Gillian Tan

Underbelly’s Cabaret Royale in the Spiegeltent at the Gaillard Center, Charleston — part of the Spoleto Festival USA. A touring cabaret spectacular under canvas, with all the warmth and glow that a Spiegeltent demands.

Lighting a Spiegeltent is a particular kind of pleasure: the mirror panels and curved wood do half the work, and the job is to play with that — building something that feels simultaneously intimate and uncontained. Cabaret Royale is high-gloss variety entertainment, and the design had to match that energy: rich, saturated, responsive to the room and to the performers.