Just for some clarification, our overarching question is:

"What impact does estrangement of the audience have on how stories are told and perceived?".

In my reflective writing (completed 20.04.2020). I stated that my sub-question is "How can the idea of space be determined from different styles of lighting?" without explaining what I mean by the term "space". What I meant was I wanted to explore the reality of a theatrical space. So now that I have gone through the creative process I have decided to link my question further back to the company's one with:

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"How can the idea of multiple theatrical realities change the way the audience perceives lighting for a dramatic space?"

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This relates back to the overarching question because through lighting I plan to change the audiences' perception of reality. Throughout this creative process I wanted to pitch lighting ideas to the rest of the company. I have achieved by looking at the several workshops, monologues and any other content that the rest of company have created and create initial lighting ideas from them. Then I would implement this into the final performance. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So for the rest of this portfolio you will see videos of the lighting visualisation software, known as Capture Nexum (see figure 2 above) , being placed in a 'screen-on-screen' situation with my colleagues work, our company were going to use Anselm Studio 1 for our performance so for that reason, and using Capture Nexum, I have recreated Anselm Studio 1 in this software (see figure 1 above) this way you will be able to see what each of lighting ideas would of been in the space that we would of performed in. Followed by a short reflection for bit of content my colleagues created, just explaining my thought process. At the very bottom of this page you will see the run through that our dramaturges presented before the University closed it's doors. Again this will be alongside a 'screen-on-screen' of Capture Nexum showing what the lighting could of been for our final performance.

 

So my process can be taken as interpretive lighting and then once I get onto the run through of the companies' piece I shall explain how these ideas were implemented. You will see me in some of the workshops as well. This was because I wanted to get a performers perspective, more so I wanted to ask myself questions such as "What would the actor like to see and feel whilst presenting this workshop?", "What is the overarching feeling of this piece?" and "What reality is being portrayed here?". Regardless of what perspective of how I was viewing the piece this is the thought process that was ever present when design my lighting interpretations. So I shall show the end result first then as you navigate down this tab you will see 'Cut Content', 'Other Lighting Interpretations', 'Talking through the Scenes' and 'Inspiration'. Then at the very bottom you will find a 'How have I grown as a Lighting Designer?' section. 

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Layers of Reality

 

1 - OBJECTIVE REALITY - (2020 Canterbury) - Performativity

2 - SUBJECTIVE REALITY - (Theban Players) - Arts and Conflict 

3 - FALSE REALITY - (Theban market people) - Propaganda 

4 - SYMBOLIC REALITY - (Brechtian Masques) - Storytelling 

 

Cut Content

 

So this a Matrix Blinder Lighting test that didn’t see the light of day on the company's youtube channel. I personally decided to cut it due to poor editing. However it did further help my lighting plan. It sparked the idea of using the ColoRado Baten Tours in front of the Phyc (white curtain) up stage instead of behind. This give the actors to play around with shadow effect when the fixtures are on. I would’ve encouraged them to do so during the War scene in particular.

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Other Lighting Interpretations

 

In these two videos below we see my colleague James creating an interview for the Oracle and the Sphinx. I used these as inspiration for would become their own specific lighting states. What you are viewing in the picture-in-picture is my initial ideas for both characters and what feeling they are trying to convey. 

 

For the Oracle (video on the left) , I again wanted to create that essence of mystery, so the idea is that I would use Platinum Spot 2’s, focus onto Oracle and create a rotating prism/gobo wheel effect. This would be back lighting as well so therefore the Oracle’s face would be covered similar to how he does in the interview. 

 

For the Sphinx, I wanted to again use a similar effect to the Oracle but create a sense of laziness to him, This interview takes place after the events of Oedipus Rex and it looks like he has been fired from his job. Therefore I wanted to create a layer of uncertainty with it as he doesn’t know what is going to happen to him now. 

 

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Talking through the Scenes.

 

The Sacrifice of the Sacred Cow.

 

This scene is at the very start of the performance; it will be the first thing that the audience sees. Because this Cow is meant to be sacred, I wanted to create the feeling of the unknown, magic and fantasy. 

 

Looking at the first official run through of the performance, see at the top of the tab. Is that I needed to take in the idea of dance lighting into this part of the show. Based on previous research I opted for Russel Maliphant’s work. Creating the idea of sectioning within this scene. 

