ALPD awards three new Fellowships

At the Annual Lighting Lunch held on Monday 15th December, the Association for Lighting Production and Design (The ALPD) awarded three new Fellowships to Gerry Amies, Michael Hulls and Sarah Rushton-Read.

Fellowship of the ALPD is awarded to someone who, in the opinion of the Executive have rendered signal service to the technical aspects of the art of lighting.

GERRY AMIES Started theatre work at Theatre Royal Norwich in the early 70s before moving to the opera world, working for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Kent Opera and English National Opera.  Since that time he has worked on a huge variety of shows in the West End and elsewhere, including La Cage Aux Folles at the London Palladium, Beauty and The Beast  (Dominion), Jesus Christ Superstar  (Lyceum Theatre), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Lord of the Rings (Theatre Royal Drury Lane),  War Horse) (Gillian Lynne – UK Tour – World Tour) Crazy for You  (Gillian Lynne).

MICHAEL HULLS  Michael trained in Dance and Theatre at Dartington College of Arts and by accident became a lighting designer who has worked exclusively in the dance world for the past 35 years.  He is perhaps best known for his long term collaborations with leading choreographers such as Russell Maliphant, and Akram Khan sharing four Olivier awards for Best New Dance Production with them.

He was the recipient of the 2014 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance and Knight of Illumination Awards in 2009 and 2016. Michael is an associate artist of Sadler’s Wells Theatre where in 2016 he created the memorable LightSpace installation at the Wells, the first presentation on the main stage without dancers or performers.

In 2023 he was awarded an OBE for services to Dance and the Arts. He is an Honorary Fellow of Rose Bruford College where he is a visiting professional on the Light in Performance MA course.  He is now enjoying retirement in Hastings with his partner and their dogs.

SARAH RUSHTON-READ started out as an actress before moving to stage management.  Noticing the   better-paid roles were in the male-dominated tech departments, she went back to college for an HND in electronic engineering, secured a placement at the Royal Opera House, and found herself firmly ‘doing’ lighting.

Two years later she was teaching at Guildhall, then to Glyndebourne, where she became Deputy Lighting Manager and designed for touring productions.

She moved into production management with PRG, co-founded an event lighting company, and after 9/11 forced another rethink, shifted into journalism as Deputy Editor of Lighting & Sound International. From there she built a PR firm, embarked on Masters degrees in PR and then in Energy & Environment, and began championing sustainability long before it became fashionable.

Her mission in press and PR has always been to make backstage work visible: through trade press, brand strategy, awards, and by naming the issues usually left smouldering in the wings. That led to founding Eco Theatre, co-founding Women in Stage Entertainment with Paule Constable, and helping grow the Knight of Illumination Awards into a major international celebration of design.  She says of her career:

“I was, more often than not, the first woman in the room — something that taught me how to hold space, open firmly closed doors, and leave them ajar for the next under represented person coming through.”

The ALPD would like to thank Paul de Ville of Goboplus for sponsorship of the Awards presented.