flexible tin plate about half a metre wide. This was hand held and shone upon by a slide projector. The plate was flexed and angled by Richard, or more usually an assistant, to give a stretching, roving image on a screen behind the band.

    A variety of other reflective devices were used in similar ways to the above. These included diffraction gratings to produce rainbow-coloured images, and also coloured reflectors & diffusers to further change the look of the effect.

    A different hand-operated effect was done using a small square of heavy cloth on to which centimetre squares of mirror were glued in rows & columns. This was a commercial product intended to make mirrored clothing that Richard adapted for his own special effects purposes. A slide projector fitted with a black slide that had been pierced by many pin holes was used as a pattern source. The pin holes aimed tiny, narrow beams on to the individual mirrors on the piece of cloth which was being hand held.

    By manipulating this mirror cloth, an operator was able to send each beam in a different direction and project wildly-gyrating spots on to a screen or wall, or he or she could give multiple, random moving beams through fog or smoke when directed toward an audience.

  Music Vision

    These last two effects were very spectacular and gave an extra dimension because, being operator driven, they could be manipulated in time with the music. Unfortunately, they required a person positioned behind the band to work. Given that many venues did not have the space required and that a person had to be taken away from the projection equipment to operate them, these effects fell into disuse in the early 1970s. However, one effect called Music Vision operated on its own and lived on.

    Music Vision was not his idea, but Richard was the first (and likely the only) person to use this in Atlantic Canada. He built his own version of the effect. It consisted of a speaker over which was stretched & glued a rubber membrane. Attached to the membrane on little pieces of cork were small round mirrors. Additional, double-sided ones were hung on black thread to dangle against the membrane.

    This speaker & mirror assembly was mounted in a box and placed behind the band to face a rear screen. It was connected to the bass-player's amplifier either directly or via a microphone and separate amplifier. A focused light beam was aimed at the membrane. The bass notes would cause the speaker to vibrate and move the attached & dangling mirrors in perfect time to the music. This projected moving beams on to the screen. It gave a kind of an oscilloscope effect as the patterns grew and shrank depending on the volume. Today there is a very similar commercial laser effect that makes exactly the same kind of patterns as Richard's device had done over 35 years ago.

    Music Vision was the last of the effects designed by Richard to be retired because it was simpler than the first two, and it required no operator, as did the second two.

    Although all of the above were no longer seen after about 1975, Richard was a pioneer in moving light and beam effects starting several decades before anyone else in Atlantic Canada, and possibly in other parts of Canada, as well.

    He had now accumulated about nine years experience and at such a relatively young age for his abilities, he found he had to have people believe he was several years older than he was in order to instill confidence in his employers. They couldn't see how he could have gotten enough experience necessary to do a competent job. It also later became necessary to advance his age in order to do club work, which required a legal age of 21 to be on the premises.

  BAND LIGHTING

    Outside of school projects, Richard's interests leaned mostly toward lighting musical acts. In junior high school he had started to light some local groups besides his own band, as previously mentioned. By high school, musicians were requesting that he bring some of his projections and special effects to enhance their performances.

Here is Richard sitting at Stage Right during the performance. He was working for a group called The Umbrella when this photo was taken. Note the period "mod" clothing.

Battle of the Bands Prince Andrew High School Dartmouth, Nova Scotia Fall 1968 or Winter 68/69 Seen in this close-in shot is a single-beam, mechanical strobe light on a folding stand. In a clamp socket is a PAR 38 light coloured by a wrap-around gel, and at his left is a lighting controller. Unseen in the photo, but used at this event, were the first two of Richard's eventual five moving-light effects.

  Projection Effects

    At the end of high school and the beginning of college (where he was majoring in electronics), Richard was lighting some of the top Atlantic Canadian Acts playing in the area and about to begin doing shows at the Halifax and Dartmouth Forums. Added to the stage lighting, were more projected effects and some pyro-technics. They then became a large part of his shows, requiring a total crew of four for lights and effects.

Beowulf Dartmouth High School Dartmouth, Nova Scotia October, 1973 The moving effects shown here are manipulated by human operators. Note at Lower Left, the ultra violet fixture and PAR 38 "anklebuster" floorlight.

