Jean Rosenthal

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Jean Rosenthal (March 16, 1912 - May 1, 1969) is considered a pioneer of theatrical lighting design.

She was born on March 16, 1912 in New York City to Romanian immigrants. In the early part of the 20th century, the lighting designer was not a formalized position, the set designer or an ambitious electrician handled the lighting of a production. Through the course of her career, Jean Rosenthal made the lighting designer a crucial member of the production team.

She was one of the most in-demand professionals in the business in her day. In 1929, she was first introduced to Martha Graham at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. She became her technical assistant and this was the beginning of a life-long collaboration with Graham. She studied at Yale University under Stanley McCandless.

In 1933, she left Yale and went back to New York. She joined the Federal Theatre Project in 1935. She worked with Orson Welles and John Houseman. She would later follow Welles to the Mercury Theatre, where she was credited as a member of the board as well as production and lighting manager, although not as lighting designer.

Some of her major contributions were the elimination of shadows by using floods of upstage lighting and controlling angles and mass of illumination to create contrasts without shadows. She designed over 200 Broadway shows for Martha Graham, New York City Ballet, and the Metropolitan Opera. She also brought to Broadway such famous musicals as West Side Story (1957), Sound of Music (1959), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Fiddler on the Roof (1964), Hello, Dolly! (1964), and Cabaret (1966).

She died of cancer at the age of 57 on May 1, 1969. Her book, The Magic of Light was published posthumously in 1972. Lael Wertenbaker assembled the book, a long-running project between him and Rosenthal, from tape-recorded dictation sessions. It remains an important reference for lighting designers to this day.