performance

First Time Lighting A Show in the Round by Tracey Gibbs

Last year was a definite growth period for me in developing my lighting skills post-pandemic hold-up. Forging my new career in theatre. I was lucky enough to travel with a show by students of the  Manchester School of Theatre to a festival in the Czech Republic,

who over the last eighteen months asked me back to light more of the third-year actors' shows in their new studio theatre designed by Charcoal Blue. 

Having the stability of  lighting productions in the same venue has helped me develop my style of choices and discover different fixtures such as the magnificent Mac Aura which I hadn’t encountered before, a fantastic wash,  now one of my favorites to have available. 

So I was thrilled to be asked back to light some shows for the beginning of their 22-23 season and work once more with David Salter head of acting who was to be directing the first play, we had worked together on ‘Linda’ which subsequently took us all to the Czech Republic.  He wanted to put the production into the round in the space and it would be the first time the new venue . Which morphed to suit this, with temporary seating banks and a whole different approach to blocking . Bring on,,, Mary Stuart! this was a challenge I had yet to traverse in my newer lighting journey.where? how? does this in the round work?

As always the process began with reading the script and seeing the creative design concepts of how the space would look and work with the actors blocking, followed by discussions with David on his concepts and vision for the piece. Quickly followed once I had a look over how in the round, sat under the static grid a moment of OMG how does this work!

This would be a first for this early career lighting designer I had no previous to look back on and re-deploy any lessons learned. The words of my lecturer and lighting mentor Sofia Alexiadou rang around my head that of systems, systems! for those reading this not linked to theatre lighting,,, we use the terms systems to describe a recipe of sorts in terms of light. These form the basic building blocks for any show, basically back, front,side,,, and wash. The only one that could be shared with this new experience would be the wash, everything else was up in the air. 

Where to start? Good old professor google was my starting point, not much in the written sense but I found a great conversation from the ETC Light Bytes series done during the lockdown, featuring the ALPD ( Association for Lighting Production and Design ) fabulous Chair Johanna Town and other seasoned professionals. It was great to hear them discuss the process and some of the pitfalls one may encounter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vDo3Y1qQ4w

One top bit of advice  that I instantly applied in rehearsals, was to sit where the production desk would be be in tech. A great tip indeed as it gave myself and the director a common  point of reference for blocking  and helped me orientate myself with the rig and numbering of fixtures. Another element that flummoxed me was the challenge of turning what would normally be side light into front light in the oblong space that is the theartre there, and how to focus? Without blinding the audience from every direction.

Would it be cross or straight ? would the steeper angle and shorter distance on two sides work? Well on this first outing just about, my position to be honest was a bit low and made for hard work in the focus to get the coverage across the space, but something I learned from and took forwards into the two subsequent shows. 

With the stark and minimal set designed by Liz Right and transitions created by David that made space for really big shifts in a non typical more abstract way , I had some yes very happy with that moments. The biggest the first time we meet the one and only Elizabeth 1st played magnificently by Megan Keaveny, here I looked to my other lighting experience with photography and in particular fashion where over the years I had played with creating a big clean top light by bouncing flasheads off a huge floating ceiling I had in my studio at the time. And yes those amazing Mac Aura’s gave me the most fabulous ‘Prada’ esq catwalk look ever and yes it was an entrance!

Mary Stuart LX Plan

And then straight onto a very different affair ‘Oppenheimer’ directed by James Nickerson and Seån Aydon, a big show with lots of different locations throughout the play. Having done one I gently re-deployed the aura’s to act as my wash and if needed additional face light as they have a great gentle zoom and move so a great one to have in this formation of design. A higher rigging point for my front lights proved a better choice and get more coverage. One of those shows that having a lot of colour changing LED’s really helped move the geography of where we were in a really great way from the desert to the lecture theatre. I always see k new ways of making a moment and had for the longest time been wanting to try a really slow colour cross fade ‘Oppenheimer’ gave me that chance, with one of the final scenes an interpretation of the bomb being dropped on Hiroshima through the eyes of a small boy and his model plane and a really powerful bit of writing played by Kelsey Ann Moebius. We went from a stark cold white to what I liked to call a painfull red, not quite bood red one which I hoped said heat a burning. This fade took some programming as we timed and teched it to the speech, so at around 5 mins in the red began to become the only light we saw, again something I am looking to take from this experience and play with more.

Early LX plan for Oppenheimer


And now for something completely different as they say in my trilogy of in the round shows for Manchester School of Theatre.Reunited once more with director Seån Aydon and with a LIPA alumni the fab Kirsty Barlow to work on ‘Husband and Sons’ a re-working of three novels by D H Lawrence, set within a three small coal miners cottages in deepest winter. Realism was the remit, to make us feel we were in that cottage lit by gaslamps, Kirsty had cleverly created demargated areas on the set which featured the most props and furniture of any of the three. 

So time to start from scratch on this one and bring to the fore the gorgeouness of tungsten lamps, these are for all the right reasons been phased out in many theatres to save energy and improve the sustainability of theatre moving forwards. So making a design choice to use them is one to be thought of in more detail, as the shows at MST are only on for four performances I felt they could be justified for this one off. There is something truly magical feeling the light from a fresnel at something around 10-15% in haze that is hard to recreate with more modern budget friendly fixtures.  This time fresnels took the place of aura’s along with specials for each table and chairs within the cottages, special means specific to one thing in reality but having more of these can slow down focus as the focus has to be spot on and almost not be seen if that makes sense? 


