Meet the Maker

Amy Clarke - Senior Lighting Programmer

Join us in a journey of discovery, where we go behind the scenes and learn about how we light our productions

‘The variety in the productions we put on is extraordinary, if you’ve seen one, you definitely haven’t seen them all!’

AMY CLARKe, senior Lighting Programmer.

Amy Clarke has worked at Glyndebourne for 14 years. Her first season at Glyndebourne was in 2012 as an Assistant Lighting Technician; she started programming in 2014.

As a Senior Lighting Programmer, Amy responds to the lighting designer, who makes all the artistic choices, to ensure their designs work technically.

During the rehearsal process, the designer creates the ‘looks’ of each scene and Amy programmes them into the lighting desk, so that by the time the show opens, she only needs to press ‘go’ on the lighting cues at the right time.

Photo by Alun Callender

Photo by Sam Stephenson

my job is more than just lighting.

People may not know that as a lighting programmer, I not only programme stage lighting, I also programme smoke, haze, snow machines, conductor monitors, worklight in the wings, music stand lights in the pit, integration of video cues, and many other stage effects.

In my time at Glyndebourne, I have programmed a violin case opening on a lighting cue for Faust, a simulation of a houselights failure for La Finta, mechanised petal drops for Semele, and flashing car lights for the police car in Carmen.

Planning starts a long time before productions go on stage.

There’s approximately 120 lighting cues in La Boheme, and 222 in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Railway Children was also a highly technical show, with many scenery and lighting changes.

We have spent a long time visualising the set moves and lighting positions in a virtual 3D space. Before the set had even been built on stage, we already had 163 lighting cues and 76 video cues programmed into the lighting desk.

Photo by Richard Hubert Smith

It’s impossible to pick a favourite production, but some highlights are...

Eugene Onegin has a special place in my heart as it was the first festival production I programmed, and Hamlet stands out as both a joy to work on and a product that we all felt immensely proud of. I’m also a big early music fan, so anything by Handel is a treat. I really enjoy Rinaldo for it’s innocent comedy, and Saul for it’s genius originality.

I love Billy Budd – the lighting design is exquisite. I’m excited for it to return for Festival 2026!

My top tip for an audience member is…

To arrive in good time to explore the beautiful surroundings here, and be sure to come back! The variety in the productions we put on is extraordinary, if you’ve seen one, you definitely haven’t seen them all.