Benny Gomes scribbles notes during a rendition of “Steam Heat” in the dust-filled O’Connell Theatre. Once the dancers come to a halt and the house lights come up, Gomes leans over my shoulder.

-“You’ll need at least three more cues there,” he says.

As a graduate student enrolled in Theater 649, Lighting the Dance, I had the opportunity to learn that a lighting cue means a change in color or intensity of light onstage. My main assignment, along with graduate lighting students Jason Anderson and Kia Rogers, was to design the lighting for “Give My Regards to Broadway,” the dance show opening tonight at the Stevens Building’s O’Connell Theatre.

Gomes is the lighting director for the NIU School of Theater and Dance and the instructor of Theater 649. He’s spent his life sculpting with light, traveling all over the globe to advance his craft. Gomes has lighted music videos for Duran Duran, designed puppets for U2’s Pop Mart Tour and designed costumes for the opening ceremonies for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, the 1996 Games in Atlanta and the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, for which he won an Emmy.

Anderson is one of two graduate students being taught by Gomes. A native of Stevens Point, Wis., Anderson has spent most of his academic career in the theater, earning a bachelor of fine arts degree in technical theater and design at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point.

Rogers is a native of Wilmington, N.C. Rogers received her bachelor of arts in theater at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington.

Lighting in a theater is arguably more difficult than lighting anything else. Once you hang your instruments (lights) and the curtain is pulled, the lighting has to be just right. Unlike filmmaking, there can be no “cut” to shoot a new take if the lighting does not look right. Many considerations have to be made, such as whether the light brings out the themes or emotions of the piece.

-“You know if it’s working if the scene catches fire,” Gomes said. “You know that it works because everything just comes together. You can feel the rhythm of the stage and the performers, and you know it worked.”

I was able to take a front-row seat from start to finish of the “Give My Regards to Broadway” dance show — from the first production meeting to the last tech rehearsal during “Hell Week.”

Preperation

The show consists of 12 pieces from several Broadway shows. The pieces range from the elaborate, scenery-driven “Princess Zenobia” to the three-dancer, empty-stage rendition of “Steam Heat.”

Our first step to begin lighting the dances was to meet with our choreographer, a key first step for any designer planning to light a dance show.

“Most shows would have a choreographer. We have four, and each one of them has their own style,” Anderson said. “It’s very important how you communicate with these four people, how you tell them what you’re planning.”

It’s also critical for the lighting designer to study the music that will accompany the dance. This enables them to determine where to set their cue and what sort of intensity and color that they will use in the piece.

-“Studying the music is one of the most important things, because it’s what the choreographer will be working off of as well,” Rogers said. “I look for shifts in the music, if there’s a tempo change, the overall feel.”

After the music and the choreography were researched and countless notes were taken, it was time to design the plot. The lighting plot basically is a diagram of where each specific instrument will be hung in the theater. Considering the multitude of pieces featured in the Broadway dance show, it was important the designers communicated to make sure all of their needs were met.

“You have three designers sharing the same plot, so it amounts to coming together on where the basic lighting instruments need to be,” Gomes said. “You have to look at it as time versus art versus money — what it is that the show has to have, what the show wants, and you need to make sure you have the time to do it.”

In the end, the Broadway dance plot scheduled the crew to hang 221 instruments.

“On Broadway, each 8-foot-by-8-foot section of the stage has between five and 12 lights. So once you divide of the stage, it fills up quickly,” Anderson said. “In the professional world, we would be on the small scale. New York would have around 500.”

THE HANG

On a Sunday morning, the crew meets to hang all 221 of these instruments. It’s possibly one of the most physically demanding days, and working at the Stevens Building doesn’t help much.

The heating sometimes malfunctions, causing the students to don coats and gloves while taking notes. The air conditioners are so loud that the students have trouble hearing in class, making communicating with the instructor difficult.

“We feel like the lonely child that is not being taken care of,” Anderson said.

-Alex Gelman, director of the School of Theatre and Dance, said a $17.5 million renovation for the Stevens Building has been requested. The Stevens Building is the No. 1 capital priority for the university, Gelman said.

The money would be used to bring the building up to date with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which would entail adding an elevator into the building. Other funds would be used to improve the scene shop and for other general classroom improvements.

As the students in the department wait for a renovation, the crew hangs each instrument in its intended position with time to spare.

The Focus

After the lights are hung, each designer must make sure the instruments designated to his or her piece are focused correctly.

“Focusing is where you find out, ‘Did I indeed think of everything? Is this actually going to work?” Anderson said. “Now, where it’s focused becomes the art. Not only seeing if the light is doing what it’s supposed to do, but what it’s supposed to do artistically.”

Once all of the instruments were focused, the designers prepared their notes for the treacherous week of rehearsals to follow.

Hell Week

-Once the instruments are focused, “Hell Week” begins. All of the pieces must be rehearsed, then rehearsed again. Dancers start and are ordered to halt by the designers and crew. This is to ensure that every lighting cue we designed is ready to be called directly on show night. This takes practice from the stage manager and his crew, who will be responsible if something does not go as planned on show night.

During Hell Week, tension runs high in the department, since the show takes such enormous effort from the technical crew. Between pieces, crew members must rush behind a closed curtain to ensure each piece of scenery and prop is ready for the next set of dancers when they take the stage. The stress reaches its highest levels, but the department, like any great theater company, continues to follow through. They continue to produce award-winning students, and their tough-as-nails work ethic seems to help their cause.

Now, Hell Week has come and gone, and today, the “Give My Regards to Broadway” dance show will premiere, with “One,” “Cell Block Tango,” “Shoeless Joe” and “Beauty School Drop Out” designed by Jason Anderson; “Broadway Melody,” Princess Zenobia,” “I Enjoy Being a Girl,” and “Anything Goes” designed by Kia Rogers; and “Steam Heat” and “Hand Jive” designed by yours truly.

After a recent rehearsal of “Hand Jive,” Gomes stood up and said, “Not bad for first light.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the closest I’ll ever come to winning a Tony Award.