Michael Oesch Lighting Designer

I am a Union Lighting Designer who specializes in designing Musicals, Opera, Ballet, and Theatre. I am based in San Francisco, and I have been designing lighting for stage productions for over 20 years, and I have designed over 300 productions. I am drawn to the collaborative nature of stage design, and I love to bring the visions of the authors, composers, directors, and my fellow designers, to life on the stage.
Some of the companies that I have designed lighting for are San Francisco Playhouse, Arizona Theatre Company, The Magic Theatre, El Teatro Campesino, Contra Costa Musical Theatre, Broadway by the Bay, West Edge Opera Festival, Berkeley Playhouse, 42nd Street Moon, Center Repertory Company, Pacific Coast Repertory Theatre, Trinity Lyric Opera, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Douglas Morrison Theatre, Project Artaud, and Peninsula Youth Theatre among others.
I also have extensive experience in designing lighting for dance, and touring productions for Dance and Ballet. I have been designing for, and working as the Lighting Supervisor for Smuin Ballet since 2004. I have designed over 20 ballets for that company. I have also designed lighting for many other dance companies including Smuin Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, 13th Floor Dance Theatre, Mark Foehringer Dance Company, Alonzo King's Lines Ballet (training company), Tango & More, and Dance Continuum, among others.
I have also worked as a guest artist/lecturer at several educational institutions including San Francisco State University, Illinois Wesleyan University, and Solano College Theatre Department. I earned my Master of Fine Arts degree from University of California, Davis, specializing in Lighting Design, and my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Illinois Wesleyan University.
Live performance inspires me, because I love the special connection of working with my fellow professionals, to bring the performance to life and really touch the lives of the audience members.

Industry Specializations

Live Performance

Circus / Ice Show

Dance

Opera

Special Events

Theatre

Recorded Media

Motion Pictures

Job Specializations

Assistant Designer (LD)

Associate Designer (LD)

Skills

Basic

Architectural Lighting (LD)

Drafting - Computer (LD)

Drafting - Hand (LD)

Moving Light Design (LD)

Moving Light Programming (LD)

Lighting Consoles

EOS/ION (LD)

Express (LD)

Expression (LD)

Obsession (LD)

Strand (LD)

Moving Light Consoles

GrandMA (LD)

Software

AutoCAD (LD)

Lightwright (LD)

Vectorworks (LD)