I keep being bad about mentioning show openings.
The Cure for Love is currently playing at The Barter.
We are in the midst of tech for Marko the Prince here in Manhattan.
Posts Tagged ‘tech’
Shows
Thursday, June 19th, 2008First Day of Tech
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007We focused the lights last night for Fate’s Imagination. Things went OK. We had a few minor setbacks due to the rental shop sending us the wrong fixtures and pushing the whole lighting load-in back several hours. We have some notes to take care of this morning and should be back on track by the time we have actors on stage at noon.
I got the best Horoscope EVER for a first day of tech:
Your life will be like an action movie today — minus the explosive car chases, of course! But hour after hour will present you with situations that require quick, decisive responses. Today is not a day to mull things over — you have to act, and act fast! Luckily, there is very little danger that you will make any bad decisions today, so don’t be afraid to lead with your intuition (like a true action hero).
Let’s see how that pans out!
Fate’s Load-In
Monday, May 21st, 2007We have the Load-In for Fate’s Imagination today. The electricians are, I presume, hard at work installing the lighting units for the show. I am finishing up a few of my focus documents and double checking a couple of the things on the lightplot against what I have seen during rehearsal. Most of the changes are simple reassignments of the purpose and functions of lights rather than moving them around.
The space has a VERY low ceiling. The result of a low ceiling is that the space demands a LOT of lighting equipment. It is the irony of these small spaces. Having worked in quite a number of these kinds of spaces I have tried numerous approaches to addressing this issue. This time around I am using many worklights crafted to be functional to the dramatic needs of the play.
The great thing about worklights is because they are designed to flood a room with light, they work very well in these low ceiling situations and allow fewer lights to be used than if conventional theatrical lighting were to be employed. Another aspect of that is how it changes the aesthetic approach to the play. Because these lights move so differently through the volume of the room, one must re-conceive all the lighting for the play to remain stylistically consistent.
The play is structured such that it has three rather different acts thus affording a style change with each act. Further, the acts are largely grounded in location making these style changes easier still. This, combined with the somewhat new approach to lighting the play that I am taking, is looking to be rather exciting. There is an element of risk to some the aesthetic choices I have made that I will find out in a two days if it was the right way to go. I am fairly confident, but there is still the element of the unknown that I look forward to.
Overall the design encompasses a nice hybrid of conventional and non-conventional lighting strategies for the play. In addition to trying out some new structural elements in the design, I am also exploring a few new colors that should be exciting. Color is one of the easiest things to experiment with, as it is one of the cheapest aspects to lighting.
Interestingly color is also one of the easiest elements to fall into rote use with. I have heard designers say so many times “Well I always use . . . whenever I design a lightplot.” I do not understand this approach. A graphic designer would never “always use” a particular font or color palette yet somehow this is accepted in lighting. Certainly there are very useful colors that can and should get reused, but to “always” employ the same ones seems silly.
At the same time I can easily see the color palette in Fate’s Imagination evolving into something a lot more conventional as we progress through tech. There is a solution to one of the main design challenges that would use most to all of the lights with no color media. Most of the effect needed for this play is independent of color, relying on the shape, intensity and quality of light itself. In fact I could easily see a version of this play where no color was used at all. While it is possible we might get there by the end of the week, I do doubt it, but one never can tell.
The director and design team are a great group and we have had a lot of fun in our design meetings so I think this week should be quite enjoyable.
Rotating Rep
Monday, April 16th, 2007Its a curious thing lighting a work you have already designed a year earlier. We load in Cinderella and the repertory program this Thursday and have shows this weekend and next weekend. Its curious because on the one hand the work is done. I have done this before and rebuilding it should be no real trouble at all. On the other hand, every time you encounter a piece it is different. Sometimes its a different cast, sometimes you just have different eyes. Any way you slice it, the work is different.
The lightplot is very similar, but I did make a few adjustments to it that will help the new pieces in the repertory program this time around. Small changes. The kind of this only a lighting designer would notice. But very important.
Repertory lightplots are such strange beasts. They are a delicate balance of specificity and generality. In the case of New York Theatre Ballet each program is distinct enough that there is a different plot for each show. The Cinderella plays not just by itself but with a rotating repertory program that varies year to year. Thus the plot must be able to work for Cinderella but so too must it work for the changing repertory program that goes along with it.
Depending upon the piece, be it a dance, a play or an opera, no less then half the lighting needs to be general enough that the plot can accommodate changes. Perhaps the staging changes at the last minute, or the scenery or costume colors are totally different than you were led to believe, or the writer adds a scene in a new location in the middle of the piece. Any of these scenarios can, will and have happened. The lightplot needs to be flexible enough to react to these and more extreme scenarios. At the same time it must give the particular work in question the specificity and care that it deserves.
It is a balancing act. Difficult and at times nearly impossible, but so goes the job, here is an impossible situation, make it beautiful. Cinderella is far from impossible. It is, to be quite honest a fairly straight forward situation. Some of the documentation is incomplete and most of the repertory pieces are new to me so there is a lot of creation that must go into it. Not so simple as plugging a disk into a computer and cleaning up a few light cues, but certainly not difficult.
It looks to be a nice program, with an interestingly eclectic group of dances. This should be a very pleasant couple of weeks.
