Tharon Musser Dead at age 84

[crboltz]

Most of you have no idea who Tharon Musser was, much less why you should care that she died. However, Ms. Musser redefined the way lighting design was handled in the theatre. She pushed for lighting design to be considered its own field with in the designer's union and was instrumental in designing the original admittance test for lighting designers in the union. She was the first to use computer controlled lighting on Broadway (on the original production of A CHORUS LINE). Her broadway credits begin in 1956 and continued until 1999, a total of 117 productions that opened on Broadway, not to mention the numerous regional productions she lit. She has be inactive for the last 10 years due to a battle with Alzheimer's. I had the opportunity to sneak into a bit of technical rehearsal for CANDIDE at the Ahmanson theatre in 1995 to watch her work for a few moments. Her lighting was probably the best thing about that production.

An obituary is at:
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/128437.html