Tharon musser biography
Marilyn rennagel.
In Memoriam: Lighting Designer Tharon Musser
Delbert Unruh
USITT Publications Committee
Tharon Musser, considered the dean of American lighting design, died on April 19, She was 84 and had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for approximately 10 years.
A Scotch drinkin’, rough spoken, cigarette smokin’ lady from Appalachia, she was equally beloved for her blunt, gruff manner, her boundless generosity, and her design artistry.
Tharon musser biography
Born Kathleen Welland in Roanoke, Virginia in , her parents died when she was a toddler, and she was placed in an orphanage at the age of two. In , she was adopted by the Rev. George Musser and his wife, Hazel, who renamed her.
After graduating from high school, she attended Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, and then the graduate technical design and lighting program at Yale Drama School.
After Yale, she moved to New York, where she helped start Studio 7, an experimental theatre.
She also designed for the Stratford Shake