Lighting Designer Charlie Morgan Jones
This month’s Leading Light is Charlie Morgan Jones. A previous nominee for the WhatsOnStage Best Lighting Design Award, his work spans the full theatrical spectrum, from multiple musical productions to the West End to immersive theatre to international operas. He’s currently at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool with Derren Brown Underground and has taken the time out to speak to us about his story so far.
As always with Leading Light, we go back to the very beginning and for Charlie this is Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, which is in South Wales. He comments: “I was born and raised in Barry and lived there till I was 18. It’ll always be home for me. It’s very much a quiet town where the people are nice and everyone knows who you are. My bedroom window opened out onto the Bristol Channel and it really was a blissful place to grow up”. Charlie was an only child and lived with his mum and dad. He explains: “Mum is an English teacher and always took me to the theatre throughout my childhood. Dad is a photographer and my Grandparents loved classical music and I remember going to the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. Therefore I was certainly raised in a very ‘artsy’ family”.
Having attended theatre from the point where he admits to being “the screaming baby at the back”, Charlie’s personal first memory of theatre comes from when he was aged four. He recalls: “The first thing I remember seeing was a production of Turandot at the Welsh National Opera. It was just incredible. I remember this corrugated set which featured hundreds of heads all across the stage. It was lit by a woman called Heather Carson and I randomly looked back at the production shots a couple of years ago and it still looked spectacular”.
Charlie in his Cathedral School Llandaff uniform
Despite his mum being an English teacher, Charlie is the first to admit that he was far from academic. He comments: “I went to a lovely school in Llandaff which was about eight miles away in Cardiff. The teachers there were great and really pushed me. That said, I didn’t push back. I literally just wanted to spend every day larking around and making people laugh. I didn’t really put in the energy to apply myself to anything”.
During his schooldays, Charlie continued to see a lot of shows. He comments: “With the New Theatre being based in Cardiff, this meant that they had a different show each week and whether it was am dram, musical, farce or panto, mum and dad would always take me”. Charlie also took part in the school plays which were held every summer and Christmas. His first ‘theatrical credit’ was his unforgettable portrayal of a Rabbit in Wind in the Willows at the age of 7. Yet school was to further Charlie’s passion for theatre when a new state-of-the-art theatre was built. Charlie recalls: “I was 13 years old and for some unknown reason, my parents had bought me a smoke machine. I told my Drama teacher who asked me if she could borrow it for a show. I said yes and then she asked if I wanted to light it as well. I didn’t really know what I was agreeing to but I just said yes!”. Charlie ended up making his lighting debut on what he describes as “Stars in Their Eyes extravangza”. He recalls: “I lit the show on a two scene desk so it was literally on off, on off. That said, I had a blast and my teacher let me light lots of other shows. I think I became the only designer in history to light Joseph without any colour! Then again I was just having a good time and enjoyed the whole lighting process”.
Concorde would actually have a big influence on Charlie’s career choice.
Yet Charlie didn’t want to be a designer just yet. Rather, he had other ambitions: “I wanted to be a pilot – something I wanted to be for as long as I can remember”. And there was one particular plane that Charlie has a somewhat unhealthy obsession with: “I was madly obsessed with Concorde. My aunt lived in Reading which was on the flightpath to Heathrow and at 5:30pm every evening, I would run into the garden as soon as I heard the plane up ahead. I was so obsessed that, when I was ten, I wrote to British Airways saying I love Concorde and they needed to help me. To my amazement, a chap called Claude Freeman wrote back who was then Head of British Airways Maintenance. He asked if I wanted to spend a day at our maintenance facility and I, of course, said yes! I spent the whole day on a Concorde but not just any Concorde – the flagship plane named G-BOAC. I even received a Blue Peter badge”.
However, Charlie’s dream of flying Concorde was to be quickly dashed when he was just 15. He recalls: “They decommissioned Concorde which was a genuine blow to my piloting dreams. It felt like there was no end goal now as my ultimate ambition was to fly that plane”.
Charlie during his work experience days at Wales Millennium Centre.
While his Concorde dream was coming to an end, Charlie was still busy lighting shows at school. He recalls: “My Drama teacher, Claire Morgan, was very supportive. She would let me stand on chairs to rig lights and I even had a key to the drama studio (something I would use when I wanted to skip Chemistry). I used to spend all my time in there, playing with levels and cue timings. It was a very basic desk with 24 channels on top and 24 on bottom but it was my be all and end all”. Charlie soon became the school’s go to lighting designer and began to explore lighting outside of the drama studio. He recalls: “When I was 16, my mum introduced me to Perryn Leech, Welsh National Opera’s Technical Director. I soon embarked on work Experience on WNO Max’s Candide which was a fantastic experience. Perryn would also prove to be extremely supportive of me and introduced me to Dorset Opera – where I did two seasons as Assistant Lighting Designer. I was lucky enough to return in 2014 to light their 40th anniversary season as the fully fledged LD”.
Charlie passed his GCSEs and continued with his A Levels, which included Drama, Physics, Maths Statistics and Geography. He comments: “I went to a college that was different to my high school and really didn’t enjoy it. The only fond memory I have is spending time in the theatre! I also used to host a show on the local radio station called Spotlight which was all about theatre”.
During this time, Charlie continued his work experience at the Wales Millennium Centre, which included Acorn Antiques – the Musical. It was here he met Technical Director Dicky Burgess who said if Charlie wanted a job as a followspotter, he should email Dicky when he was 18. Charlie comments: “The day after my 18th birthday I emailed him and was offered a job as a followspotter: something I did for five years. The first show I worked on there was White Christmas where I was lucky enough to meet Lighting Designer Ken Billington. I remember he told me: ‘Kid, if they walk and talk, they get a light'”.
Rose Bruford was a life-changing experience for Charlie.
Yet all this focus on theatre meant Charlie’s studies were neglected and he failed his exams. However, he wasn’t giving up on education just yet: “Whilst I was working at the WMC, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was visiting and the Chief LX was a chap called Chris Vaughn. He told me to apply to drama school as he felt it would be a great experience for me. So, I applied to Rose Bruford in secret – mainly as I didn’t think I’d get in. I was then invited to interview with Rachel Nicholson and to my complete and utter surprise, she offered me a place!”. Charlie soon left Barry and made his way to London; something he describes as “terrifying and great”. And it seems that Rose Bruford was the one educational institution where Charlie really felt at home. He comments: “I had the most incredible three years at Rose Bruford and really honed my craft. The Programme Director Hansjorg Schmidt was the most nurturing man and gave me some incredible support. I took the Lighting Design course although not everyone taking it wanted to be an LD (one is now a Royal Navy Officer!). That said, I knew for a fact that this was what I was going to do and that marked me out slightly”.
During his time at Rose Bruford, Charlie began to work at the Vaudeville as a Board Operator. He recalls: “Working at the Vaudeville was also an education in itself as I got to see a new lighting designer’s work on a new show every three months. Peter Mumford lit the first show I worked on there (you can read Peter’s Leading Light here) whereas Mark Henderson lit the second one. You essentially had the dons of lighting design coming in and I was behind them in a dress rehearsal. It was at that point when I thought – I could be this guy”.