 

I wanted to create a point where the section would start to flood out to the rest of the stage, considering the dancers would come on stage and start interacting with the organs of the sacred cow.

 

I was also thinking about the lack of facial expression on my colleagues face. The idea is that I didn’t need to pay attention to face lighting, due to the fact that this is technically a dance piece. I started researching Maliphant's work looking at ‘Silent Lines’ and ‘The Thread’. In both pieces the dancers look like they are trying to create shapes with their bodies. This gave me the idea that I need to highlight the Cow and only the Cow, not the pupperters as they are not the focus of this part of the show. 

 

Continuing to workshop the sacred scene meant that I needed to pay attention to where the actors are within the stage. The idea is that I would need to convey a feeling within this part of the show. Again based off of previous research, David Hersey, and his idea of colour portraying a feeling or a location was exactly the kind of work that inspired me to come up the colour palette.

 

Early on I decided instead of a Colour Pallette, I wanted to have a Colour Theme instead. The theme of Blood is perfect for this part of the show. I took this theme more literally as opposed to David Hersey with his work on Les Miserables, ‘Red, the blood of Angry men’. I wanted to use the colour red to convey red blood cells and white to convey white blood cells. The idea was that the body fights back until there is no brain activity. So White and Red Blood cells would still be flowing around a body until death. 

Playing with this idea of blood flow, later on I came up with the idea of using pan/tilt chase effect in the Design Wash LED’s. This would give the idea that blood is splattering everywhere within the space. 

 

At 2:34, on ‘The Victory of Epigoni Final Lighting Ideas’ video was the end result of the Blood Flow effect. We get to the chase effect moving the red spots of light to simulate the red blood cells and the white flooded space is to represent the white blood cells. 

 

Oedipus Rex

 

In this scene, Oedipus Rex is told from old Oedipus Rex. He is remembering what he did to get him up to the point of being blind. The story is told a very comedic way where the actors do a funny ‘Wayns World’ style transition through some of the scenes. (see inspiration below). Taking heavy inspiration from the ‘Play that Goes Wrong’ the actors have no idea how the scene change actually works. Knowing this I wanted to create the feeling of uncertainty within this part of the play. 

 

A prime example of this is when I look again at Russel Maliphant's work of highlighting specific body parts. I wanted to replicate this with the Oracle and the Sphinx. These two are meant to be magical. So the use of top down gobo lighting similar to Russel Maliphant's ‘The Strings’, was a must to again create that magical being effect. Maliphant work is ever present throughout this piece but his lighting theory of sectioning has been flipped on its head. Using his theory to section off the stage to create location. A few examples are shown below.

 

The Story of Antigone

 

In this scene, Ismene introduces the story of Creon. Again playing with the idea of sectioning from Maliphant. I wanted to use his theory to create the idea of status. Creon is the king of Thebes at the time. I wanted to create a space for Creon that only he could be in. 

 

Using Creon’s lack of stage directions for moving around the stage. I didn’t need to program as many cues due to the fact that I based my lighting stage around Creon’s section. The only changes that need to be done are when a new character comes in.
 

Using Threepenny Opera where the actors move into the light to perform instead of the light fading in for them to deliver their lines, again I didn’t need to change the lighting state too much. I wanted to have the face lighting for only down stage, centred on Creon and the rest of the actors need to be very close but not in Creon's space in order to be seen by the audience. 

 

Near to the end of this scene we see Creon’s power start to crumble. This is where I allow the actors to move more freely around the space, ultimately killing Creon due to his section being broken down. 

 

To create Creon’s space I experimented with a few intelligent fixtures, but ultimately landed on the Platinum Spot 2’s. More specifically the pair coming from Up Stage. To give Creon more of a status that he should always have the spotlight because he is King of Thebes.

 

The Marketplace

 

My thought process for the marketplace took heavy inspiration from David Hersey’s work on Les Miserables. During the song ‘Do you hear the people sing’ (Picture below) We see that the lighting is very miniscule. Then near to the end of the song the lighting has become more prominent and is conveying the feeling of hope.

 

Taking this idea, the marketplace was meant to start off in order then slowly become more chaotic as time went on. I wanted to use a very slow fade in of Red to simulate chaos according to my cue stack (picture below) I had my ColoRado Zoom Tour’s fading in over 1 minute. If we actually put the performance in practice then this slow fade would hopefully signal the actors to start being more chaotic and heighten themselves. It would help them anticipate when the end of the Marketplace scene would be.

