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!
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.
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.
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.