American Ballet Theatre’s The Four Marys and Jean Rosenthal

Jean Rosenthal served as lighting designer for The Four Marys, one of over thirty collaborations with American Ballet Theatre. Rosenthal designed the lighting color palette of the show using primarily blues and reds, matching the red of the “Four Marys’” costumes.

 

 

 

 

More about Jean Rosenthal

Rosenthal was born in Romania in 1908, and her parents immigrated to New York in 1912. She studied lighting at the Yale School of Drama and the Parsons School of Design and quickly became a pioneer in the field of lighting design. While she had success on Broadway, including working on shows such as West Side Story and The Odd Couple, she was more taken with work in ballet, opera, and repertory, where she could experiment more with aesthetics. Rosenthal’s philosophy was to create a compelling and unobtrusive atmosphere in her productions, expressing a feeling of failure when audiences noticed the lighting design. She pioneered the technique of flooding the stage with upstage lighting to eliminate stage shadows, creating impressions of shade with variations in intensity and color from all directions. Jean Rosenthal passed away in New York City in 1969.

Sources:

Jean Rosenthal, American Ballet Theatre
Jean Rosenthal, Women in Lighting

Ryan Crants