Her Red Umbrella

GO SEE IT!

The 11:11 Theatre Company presents
HER RED UMBRELLA

Dec. 10-11, 16-17, 8 pm
Dec. 12, 3 pm



Featuring lighting by yours truly, it's a totally cute, romantic story from the wonderful folks at 11:11 Theatre Company!

motion

Today i finally tried something that i have heard about for a long time. I am in tech for this wonderful show Her Red Umbrella (come see it!!!) and there is a scene on a train. It is one thing to make interior lighting, but the scene called for motion to help us understand that there is a train and not just an interior space. The solution: a big fan on low sitting in front of the light. My associate (Gary) suggested going from the top angle (in order to have the motion not be directional from a single side). Remembering my TV lighting class, we placed the fan very close to the front of the fresnel, in order to avoid sharp shadows. And it worked! It's actually really beautiful and totally effective. It's amazing how simple it is sometimes...

Here is a picture that Gary took showing the setup.

sometimes lighting arrests you

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/12/03/theater/20101203-metamorphosis-ss.html?ref=reviews

losing sleep over...

maybe i just need to use this:
http://ismythesishotornot.com/

in other news, I am submitted all my materials for the USITT YD&T Lighting Design Award. It was an interesting process--pulling together a good presentation and trying to convey my approach to design in a few concise statements. I'll post the plates here:

designing the air

a few days ago, kevin decided to change a moving light cue based on the picture that it was making in the air. the lighting on the actors wasn't really affected: he was interested in the visual effect of the beams through the air. i asked him about it last night, and we had a conversation about how designing lights can be as much about where the light is coming from visually as it is about what it's hitting and how. thinking back to his other designs that i have seen, this is very true. hair, american idiot, spring awakening--they all have a very designed air space.

i can certainly see the link to rock and roll in that respect. when there is haze in the air, i think we all tend to pay a lot more attention to how light moves through space. but next to normal has no haze--and it's still something that kevin pays attention to. it is amazing how much of a difference that little change he did ultimately made to the overall effect of the cue.

so last night, while i watched the show, i paid attention to how the moving lights were moving around and where they were coming from. it was very interesting to watch when they are really focusing the eye (symmetrical, clean, etc) and when they are creating what kevin called "anarchy" onstage (all colliding, messy, contrasting, etc).



and just for fun: here is my official badge!!

zip strips

hello from LA! Today was my first day to see the show (Next to Normal)--during spacing-- and is my third official day working on the tour. It is really quite a lot of fun...and I am learning a ton. The last few days have been spent focusing and troubleshooting--today was about cueing and putting in moving lights. I've been dealing with tracking--mostly for the movers--and basically reconciling all the paperwork down to one correct set of documents.





the best thing about LA? DEF the amazing weather. i can sit outside during meal breaks...and not only is it warm but it's sunny!

each day is like no other

in december, the ART is producing The Blue Flower

In addition to being a really interesting collaboration between movement and visual arts, the lighting designer is Justin Townsend--who also did Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson--a show which I am dying to see.

I am totally excited about seeing it--the music is beautiful, i love the projections, it simply fascinates me from all angles. so EVERYONE. GO SEE the blue flower at the ART in December.