A few sparse colour gels were added into my side/frontlight which again mea nt doubling up on fixtures as no led colour changing possibilities, again making the focus day a big one to all get right. Ahh then haze in the round !! I had tried unscucessfully in Mary Stuart to bring it in under the seating banks, having in the end two rigged in the corners a bit clunky and very obvious and noisy to an in the round audience. This to had been disappointing with the haze not really traveling the space, so this time i was determined! We rigged on high near the control booth and another in the opposite corner as high as we could and then with the aid of one of my favourite tools the black foil formed a cover and chimeny as it were to send the haze down across the stage rather than woosh out the space. 

Lighting Plan for Husbands and Sons

And that brings my adventures of lighting in the round to end for a while; such a different experience on every level. Having eyes in the back of my head moments and getting my steps in, as sitting in one position which is normally what happens to running around with my wireless headset and LX plan, talking with my programmer, and trying not to disorientate myself. I learned loads and would I do it again? Absolutely it is a very different approach as shadows become both your ally and your fiendish foe, but to be part of the unique energy performing in the round brings to a play is a great one.

2019 What a Year! oh and I won an award by Tracey Gibbs

Graduating and Begining of a new Tracey and what winning an award means 

What a year it was finishing my time at the most brilliant LIPA or Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts to give it's an official name with a First ! culminating with my Paul McCartney handshake and beginning life back in the real world once more.

This proved a little more bumpy for me personally than I had bargained for, I guess as an evermore self-employed freelance person the daily structure was a lovely respite in the challenge to find ongoing work. Also the vibrant world of higher education and forging new friendships along the way, a creative and learning playground for the three years.

So the year finished on a high that was never in my mind when I began a study into stage lighting that of video design. My mission was incredibly narrow at first, then fate took part and I was brought in to creating content for what would prove one of my most memorable moments at LIPA. A true piece of collaboration with set designer Kirsty Barlow and Director Will Hammond for the production of Love of the Nightingale. I was sold! two months of self-learning of many adobe platforms including After Effects and Premiere Pro (ongoing) I went on to create content for dance and musical productions in my final two years.

 The annual Association of Lighting Designers awards for recent graduates was fast approaching and I was keen to enter, but which me? The lighting designer or this newer crossover with my photography life that as a video designer? After consulting with my amazing lecturer and lighting designer Sofia Alexidou I made the decision it would be video.

Having entered photography awards with some success pushed me along creating my interactive portfolio. Early December arrived and no news! the waiting is the worst part, then news, what a great email day that was I had won! Attending the lunch in London with Sofia was brilliant and to add that title to the new Tracey took a bit of getting used to, resisting adding it to my website and email signature. A trademark of Tracey has and to a certain extent still here is to play down my achievements and fill that hole with a whole load of self-doubt. But this award given by my professional piers has increased both my confidence and belief which I think is one of the best bi-products from any award, as we are often in the creative industries our harshest critic!

So here I am a recent graduate seeking collaborations and work in the world of theatre and performance, the year has got off with a bang more of soon, with projects in discussion including lighting and video design for a one-woman show. Still learning and working on the skill set I got from my time at LIPA and every now and then a visitor back there as one of their preferred photographers which is great as I get to keep my ties with a place I loved every second of .

So Happy New Decade from me Tracey Gibbs Winner of the I-Blue Media Award for Excellence in Video Design

here is the link to my winning portfolio which gives you an insight into both my work and methods

https://indd.adobe.com/view/443ebaaa-363e-4c3f-9d9f-b9a2677e78ca

Q LAB 4 FOR PROJECTION by Tracey Gibbs

The learning curve on all things projection has and is huge! Words banded about such as media servers,pixel mapping and much more. In my time at LIPA I have tried a few different platforms such as Resalume which is primarily designed for DJ’s and Isadora more the the theatre world. Both ok but not quite there for me on speed and ease of use, me and Isadora fell out several times as it has a tendency to just stop working ! not ideal. Over the summer I attended a Women in AV gathering in London with guest speaker and personal projection heroine of mine Nina Dunn, her talk was fascinating as yes there is a lot of technical aspects to get your head around but she talked about her journey and those learning curves which gave this newbie hope. During the networking following I had the chance to talk further with Nina and talking about my new adventures at university and all things projection, her advice was to have a look at the new QLab 4 with a dedicated video element . I had in my first year had a tiny play with the software for my sound module and had found it really nice to use, perhaps because it is a Mac based software yey!!


QLab4 pixel mapping

QLab4 pixel mapping

So a little research and playing with it pre tech for Bright Lights Big City my biggest video work to date at LIPA , both me and my assistant Matthew Wane were convinced . There are more complex and stable ways of projection as we were running with two laptops and no media server, with some incredible companys out there producing some powerful pixel mapping tools . One standout for me is Disguise who have worked on some amazing projects, including a few for Nina.

https://www.disguise.one/en/showcases/theatre/ great powerful software

https://figure53.com/qlab/ home of q lab 4

https://somethinggraphic.net/ Nina Dunn