Olivia Lights Up Our World

Originally published on The JOLT News on September 11, 2025

On the evening I attended Harlequin Production’s (HQP) "POTUS" show, I decided to meander through town and chat with strangers. Can you tell I am an extrovert?

Along the way, I met Olivia Burlingame and thoroughly enjoyed our conversation, and the one that followed on the phone a couple weeks later. Burlingame lights up our world in more than one way, and I am honored that I get to share our conversation with you.

Artistic adventures

Lighting designer, director of operations and patron services for HQP, proud member of the Cowlitz Tribe, and current graduate student at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Burlingame leads a life of adventure.

Burlingame is working on her master's degree in design for performance, also known as “lighting.” Actors, such as Anthony Hopkins and Richard Burton attended Burlingame’s school, and eventually had buildings on campus named after them.

Burlingame goes back and forth between Wales and her home in Olympia during school breaks, but she is grateful for her 13-plus years at HQP.

"I am really lucky that they let me stay on remotely because I can do a lot of my job on the computer,” Burlingame said.  “They have been really wonderful to me.”

Burlingame is grateful for when she is home for the summer and gets to work in person.

Within the last four to five years, Burlingame has brought her lighting design prowess to the HQP stage with productions, including “Hedwig and the Angry Itch,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “The Revolutionists,” and most recently in the 2024 production of “Pride and Prejudice.”

Learning more about Burlingame, I discovered she is a legend in her own right. I hope you will all join me in celebrating her and sending her well wishes as she heads back to Wales for school.

Watch the lighting

Have you ever been to a show where the ambiance felt warm and nostalgic? How about a show that scares you and raises the hair on your arms? If a show ever brought you strong feelings deep in your core, I imagine the lighting played some role in it.

Warmer lighting often suggests feelings of happiness, but is also used in period pieces  to create an ambiance of lanterns or candlelight.

“In Little Shop of Horrors, when Seymour is in the flower shop, he is happy because he gets to do what he enjoys and gets to see Audrey, so I used a little pink light.” Burlingame said. “When Seymour was out in Skid Row, I used a little more sepia, kind of gross amber light because it was dirty.”

Lighting artists spend a lot of time thinking about color, and how that will affect everything on stage. Complementary colors are their best friends, but they can become quite complicated when trying to compliment multiple costume colors or skin tones on stage.

“One actor I worked with had very dark skin, and so I decided to use yellow in his song because it compliments his skin tone and one of the background dancers disappeared a little bit which was OK in consideration of the plot at that moment.” Burlingame said.

“One of the dancers was originally wearing a brown dress, and when it ripped ... one day, they replaced it with a blue dress. I came halfway through the run and went ‘Oh no, all you can see is her blue dress’ (because blue is closer to yellow’s complimentary color, purple).”

Stories like those remind us of how every detail is important when crafting a show and directing and audience’s gaze.

Illuminations to carry with you

Lighting artists are more powerful than they often get credit for, as “any lighting can manipulate your emotions and what you are feeling.” One stereotype Burlingame has heard is that “if you are doing your job right, no one will notice the lights.”

There is something sad about that stereotype because there is truly stunning work being done with lighting, and moments that are so beautiful and creative, where so much love and thought was put into it. 

Next time you are at a show, I encourage you to take a moment to pay attention to the lighting and discover what treasures have been created with your feelings in mind.

When you come home, consider the lighting in your home and how it makes you feel, and make whatever adjustments you want to set the tone just the way you like it for your own grand story.

Olivia lights up our world | The JOLT News Organization, a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit