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ETC recently caught up with Lighting Director and Designer Emily Miller about her impressive career in concert touring. A mentee from ETC's 2021 Fred Foster Student Mentorship Program, the ETC team first met Miller when she was completing her undergraduate degree at Lee University. Since then, she has worked with the likes of Lawrence, Ripe, Jon Bellion, and Motherfolk. Check out the Q&A below for Miller's thoughts about a career in touring, artistic collaboration, and mentorship in our industry.
ETC: Can you describe some of your most recent projects and what you’re working on next?
MILLER: In the past year, I've worked with the band Lawrence for their tour runs, festival sets, and one-offs. They have been touring their "Family Business" tour in North America, Europe, the UK, and Australia - and I've been along with them! I designed their biggest tour to date in North America last Fall and smaller, fly-date-friendly versions for the other continents. We are currently back out this fall in North America and Europe/the UK again with similar, updated designs.
In May and June, I had the privilege of designing/programming/operating lighting for two album release shows. One was Jon Bellion's Warehouse Album Release Listening Party in Brooklyn, the other was Motherfolk's Album Release Show in Cincinnati. I had an incredible time working on both! Between touring, I've been working as a House LD at Brooklyn Bowl Nashville. It has been a blast seeing the variety of shows that come through and connecting with the tours on their show days. It gives me the chance to witness how other LDs are running their ship, as well as understanding the opposite side of how the house can best assist the tour. Busking for a variety of musical genres has been exciting as well! One night I'm punting four metal bands, the next night Taylor Swift is sitting in during a show I'm lighting (that was crazy!); you never know what you'll be doing from one day to the next. As of right now, for 2026, I will be working more with Lawrence and at Brooklyn Bowl Nashville. I would love to delve into more touring and/or design work next year - seeing shows I've designed and programmed come to life is incredibly rewarding. I'm always looking for those opportunities to collaborate with artists and other professionals.
Above photo: Jon Bellion Album Listening Show at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn (May 2025) Photo credit @jonbellion on Instagram
Lawrence at Central Park Summer Stage in 2022
Photo credit @deaniechen on Instagram
ETC: What sparked your interest in a career in lighting?
MILLER: Community theatre is the earliest thing to which I can attribute my interest. I acted in many community theatre shows growing up, and eventually started stage managing and directing shows with a theatre group called Back Alley Productions. I designed lighting for some of the shows I directed, but also did a whirlwind of other things to create the production, as is characteristic of many people involved in community theatre. After I graduated from high school, I took two gap years because I knew I wanted to delve into design and production more seriously, but I wasn't fully sure what that meant for me. Then I had an epiphany: I submitted a video essay that I made for a college application. It was an artistic video about myself, and it showcased my interest in photography, videography, and design. When that college's theatre faculty watched my video, they told me, "You understand light so well!" and that hit me quite hard. I had never been complimented on my understanding of light! One of my core interests has always been shooting photos and videos with intentional design elements. Altering light, depth, shadows, and leading lines in an image felt intuitive to me as it had been a long-time hobby. The idea of that intuition applying to the shows I had been working on for several years hit me hard - I had been designing with light for years and never honed in on it. I re-grouped and started to focus on what I needed to learn to create projects with light professionally, and that shaped my direction.
Emily working under the table of an arena green room in 2024
Photo credit @deaniechen on Instagram
ETC: You got your undergraduate degree in theatre and studio production, how has your college experience translated to your work on tour and what were some things you could only learn on the job?
MILLER: The college I went to, Lee University, allowed me to stretch my production muscles in a variety of events; I was able to work on theatrical projects, concerts, musical showcases, live broadcast events, on-camera projects, and some corporate work when they rented out school spaces. This was not because of the classes exclusively, but because I began working on the Lee University Tech Crew on my first day at the school in 2017. I have an insane amount of gratitude for the time my university professors and job mentors invested in teaching me what they knew. Their belief in me, the skills they taught me, and the experience I gained on actual projects they let me play a role in - programming and designing for theatrical shows, setting up concert rigs, etc. - were the key to my feeling confident enough to jump into touring.
The big thing I have learned on the job is learning how to keep up my physical and mental stamina while on the road. You often have to adapt to unexpected circumstances with true "the show must go on" resilience. There are many logistics to anticipate before you even get on the bus, and that still doesn't keep you from having to quickly pivot and problem-solve daily - often when you feel tired from multiple late-night load-outs in a row. Getting used to the touring routine/lifestyle is the biggest lesson one has to learn in real-time, and having a good support network with the touring crew makes a big difference in making tour life feel less tiring and fragmented.
