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Tharon Musser
Video Interview Filmmaker/ Interviewer: Lisa Aronson
http://lightingdb.nypl.org/productions/3
NOTE: On March 10, 2021 the New York Public Library dismantled the Theatrical Lighting Database and archived its cover pages.
Those files can still all be found here on The Lighting Archive.
Tharon Myrene Musser was born as Kathleen Welland in Roanoke, Virginia, on January 8th, 1924. After the early death of her birth parents, she was adopted by George and Hazel Musser in 1929, and named Tharon. She graduated from Berea College in Kentucky in 1946, and earned a Master of Arts from Yale Drama School in 1950, where she studied technical design and lighting. Musser took a break from Yale to spend most of 1948 in Alaska as a Civilian Actress Technician (CAT), helping soldiers put on shows.
Musser moved to New York after graduating from Yale. She was involved with the experimental theatre company Studio 7, the 92nd Street Y, and the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford CT. Musser was a member of United Scenic Artists, the union for designers, artists and craftspeople working in film, theatre, opera, ballet, television, industrial shows, commercials and exhibitions.
The first Broadway production Musser designed was the original production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night (1956). This was the start of Musser's long and successful Broadway career. Plays she designed over the next fifty years included original New York productions of J. B. (1958), The Entertainer (1958), A Delicate Balance (1966), The Lion in Winter (1966),The Birthday Party (1967), After the Fall (1967), The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971), California Suite (1976), Children of a Lesser God (1980), The Real Thing (1982), Rumors (1988), and Artist Descending a Staircase (1989), as well as many revivals of classic plays.
During this period, Musser was also Broadway's leading lighting designer for musicals, working on such shows as Li'l Abner (1956), Mame (1966), Applause (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), A Chorus Line (1975), Pacific Overtures (1976), Ballroom (1978), 42nd Street (1980), Dreamgirls (1981), and The Secret Garden (1991). In addition to the Broadway productions for which Musser was most famous, she designed for dance; opera; and Off-Broadway, repertory, and international theater.
Over the course of her career, Musser was nominated for ten Tony Awards for Best Lighting Design, and won for Follies, A Chorus Line, and Dreamgirls. Musser's work on A Chorus Line was considered revolutionary because it was the first to use a computerized electronic lighting board, an advance that changed the field of lighting design. Musser was also a generous mentor to young lighting designers including Ken Billington, Brian Nason, Vivien Leone, David Lander, and Musser's life partner, Marilyn Rennagel.
Tharon Musser died in Newton, Connecticut, on April 19, 2009.
bio from NYPL Archives