Papers of Essig, a stage lighting designer, documenting her work as principal or assistant lighting designer from her student productions at New York University (1983-1984), through projects for the Chautauqua Institution (1984-1985), for Westport Country Playhouse, Connecticut (1986), for La Mama Theatre, New York City (1987), for the touring production of Driving Miss Daisy (1987-1989), for various Madison, Wisconsin, theatres (1989-2004; the years when she taught lighting design at the University of Wisconsin-Madison), for the Utah Shakespearean Festival, Cedar City, Utah (1991-1994, 1998 and 2001), and for the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre (1990-1996), among others. Most of the papers document individual productions, and are arranged by production in chronological order; papers for each production usually include rehearsal schedules, production meeting minutes, rehearsal reports, hookups, instrument schedules, light cue synopses, letter-size copies of light plots, and play scripts marked up with lighting cues. For most productions there are also large-scale drawings of stage plans and sections, set designs, and light plots, which are separately held in two series of large (48-inch by 36-inch) folders, the first series consisting of original drawings in pencil on tracing paper and a few Computer-Aided-Design documents printed on plain paper, the second of a variety of reproductions: blueline, redline, and CAD printouts onto thermal paper.