Ripe's Bright Blues tour in 2023
Photo credit @ripelove on Instagram
ETC: What are some things that have surprised or excited you about working in concert touring?
MILLER: Nothing could have prepared me for the culture shock of being in cities and countries that I've never been to before. But paradoxically, being on another continent and working with local crews and speaking in the same "production language" regardless of the country's language and culture is always exciting. It feels incredible to experience in real-time the global interest in creating a worthwhile event over which people come together and connect. At the risk of sounding overly sentimental, it is a humbling reminder of how similar we as humans really are, no matter where we live.
Lawrence in Grand Rapids on the NA Fall 2025 Tour
Photo credit Anthony Norkus Photography
ETC: You’ve spent a lot of your career working with Lawrence. How have your designs with them evolved over the years?
MILLER: When I first started working with Lawrence, I was setting up a small floor package, cloning into club house rigs, and running a show file that had been designed by an LA-based Lighting Designer, Nate Files. He's great and set the band up for success as they were implementing a lighting design into their tour ("Hotel TV") for the first time, and I was brought into the mix when Nate was unable to tour with the band. I meshed well with the Lawrence team, and as I continued to tour with them as their Lighting Director, there became more moments when stage design/lighting decisions fell on me. Cues for songs and methods of running the show began to evolve; tour themes changed once the "Hotel TV" tour came to an end. Because of these shifts, I started taking on lighting/stage design responsibilities for new tour themes and shows. I have learned (and continue to learn) from being in the room for numerous live shows with Lawrence and engaging in many conversations with the band. They're an innovative, energetic, and charismatic group of people - their music and shows echo this. Feeling the energy that their musical performance creates live in a venue with a crowd inspires much of the lighting/stage design, as well as their interactions with each other and the crowd, in conjunction with the album cycle theme. I frequently think of the stage as a playground for the band, and this influences the production design decisions.
ETC: We of course are proud to call you an alumna of the Fred Foster Student Mentorship Program. What did you take away from that experience? Do you have any other thoughts on how mentorship and networking play into this industry?
MILLER: The program was especially impactful for me in 2021 as production opportunities and social interactions were limited because of the pandemic. It was exciting to participate in seminars led by working professionals in the industry who were taking the time to share their insights and offer support on Zoom during an especially challenging year helped me feel hopeful for my career. It was honestly difficult to keep my hopes up at times, given how the pandemic affected the industry. My biggest takeaway was learning from how the existing network of mentors in the program interacted with each other and mentees - quite literally, learning how to network. I used to think there was some secret that I needed to know to be able to "be good" at networking professionally, as if there was more to it than being interested in meeting people and learning about their work. The mentors' openness to connecting with mentees and other mentors in the program was a wonderful example of solidarity within the industry, despite the mentors' variety of jobs and locations. It's easy for a 20-something-year-old entering the industry after graduating college to feel isolated, like the weight of job competition and imposter syndrome is bringing you down. The program helped fight those personal challenges I had by reminding me that the industry is full of people who really just want to create great projects and work with others who want to do the same, no matter where they are in their careers.
Lawrence opening for Jonas Brothers in 2023 with Miller running the opening set
Photo credit @deaniechen on Instagram
ETC: Any other comments on what you’ve learned over the years while on the road, or any career highs to share?
MILLER: I honestly still feel quite "fresh" in the industry and like there's much more to come for sure. I'm excited to continue developing my design style and integrate it with other projects. As far as career highs go, in 2023, I toured with Lawrence when they opened for the Jonas Brothers on a 4-month tour - the longest tour I've ever been on, and I'm quite proud of living on a bus for that long without going crazy! It was a unique experience for me as I ran Lawrence's set on a small portion of the headliner's arena/stadium rig and did more spot-calling than I have ever done in that 4-month stretch. I gained a lot of respect for headliner crew members who are easy to work with from the support crew's perspective, and vice versa, on that tour. Then at the end of that year, I designed, programmed, and operated a New Year's Eve show for Ripe the Band (whom I toured with in early 2023) in Boston at Roadrunner, and that was such a fun show! This will probably sound cliché, but it's true - overall, I've learned that the people involved are what end up making projects the most worthwhile.
Feature image: Ripe's 2023 New Years Eve Party at Roadrunner in Boston - @lukewaldnerphoto
