Phillips was famed for his unfussy and uncluttered lighting techniques, believing that if lighting was noticed it was essentially bad lighting. During his time at the Royal Court he was given free reign to experiment with lighting, which ultimately resulted in the famous 'white light' technique where, if colour was used at all it tended to be colour correction reducing the orange cast of tungsten sources. This method aimed to retain the natural skin tone of an actors face and ensure total visual clarity of facial expression. During this period many of the Court's set designers were also dispensing with the artifice of theatre, often removing masking and leaving stage and lighting exposed. John Dexter, speaking of Phillips in The Daily Telegraph last week, said: "he perfected the art of defining the stage space and forcing the actors to dominate it."
Phillips worked with many of the exciting and groundbreaking directors and playwrights of the period, he lit several of Edward Bond's earlier plays - Bond also began his theatrical career as a stagehand at the Royal Court Theatre.
In the summer of 1971, with Court colleagues John Simpson and Rory Dempster, the latter of whom also passed away this year, Phillips created the well known and successful hire and creative services company, White Light, naming it after the lighting techniques they had developed during Phillips residency at the Royal Court.
Phillips lit over 80 professional productions at the Court, many of which were world premieres. On his departure he maintained links with several of the directors he had worked with most notable of which was with John Dexter. For two of their many collaborations he was nominated for Tony Awards, Equus and M.Butterfly
According to the White Light website Phillips preferred lighting tool was the Strand Patt 264, however this never stopped him using new technology if he felt it was appropriate, in fact he was one of the first LD's to use colour scrollers on M.Butterfly and subsequently used automated lighting on his more recent shows such as Auntie & Me
A memorial service will be held today at St Paul's the Actors' Church in Covent Garden, London at 3pm. More information on Andy Phillips can be found on the White Light website below including his theatrical biography.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