 

The Scenes in Between

 

There’s not really much to say with the scenes in between other than I wanted to completely take out colour to fully expand on an old style McCandless wash a coloured back is supporting the wash so it breaks the immersion of the play. Which further supports estrangement.

 

The War Scene

 

At the end we start to see the end of the Theban cycle. As the Victory of the Epigoni is upon us. I start to merge all the previous stated effects into one big mess. Taking the blood flow idea from the sacred cow scene, the chaos effect from the market place, the chase effect from the transition scene. And use these to create a, again literal effect. So for example I wanted to create fire through lighting. The obvious was to achieve this was to use the ColoRado Batten Tours and create an intensity chase effect with them. This would allow the invaders to play with shadow effects to make them seem more intimidating and of a high status. 

 

Inspiration

 

‘Silent Lines’ by Russel Maliphant.

 

As explained previously, I stated I took heavy inspiration from ‘Silent Lines’ and ‘The Thread’. Two dance pieces that allowed me to explore the idea of highlighting body parts to create a space. If we would have put this into a performance, for the in-human character of the show, I would be highlighting the body part that the character would lead with. In the Oracle’s case his hands, and then I would create gobo effects that would suit the character's movements. 

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‘The Thread’ by Russel Maliphant.

 

Again this further supports my inspiration of highlighting body parts. But also adds to the idea of sectioning a space to have the dancers only use that specific space. This idea can be incorporated into different types of theatre. I may want to use sectioning to show a different location or to give a status to a character. Maybe for the Sphinx, I could use parts of a McCandless wash to show an in-human atmosphere but to also leave unwanted areas of the stage in darkness.

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‘Cats’ designed by David Hersey.

 

David Hersey’s concept is to use colour to portray a feeling or emotion, with regards to Cats. I would like to make a strong case that the colours that are represented by a feeling, such as sadness with blue, are in alignment. So when there is a sad song in Cats, the colour blue is one of the prominent colours and vice versa. I would like to use this to again create a feeling using my interpretations of each feeling for a colour. In my case pink for intimacy.

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The Goes Wrong Show by Mischief Theatre

 

The Comedic effect aside I took heavy inspiration from the lighting effect that we see in this trailer. Colour being ever present in each clip. This gives the idea that colour in this sense is being used for atmospherics, to create feeling. For example at 0:07 it seems to be a haunted house setting so you can see the greens and blues on the set. Similarly I want to take the idea of using more than one colour, this would leave the feeling up to the audience's interpretation and we will then get an audience’s perspective.

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How have I grown as a Lighting Designer?

 

I found the lighting design process to be quite challenging. Trying to research into estrangement theatre will only get you so far. The most challenging part for me was creating a question that I could relate back to the overarching question. I could gain only a little inspiration from Bretch himself as he believed that lighting should always be minuscule for his pieces. So I looked into modern interpretations of pieces, the idea of drawing audience attention away from the narrative then sparked my researching process. I found that most modern brechtian pieces use one colour to fill the stage. This led me onto sectioning and it just spiralled from there on. 

 

From this lack of a production process due to Covid 19. The Victory of the Epigoni, I have learnt that trying to create your own style of lighting is difficult, to me personally I feel that the lighting theories have covered all elements of theatrical lighting. And as I’ve previously stated in my critical analysis of my final lighting ideas. I could only push the boundaries of preexisting theories instead of proving new ones. I just started proving theories that were already proven. 

 

My lighting plan, without really doing anything, already filled the idea of estrangement lighting where the sources of light are visible to the audience. Also playing with the idea of flooding the stage with a harsh white light was also challenging for me as again I was subconsciously replicating old theories. 

 

For the time before this pandemic, I got my colleagues involved with the lighting design process. I sat them all down and we discussed the concept of a layered reality and which types of lighting states should be in which reality. Throughout the process I would design lighting states on the fly as seen with James’ Character Interviews and then present it to the team then we would adapt and it would be a back and forth process until we were happy. 

 

The thing that has ‘grown’ for me is having to work a bit more independently, and having to rely on myself for my own feedback, which is the reason why the critical analysis is almost 2 hours long. What I need to focus on for the future is to not be so hard on myself when designing lighting. I feel that I would then speed up the process and be able to present more work to the directors or to whoever is in charge.

 

Thank you for reading this tab and have a lovely day!

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