This scene has a red wash with blue highlights and a white key light illuminating the vocalist. The rear projections consist of pulsating oils and moving moire patterns. They are overlaid with static "sun" and "kaleidoscope" images.

    Favourite projected effects came to include "Coloured Cloud", the "Catherine Wheel", "Colour Flash", "Kaleidoscope", and "Space Wheel", along with moire patterns and pulsating liquids done on overhead projectors. Some of the patterns and wheels Richard designed himself. These were often hand painted using transparent inks and dyes. He also utilised translucent paints that crystallised upon drying.

Seen in this full-stage photo are a red front wash with a strong red side wash, and green & pink backlighting. The musician at Center Left is lit in yellow during his keyboard break.

Crunch Queen Elizabeth High School Halifax, Nova Scotia December 1977 Projections consist of static slides hand-painted by Richard.

  Film Usage

    Richard had an interest in film, so he bought several 16mm film projectors and added short films to his projection shows at this time. Several were black & white films to which Richard added coloured, diffused or rippled effects by placing motorised coloured or patterned wheels in front of the lenses.

    In addition, he incorporated National Film Board movies into the show. These films exposed a new generation to Canadian film makers of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. These included the works of Guy Glover, Laurent Coderre, Ryan Larkin, and pioneer animator Norman McLaren. McLaren drew animations right on film stock and also worked in stop-motion styles of film making. These types of creative arts films were perfect backdrops to that era's music.

    Classic short films and animations such as Carrousel, Cosmic Zoom, Hen Hop, Neighbours, Pas de Deux (seen at the left), Spheres, Street Musique, Walking, and countless others provided visual accompaniment to the bands of the time and kept an audience's attention directed toward the stage.

    As an addition during the breaks, Richard would sometimes run 10-minute cartoons, with sound being piped through the band's PA system. Popular cartoon penguin, Chilly Willy, was a favourite.

    One stunt provided continual comments afterwards when Richard obtained a sex education animation from the local family planning board and projected it behind bands at a couple of high schools. The controversy was nullified by the fact that the film was already being used in schools as an aid to sex education. Still, it gained a notoriety that followed him for some years afterwards.

Saint Mary's University
Halifax, Nova Scotia
1978

This scene is lit in a blue front wash with Charity in yellow and a red back spot. Behind are moving moire patterns.

Charity Brown

Charity Brown

Orange washes the stage while moving mirror ball dots blur on the rear screen. Cooled fog oozes out from beside the raised drum kit and spills on to the stage below.

Front and side washes are in ultra-deep blue. A pink key light profiles the guitarist. Seen on the rear screen is a layered projection effect consisting of a space background and two static images. Just visible high on the screen to the right of center are two black & white ballet artists actively dancing among the stars. The shiny panel behind and slightly above the drum kit is a mirror on a stand. It gave the audience members an extra dimension to the band by allowing them to see the drummer from a rear angle.

Chalice

Here, Wendy Porter and Joanne Yaccato manipulate patterns or oils on overhead projectors. They are perched on staging so as to be able to project over the heads of the audience. Hidden in the darkness between them are two 16mm motion picture projectors.

Projection Techs Charity Brown Show Up top, beams emanate from two of the dozen special effects projectors housed on the second level. The two small red glows are neon power indicators.

  DISC JOCKEY WORK

    As a side line, Richard began disc jockey work for university fraternities, church youth groups, and private clubs. With a full sound system and sizable projection show consisting of slide, over- head, effect, and 16mm film projectors, he was the only person in the local area to offer such a large set up. And although other people were going out playing records in the "record/sock hop" tradition, Richard was giving the full disc jockey shows that we are familiar with today before it was the popular thing to do. He still continued with his band work during this period, too.

CONCERTS, PAGEANTS, and FASHION

    In the mid to late 1970s, outdoor concerts became the rage and Richard was there to do his part by then providing lighting for the major Canadian and International Acts that were increasingly being booked for these types of shows. Throughout this time he was still designing lighting for his former schools and independent theater groups. Also, more and more pageants and fashion shows were being put on, all requiring lighting, and they too came to Richard.

