Rent Tech Reflections

I've never been a part of a musical before. It's a completely different experience than being in a straight play, especially in terms of lighting. The new moving lights have also changed the experience, because their capabilites allow for a lot more variety. Musicals use more color, it seems, or maybe that's because I'm paying more attention now to the colors being used. The movement of the lights also adds an effect that would probably be distracting in a straight play, but which adds to the drama and characterizations of a musical. The gobos being used are stylized and exaggerated, and looks are very specific for specific scenes. Spotlights are another element of the more stylized approach of the musical, because it accentuates the direct adress to the audience. The lighting looks change many times over the course of a song in a musical, while they seem to change fewer times in a straight play. Conclusion: Musicals are a lot more work. But they are also a chance to take risks and play around with new lighting techniques.

Memorization tactic

In our electricity class, I kept thinking of Aretha Franklin's "Respect" until I was singing this song to that tune:

E-L-E-C tricity!
P equals I times E!
E-L-E-C tricity!
A over W equals V!
Shock it to me shock it to me
Shock it to me shock it to me...

It's mind blowing that we can understand electricity, and use it to recreate natural- seeming conditions in an indoor location.

The painting, "Abbey in an Oak Forest" by Caspar David Friedrich has always fascinated me. The burned ruins of the church, the dead trees, and the graves all speak of death but the light tells a different story. The light shines throughthe paneless glass and barren branches. It's backlighting, creating silhouettes and revealing the twisted forms. The light fills up the whole sky. It draws the eye to the abbey window, and has an orange tone to create a sense of warmth in the winter scene. This painting makes me think of there being hope in the face of destruction, which is comforting in the wake of the Haiti earthquakes.

More KCACTF observations

Here are some interesting ways I saw light being used in the invited shows:

1. In an opening scene where a family gathered around a lit birthday cake, a source four junior with a yellow gel was focused so that it washed over the family and the table.

2. In a production of Moliere's "Les Femmes Savantes" actors made a point to interact with the audience throughout the show, and did a lot of acting on the floor in front of the stage, and in the first row of seats. The lighting was adjusted to light this area, and at one point the house lights were raised entirely.

3. In a production of Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice, the women playing the stones often moved around behind a semi-transparent screen, lit from behind, so that their sillhouettes were an ever present element in the show.

Observations from MTSU

It's the first full day of KCACTF. Yesterday, entering the tiny half moon shaped blackbox for the first playwright/director meeting, I first surveyed the eclectic crowd. They were scruffy, mismatched, quirky looking people with unlikely facial hair. I felt at home, although there were more men than I expected. Based on my performing arts experience, I've come to expect 80 percent female populations at any seminar. My attention then turned to the lights. There wasn't a grid, just three concentric electricals bent to fit the crecent shape of the room. Four Par cans and a projector on the longest, back electrical. Some Fresnels on the second. It was a highly intimate space, and different from the other black boxes I've known. The minimalist technical atmosphere reminded me again that I've been deliciously, outrageously spoiled by good budgets.