About Me

I am a Chicago based light designer, currently in my third year at Northwestern, though I am geographically flexible and have done work in New York City and Washington DC. I am the resident lighting designer at Gwydion Theatre Company and the Technical Director for Seesaw Theatre.

My design is based off of three tenets:

Art in spite of

the idea that no production will come without its struggles. What defines a process, though, is how the team collaboratively overcomes these struggles and produces beautiful art in spite of these factors

Serious play

borrowed from the Northwestern School of Communication, the idea that while collaboration ought to be taken seriously, we ought to cultivate an environment where we nonetheless feel comfortable having fun and playing around

Feelings are fact

the idea that theatre is a fantastical world that has the unique ability to respond to the feelings of the characters in it. I approach my design from this standpoint: the feelings and emotional arcs of the characters are just as important as the “facts” of the world

While not a tenet, I also enjoy making chairs look particularly good in my designs

I love meeting new people, so don’t hesitate to reach out via email at samjbessler@gmail.com or @sjblights on Instagram.