    By the late 1970s, projection shows had become less popular and high quality stage lighting was the norm, particularly with beam effects, which is the way Richard went. However, he never lost sight of the fact that the lights were there to augment the bands' music, not take over (although there were certainly bands that needed the lights to take over). His philosophy was (and is) to interpret the music exactly, not only in beat, but in mood as well, with each song having its own, distinct appearance. He felt that how the band looked on stage came first.

    As greater numbers of diversified talent came to the Maritimes during the late 1970s and 1980s, Richard Bonner was to work for more international names than in the previous two decades combined. A highlight was lighting the official opening of The Halifax Metro Centre in 1977 and providing special effects. Richard immediately went on to light other shows at this venue including Carroll Baker, Long John Baldry, The Minglewood Band, Natalie Cole, Vera Lynn, Victor Borge, and the Tall Ships Extravaganza. He would later initiate another Maritime venue by doing the first show at the new Harbour Station in Saint John with Canadian superstar, Gordon Lightfoot.

The Metro Centre
Halifax, Nova Scotia
1980

Victor Borge and the Halifax Symphony Orchestra

Long John Baldry

The Minglewood Band

The Minglewood Band

TELEVISION and VIDEO

    Although he had done some television lighting in the 1970s, most notably for The Virginia Foxe Show, this type of work would also increase for him during the 1980s. Many of the bigger stage shows being done were also being televised, or at least video taped for posterity. The lighting had to be enough for the video camera but this often resulted in a poor look for the people at the venue. Richard however, never compromised what the live audience saw, yet still gave the video crews what they liked. Two of the largest shows he did which were also video taped, were for The National Country Music Week. Richard did both the main performance stage and awards shows.

ROCKSHOW LIGHTING COURSE

    Finding a lack of institutions teaching in the rock lighting field, Richard began teaching a Rockshow Lighting Course in the late 1970s. This 22 hour course taught over five evenings, took aspects of theater, photographic, and television lighting and applied them to the relatively new field of rock band lighting. The course continued to be taught from time to time throughout the 1980s, including abbreviated and full versions taught at the Canadian Conservatory of Music in Halifax, Nova Scotia - most recently in July of 2006. Richard has also expanded this to include stage lighting seminars for various theater groups around the Maritimes.

ATLANTIC ILLUMINATION
ENTERTAINMENT LIGHTING

    When it became obvious that this was to be Richard's life career, he started a lighting company with the name he had begun using in 1970: Atlantic Illumination. It began when clubs and bands asked to purchase some of the effects he used for their own use. That grew into Richard ordering in effects and lights from Canadian, American and British suppliers, demonstrating them in his own shows, and then selling the equipment to clients. This went well and from the mid 1970s through the 1980s, his company out grew two warehouses and expanded in a third location to include sales, repair and fabrication sections.

The Misty Moon Cabaret
Halifax, Nova Scotia
1981 / 1982

Steppenwolf

Rick Derringer

Levon Helm and The Cate Brothers Band

Three-Dog Night

  MIANS Nominations

    In 1991 Richard was one of three persons to be nominated for Best Lighting Designer/Technician and was also nominated in 1993. Both accolades were given by The Music Industry Association of Nova Scotia (MIANS).

    In 1998 Richard was again nominated by MIANS. His most visible work that season was for The East Coast Music Awards, which were held in Halifax that year. He designed both the stage and venue lighting for The Olympic Gardens (now Saint Antonio's Olympic Community Centre) location. He lit more than 25 acts in four days and personally directed and operated the lighting for both the bands and television production of the event over that period. As well, he was responsible for lighting the media area where each artist was interviewed for later inclusion in the television show. (The award for Lighting Designer has now been retired by MIANS.)

  TODAY

    Richard's career currently spans six(!) decades. In this period, he has provided lighting design & direction for many different talents and for people from many different walks of life. These include actors, an astronaut, athletes, barbershop singers, beauty contestants, business men & women, chefs, choirs, clowns, comedians, dancers, diners, disc jockeys, draw/paint artists, escape artists, fashion models, film makers, gymnasts, hair dressers, hypnotists, jugglers, keynote speakers, magicians, masters of ceremony, mentalists, musicians, performance artists, photographers, police officers, politicians, public lecturers & speakers, radio & television personalities and announcers, show hosts, singers, skaters, sculpture artists, store proprieters, students, stunt contestants, town criers, and yes - even Santa Claus!

