ALPD welcomes new President and two new Directors

L-R: Rick Fisher, Vic Pyne, Matt Drury.

At its recent AGM The Association for Lighting Production and Design (ALPD) has announced that Rick Fisher will be its new President.

Rick has been a lighting designer working in the UK and around the world since the 80’s. He is a Fellow of the ALPD and previously a Chair and Vice President of the ALPD.

Rick is founding trustee of Backup Tech, our industry charity, also a committee member of Showlight 2025 and a former board member of the United Scenic Artists in the USA.  Rick has been honoured with numerous awards for his work around the world such as; Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Ovation and Helpmann awards as well as the Enrico Caironi award for Lifetime Achievement.

Rick said: “I am honoured to follow the esteemed and inspiring Richard Pilbrow as President of the ALPD. Richard set us all the challenge to keep this organisation, that he helped to found, relevant to the ever-changing needs of our membership which include all who are passionate about lighting.

Those colleagues who gathered for the occasional Rules lunches could never have imagined the growth and vibrancy of the lighting community over the past 60 years leading to the use of our skills and creativity in so many areas.

The ALPD continues to be an essential resource for us all. I am very much looking forward to working with our membership, and our hard-working Executive to continue to welcome new members, and to find new ways to support and promote all of us involved and passionate about lighting.”

The ALPD also welcomes two new directors to its Board:   Vic Pyne, Head of Lighting at Glyndebourne and Matt Drury, Head of Lighting at the National Theatre.

Vic Pyne has been working in the lighting industry for almost 30 years, starting out at Liverpool Everyman Theatre in the mid 90s with no experience, just determination and a burning desire to run up and down ladders carrying heavy lights! Over the years she has held many positions from assistant lighting technician to deputy head of lighting in venues such as Scottish Opera, Glyndebourne, Theatr Clwyd and Manchester Royal Exchange.  Then, for most of the noughties she worked across the globe as freelance associate LD, relighter and programmer, whilst at the same time heading up the lighting team at Garsington Opera.  After taking up post as deputy head of lighting at ENO in 2007, she finally returned to Glyndebourne Opera nine years later as Head of Lighting.   She lives in East Sussex with husband and son, and a variety of unruly animals.

Matt Drury trained at the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.  Matt has been working in the Lighting profession for over 30 years, in a variety of roles as a Lighting technician, in both a regional and freelance capacity, a Lighting Designer for over 70 professional theatre productions & corporate events and a Lighting Tutor at both RADA and LAMDA, as well as previously being LAMDA’s Technical Director.

Matt is a member of the ALPD Wellbeing working group, a previous mentor on the International Fred Foster Mentorship Program for ETC, as well as involvement with the Save Stage Lighting/Ecodesign campaign and an early contributor to the Theatre Green Book. He is also a member of the ABTT.

Matt was the former Head of Lighting at the Royal Court Theatre and is currently the Head of Lighting at the National Theatre.