Selected Critical Mentions:


Sweeney Todd (Cygnet Theatre, March 2010)

“And amid all the expert work, Eric Lotze’s lighting is special. Shafts and pools, like clouds moving across the sun, dissect the stage. They shroud or halo performers. Roaring reds heighten the horror. Throughout, and without ever calling attention to his efforts, Lotze does with light what Sondheim does with music.” (Jeff Smith, San Diego Reader)

“The lighting (Eric Lotze, also flown in – from his current home in Canada) is stunning, gorgeously outlining a character, or fogging the action in dim shadow, or screaming blood-red alarms.” (Pat Launer, San Diego News Network)

“Instead of rivulets of blood, the slayings get impact from jarring noise, in Matt Lescault-Wood’s usually underscored sound, and the vivid reds in Eric Lotze’s lighting plan.  That suberb lighting, featuring shadows and spotlights in the general darkness, is almost like another character on stage.”(James Hebert, San Diego Tribune)



Other recent news...

…it’s a stunning production, making excellent use of the expanded stage and enhanced technology of Cygnet’s new Old Town performing space. Every element fits together perfectly... the lighting (Eric Lotze) is superb, ranging from ominous searchlights to a sky whose clouds evolve into the scowling face of Stalin. (Pat Launer, San Diego News Network, Cygnet's "Bed and Sofa")

The dark, fog-shrouded streets of London have rolled onto the Starlight stage in what is perhaps the most visually stunning show ever performed in the Bowl thanks to Director Brian Wells, [and] his topnotch design team... Eric Lotze’s sublime and sinister lighting effects complement the set and the nearly ever-present drifts of London fog perfectly. (Rob Hopper, San Diego Playbill, Starlight's "Jekyll and Hyde")

Eric Lotze does wonders with a suffused, sepia-esque lighting that turns to dappled sun when Sean Fanning’s cleverly shifting set transforms from shop to home. (James Hebert, San Diego Union-Tribune, Cygnet’s “Mauritius”)

Mike Buckley's rustic set, with its slowly growing fence, tells a story of its own, helped by Eric Lotze's exquisite, dappled lighting design. (James Hebert, San Diego Union-Tribune, Cygnet's "Fences")

Eric Lotze’s lighting is brilliant, creating all the eerie atmosphere needed while Jeanne Reith’s costumes make the period convincing. (Carol Davis, San Diego Jewish Times, Cygnet's "Desire Under the Elms")

Sean Murray's scenic design, with a wintery Manhattan glimpsed through condensation on the loft's factory windows, is lighted in beautifully subtle hues and shadowings by Eric Lotze... (George Weinberg-Harter, BackStage West, Cygnet's "Burn This")

It is remarkably lit by Eric Lotze, who manages lots of shadows and eerie-looking shadowy forms cast on the plaster walls. (Carol Davis, Turbula.net, Cygnet's "The Turn of the Screw")

At the Lyceum Space, Amy Chini’s set — a rusty mound of wheels, hubcaps, warped metal — and Eric Lotze’s sleek orange sunset, make an indelible first impression. (Jeff Smith, San Diego Reader, Moxie's "The Listener")

Eric Lotze's excellent lighting ranges from candles to fireworks. The play's full of doublings, many ghostlike. Lotze visually underscores the duality by having actors reflected on the French windows. (Jeff Smith, San Diego Reader review of Cygnet's "Arcadia")

Sonnenberg's assured direction (aided by Eric Lotze's crisp lighting) tacks deftly from staccato comedy... (Janice Steinberg, San Diego Union-Tribune review of SDRep's "The Good Body")

Murray's production has the feel of a melodrama with flickering gaslamp lighting by Eric Lotze, a rollicking ragtime sound design by George Ye, period-perfect costuming by Jeanne Reith and a vaudeville-theater set design by Sean Fanning. (Pam Kragen, North County Times review of Cygnet's "The Matchmaker")