Design elements are integral to a theater production: Without a set, lights, sound, costumes, and props, there would be no show. But in TheatreSquared’s new production, “The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity”, the wild, colorful, and electrifying design elements that coalesce in T2’s West Theatre are so vital to the show’s premise, they’re almost like an onstage character.

Take lighting designer John Alexander’s work on the show, for example: Beams of color and light herald the wrestlers’ entrances, pulsing and throbbing along to Beth Lake’s pounding sound design, dancing off of the extravagant costumes designed by Ruby Kemph, and injecting a level of excitement into the theater that rivals any pay-per-view wrestling extravaganza.

“This is a fun show to light,” says Alexander, whose work was last seen on the T2 stage in “The Royale”. “It’s kind of combining the techniques of a theater production and a crazy wrestling event. Sometimes, in theater, we call it ‘flash and trash’, like when you go to a rock concert, and you see all of the lights in the air moving around, sometimes, seemingly, with no intention. But of course, in our show, it has quite a bit of intention behind it.”

For “Chad”, in particular, Alexander faced challenges unlike a more traditionally staged production.

“It was a lot, because, of course, there were so many unknowns with this show,” he says. “Our playing space is a wrestling ring. But then there's also what I like to call ‘The Moat,” which is the area between the ring itself and the audience, where actors can walk on all four sides of the ring—there’s action there, too. And then you have the platform upstage, you have the aisles. Our director, Dexter, loves to put folks any and everywhere, so it’s always exciting for me to see how he’s going to use the space. And I think he did a brilliant job of doing so.”

In the earliest stages, a lot of the design work on a production is solitary but grows increasingly more collaborative as the production moves along. This is especially true with a play like “Chad”, where each part of the design work is carefully layered on top of one another to created Chad Deity’s increasingly more and more elaborate entrances throughout the show.

“It’s interesting—we like to think that there's no hierarchy in how that collaboration happens,” he says. “But I can’t light a play without words, I can’t design a musical without music. So there comes a point in the timeline of development within the collaboration where things are needed—I need to hear sounds in order to build those entrances, or I need the set in order to know where the actors will stand. So there’s definitely collaboration when we all come together.

“For this one, [projection designer] C.J. [Barnwell] and [sound designer] Beth [Lake] and I pulled out what I like to call ‘our paint brushes’, our tools to sculpt, during tech for the most part. We went in not necessarily completely blind, but we definitely had to be extremely collaborative in the moment. During tech, once we have an idea of what a moment in the play will look like, how it will move, we all fine tune the timing around that moment.”

Alexander initially came under the spell of theater at the age of five, when he first got involved with a production his Maryland church produced every December. But this was no ordinary Christmas pageant.

“There were 200 people in the cast,” he says. “I fell in love with the art of telling a story in a communal sense. I loved the fact that I could be on stage with my friends and tell a story and have fun. And, to add to that, we had high production values—the church hired a production company to handle that show, so I was exposed to what the possibilities would be in theater at my church. In the first act, it would start out in the 18th century with Christmas carolers with full dresses, top hats, horses and carriages, dogs, birds. Then the second act, which was biblical, would tell the story of the birth of Jesus all the way through the crucifixion and resurrection. We would have live donkeys, camels for the kings, Jesus would actually ascend, and there would be pyrotechnics. It was quite ridiculous—but amazing. And it opened my eyes to what the possibilities are in theater.”

He performed with his church through the age of 16, by which time he had gotten involved in theater in school, as well. When a teacher suggested he start delving into the world of technical theater, he was taken aback to realize it was an actual career path he could consider.

“I played a few soundtracks at a dance concert, and, when the show was over, [the teacher] handed me some money, and I said, ‘Oh, we get paid for this?’” he remembers, laughing. ‘’’I could get a job doing this?’ From there, I was super interested and started doing research, and the entire world of lighting design kind of unfolded for me. And it wasn’t specific to theaters—lighting is everything, right? It’s residential, it’s corporate, it’s theatrical, it’s everywhere. But theater grabbed my heart first, and I just stuck with it.”

In addition to “The Royale”, Alexander also worked on T2’s production of “Skeleton Crew”, making “Chad” his third T2 production. He says he’s always eager to come back.

“When I got here this time, I made a point to let [T2 production manager] Kat Wepler know that I really enjoy the accommodations that she makes for her designers and artists. There’s a great intentionality to who is hired. It’s happening more now in theater, after George Floyd, after the pandemic, that theaters are very intentional about who they hire in terms of what the context of the play is and who the designers will be. There’s something special about having folks of like culture working on a play that speaks to that culture. Kat understood that before, while other theaters are just now trying to grapple with that idea. From the jump, I understood what she was about, and I appreciate the intentionality in who she put in the room for each show.”

Lighting Designer John Alexander talks "Chad Deity"