When awards season rolls around in the theatre and film industries, it’s a rare opportunity to recognize the bevy of artists who work behind the scenes to make shows come alive.

One of this year’s Betty Mitchell Award nominees for best lighting design is 28-year-old Ian Martens. He’s nominated for his work with Sage Theatre’s My Name is Rachel Corrie. “It’s quite an honour. I still feel like a kid,” he says. “I wake up every morning and ask myself, ‘How the hell am I getting paid to do what I’ve always wanted to do?’”

Martens is entering his last year of the MFA program at the University of Calgary where he’s specializing in theatrical design. “I came out of school as a writer and actor, and kind of fell into design. I started to love creating a world, rather than walking around in it,” he says. “I feel no need to go back on stage.”

While working as a technician at the Pumphouse Theatre, he met Sage Theatre’s artistic director, Kelly Reay. “I designed three out of five shows for Sage’s Ignite! festival back in 2004, and I’ve done one show a season with Sage ever since,” he says. He has also worked with Ground Zero Theatre, ATP and has even tried his hand lighting a musical: Stage West’s Mid-Life: The Crisis.

When asked about the creative satisfaction of doing lighting design, he makes it clear the first priority of any designer is to ensure the audience can see the actor. Beyond that, however, he says, “there are little games you can play, little tricks you can learn.

“There are imperceptible ways a lighting designer can affect what an audience sees on stage,” he adds. ”For example, if I put a shadow on stage that moves right to left, it’s disconcerting to Western audiences because they’re receiving the information backwards, and it feels off-putting. There are ways to make pretty much any boring show entertaining, if that comes off without sounding too snotty.”

More musicals aren’t on his priority list, however. “Musicals are paycheque gigs, as far as I’m concerned,” Martens says. “I’m more interested in gritty shows, things with heart and soul and darkness you can sink your teeth into. In a big, campy musical, you get lost with how big everything is.”

As for next season, his graduation year, Martens has his thesis project to focus upon, the University’s third mainstage production, Shakespeare’s Hamlet. He’s also scheduled to do lighting for Sage Theatre’s The Attic, The Pearl, and Three Fine Girls.

Cimmeron Meyer is another of this year’s lighting design nominees, for her work on Ghost River Theatre’s The Alan Parkinson’s Project. Meyer has worked as a professional designer for the past 10 years, and is no stranger to the Betty Awards. This is her fourth nomination — she won a Betty the last two years in a row for work she also did with Ghost River Theatre.

A graduate of Montreal’s National Theatre School, Meyer began her professional career in Calgary at the Pleiades Theatre (now Vertigo). Since that time, she’s designed for many theatre companies around town, including One Yellow Rabbit and Ground Zero Theatre. Unlike Martens, Meyer says she “loves” doing musicals, having recently done the lighting for Ground Zero’s Urinetown and The Full Monty. She has also done stints as a technical director and production manager. “I had my sights on being a lighting designer early on,” she says, explaining she was interested in the “visual picture” of theatre.

Right now, most of Meyer’s time is taken up with the Old Trout Puppet Workshop. For the past two years, she has toured across Canada and the U.S. with the company’s production of Famous Puppet Death Scenes. Currently, Meyer is working on a new show with the Old Trout Puppet Workshop, Don Juan. It’s set to premiere at ATP in March 2009. “Don Juan has been a long process. With such a big show, it can take over your whole life,” she says. Once the show starts touring, Meyer will take on the role of production stage manager and lighting designer. “There are five of us — the puppeteers and me,” she says. “We’ve represented this city and province in New York, Boston, Rhode Island. That’s the reality of the economics of it.

“The more people are aware of the cool things Calgary is doing, hopefully more people will come out and support it,” she adds.

The Betty Mitchell Awards will be held at Stage West on Monday, August 25.