Sunshine De Castro: Truth and Beauty.
Emerging lighting designer whose work on Broadway and beyond is guided by
Emerging lighting designer whose work on Broadway and beyond is guided by
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Sunshine De Castro will tell you her name was the first sign. The pen hitting the paper, her parents writing it for the first time: Sunshine. It seems like no coincidence that she became a lighting designer.
She came to the discipline sideways, through acting, through crew positions, through the moment she watched a production bloom as color wrapped itself around it. What fascinated her was not the technology but the transformation: how light gets inside a scene and brings it outward. She has been chasing that ever since.
Her work on Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of PUNCH as a USA829 Lighting Design Membership Candidate crystallized something she had been building toward: a design eye that aligned, a team that welcomed her suggestions, and the feeling of a Broadway spot cue landing exactly right.
Her guiding principle is as simple as it is demanding: truth and beauty, in this edition of NEW TALENTS.
I like to believe I was destined to be an artist. The first spark was the pen hitting the paper, parents gleefully writing my name for the first time: Sunshine. It seems like no coincidence that I would become a lighting designer. However, my journey towards lighting design was not linear. I wanted to be an actor but found few chances to be onstage. I took an interest in lighting design after working my way through numerous crew positions. Watching as the context of a production bloomed as it was enveloped in color (or lack thereof) fascinated me. I started designing shows my junior year and was so taken with the process. It involved much of what I loved about acting, and combined it with what I loved as an art maker: collaboration, beauty, getting inside of the scene and bringing it outward. That first spark has only grown and it has been a guiding light for me in difficult times with my career.
Currently, I’m working in architectural lighting. Though my tech table has turned into a corner desk, all aspects of that first spark are still with me in my sense of play, design, and work ethic.
I had the privilege of being a USA829 Lighting Design Membership Candidate on Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of PUNCH. This show was incredibly special to me with the play’s focus on restorative justice and prison as rehabilitation, but the team on this production was incredibly special as well. I learned a remarkable amount from Lighting Designer Robbie Butler, Associate Ken Wills, and Programmer Jeff Englander, as well as the electrics team who were also exceptionally skilled and welcoming.
I joined the team after a rough, but educational summer stock contract, ready to keep absorbing as much as I could about the industry and about assisting. The process was all I could’ve ever asked for and more. Being in that room, observing how seamlessly this team collaborated, and how my design eye aligned with Robbie’s style and approach was a tremendous learning experience. Throughout tech, my suggestions were welcomed and auditioned. Being responsible for the spot cues on a Broadway show was thrilling, with many of my choices were honored. This team made lighting design make sense to me in ways I had yet discovered. This production was pivotal in informing how I make design decisions now.
For me, moving to New York City was quite the challenge, but it was also the greatest greenhouse for my personal and professional growth. Coming from the Central Valley, my network was thousands of miles away. As a fresh grad, my skills were still so unrefined. I felt so alone. But the city gives only what you put in. It lit a fire within me to be relentless in my search for opportunity, community, and learning experiences. My struggles to acclimate taught me grit and humility, not to take anything personally. It taught me to be loud and wrong in order to learn. It also taught me the value of rest. And that there was so much I didn’t yet fully understand– in life, in industry, in personhood. Knowing now, that I truly know nothing, was the first step in my artistic journey. In this way, I have grown as an artist that absorbs varieties of methods, of disciplines, of experiences, all while leaving my ego at the door. I learned to be a primed canvas.
My largest sources of inspiration come from art history and from seeing others’ work. Which is a totally unoriginal answer, but one that informs all of my work.
I love viewing old master’s paintings, paintings from any and all movements in art history, all mediums of art, all styles, all influences. You name it, I have pinned it to a moodboard. It’s so inspiring to me because we, as humans, have been observing and rendering light for millenia. And I love how each movement and iteration of the same Sun we have been living with is rendered differently by each artist, or how innovations have transformed and continue to transform these perspectives. Which is also why I love viewing other’s work in the current context of lighting design, from theatrical to architectural. Light supports journeys, as well as creates them, and as a designer myself it’s such a treat to see where other designers can lead me, how they experience light.
As different as we may be, it’s the same Sun, anywhere on Earth.
I aim for my work to be invisible. That the light in the world I help to shape is just as it should be. It is not always flattering, but I hope that it is beautiful. As someone who often works on plays, rather than musicals it is my design mantra that the lighting move with the text and render the actors and elements truthfully. Coloring can be bold, but always within context. Strong compositions and satisfying contrast are my aim aesthetically; taking into the consideration the whole stage picture.
I love it when a cue completes right on time (thank you stage managers!), concurrent with the swell in music, or with an actor’s revelation, and you hear in the audience, a sigh or gasp– an audible reaction that everything worked in tandem with the story. Truth and beauty is my intent in all my designs.
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