    Then there are the objects of those talents: airplanes, archetecture, art work, automobiles, beverages, clothing, computers, electronics, food, ice, jewelry, music video sets, paintings, parade floats, photographs, retail shop displays, sculptures, stage props, stage sets, table displays, trade show booths, and much, much more.

    Within his capacity as a lighting designer/director and also with other aspects of his entertainment career encompassing audio, live recording, film/video, special effects, and general roadie duties, Richard has worked for many clients and in a wide variety of venues.

    The latter are represented by aircraft hangars, arenas, art galleries, arts centres, auditoriums, an automobile repair garage, ballrooms, a Bar Mitzvah, bars, boat clubs, cafes, cafeterias, cafetoriums, car showrooms, a casino, churches, colleges, community rooms & halls, a cruise ship, elementary schools, ethnic cultural centres, exhibitions, golf & country clubs, gymnasiums, haunted houses, high schools, hotels, ice surfaces, junior high schools, legion halls, libraries, meeting rooms, middle schools, military bases, a miniature golf course, motion picture sets, motion picture theaters, multi-purpose rooms, museums, nature parks, nightclubs, outdoor stages, offices, paddling clubs, parades, police clubs, private and commercial clubs, private and public summer cottages & campgrounds, proms, pubs, recreation centres, research facilities, restaurants, shopping malls, sports facilities, a telephone communications facility, television studios, theaters, tourist resorts, trade show booths & venues, universities, vocational schools, warehouses, wharves, weddings, wedding receptions, yacht clubs, and even a nuclear power plant!

Richard has been quoted:

I love to do lighting, even after all these years.
I receive just as much enjoyment with 24 lights at an elementary
school Christmas pageant as I would using 240 lights for a name
act at a large venue. I am proud of my career and of all the
talent for whom I have worked - from basement bands just
starting out on up to the best-known acts and artists.

and...

Working for, and being around, talented people charges my
creative batteries. They inspire me to want to go that extra
kilometre which always brings out the best of my abilities.

Lyteshow Girls at Bonn-Ami Monte's Bar and Grill Dartmouth, Nova Scotia September 2004

Richard poses with some of the girls that worked the shows in the 1970s and 1980s. From left to right they are Sharon Trotter, Cheryl McLaughlin, Betty Emberly, Wendy Porter, Jo-An Richard, Francine Chart, Lil MacPherson, and Carol Cunningham. Note that the wide angle lens used to take this photo has distorted the view. Sharon isn't really that tall! (-:

    Richard's lighting work remains with bands, theatrical plays and musicals, corporate work, and dance perfprmers, as well as working for magicians and a hypnotist. He has carried on with his charity work in the past decade by donating lighting and/or his personal time for such events as the annual Jimmy Jam, Bicentennial School's 50th Anniversary, The Jeffery Jam (an all-star benefit for musician, Rick Jeffery), The Dartmouth High School 30-Year Reunion, the Alta Gymnastics fund raiser (of which two of the athletes he lighted have competed in the international arena on Canada's Olympic Team), aa well as benefits for the families of songwriter/musician, Richard Byrne, kayakist Tiffany Tanner, and of motorbike guru, Mike Roach. His nost recent charity event was for breast cancer awareness and support of its survivors.

  Recent Events

    For the past few years, Richard's lighting designs for various artists and shows have encompassed those for schools and theatrical musicals or plays, live music acts and concerts, benefits, public speakers, corporate shows and displays, dance performances and many others. Here are some of his most Recent Projects.

Throughout his career, Richard has always liked to
promote and work for Atlantic Provinces talent. He has
illuminated at one time or another the least and best
known East Coast acts and artists, many of whom have gone
on to national and international recognition.

He continues in that endeavour.

Links to Richard's Lighting Work

Recent Projects     Artists and Shows

Photo Archive