Week Ten: Learning oh so Much

So this week was HUGE in the learning department! We had plotting lecture, discussion of The Dramatic Imagination, Yasmin's show, Naomi's show and Kyle's.
Plotting wracked my brain! It was so quick and covered a lot in a small amount of time. I was happy to find that all of it made sense, I just have to go back and slowly learn step by step (and hopefully work through it). I understand the point of plotting: where the lights will hang, from what distance and using what degree of a fixture in order to light the stage efficiently with the least amount of lights possible (in a perfect world). It is important to understand your space, the dimensions and set that will coordinate with where things can hang. I learned that you will need certain ground plans provided by your scenic designer for certain areas on the stage that will be lit. This has to do with distance and parameter. It seems like a huge task to handle when given an empty space with seemingly endless possibilities...but if you can calculate the efficient distances that work with the degree of fixtures in deciding how much area can be lit, than you are golden. It's just that initial learning of how to calculate that degree.
I really enjoyed our final discussion of the book, and feel as if we got a lot of cool perspectives on the table. Everyone had different opinions, good/bad/arrogance/guru...but we realized that everyone is correct and incorrect. The end result is that theatre must stay imaginative and with reasoning-if there is no reasoning behind it, then you are just creating to be creative, we must learn and push ourselves to our highest potential, until we can be released from our work. We have to stay true to what the playwright is trying to convey in the piece.
Yasmin's show was beautiful. I loved her composition, and it seemed like she really went beyond the rep plot to make it her own. The play didn't call for an abstract concept, and I was glad that she didn't add too much to make it crazily "artsy" when it wasn't needed. That's the beauty and limitations of lighting a realistic environment. I truly enjoyed her cyc choice and use of her practical when indicating the time of day. I felt as if there were some strange cue errors, but being invited dress there are bound to be some technical issues that still arise. I absolutely saw what she was attempting and felt that it was overall a crisp and clear design.
Naomi's design was also quite beautiful- she had amazing sources and definitive times, her specials were also quite breath taking. I did feel that she had abrupt fade times and obvious changes of lights that I could detect instantly, and I couldn't buy it as much. Sometimes the scene would go into shorter french scenes that she lit more dramatically and faded pretty soon which snapped us back into the scene at hand, but I felt that those moments were so brief that they were not always needed. Her composition was gorgeous, the warm/cool downs were beautifully chosen. Also, I noticed that some of her characters were not completely lit when they were speaking and I don't know if that was a conceptual thing but it didn't work as well for me. Even so, I am excited to work with her next quarter (she said that she is mentoring me? I thought it would be a grad...)
KYLE'S design-WOW!! He did so much with the practicals, I was so impressed and congratulated him immensely. The use of headgear and moving people that were used as face light was AWESOME. The shadows were gorgeous, the flashlights, leds, everything was so great. After the show, Erika  and I got to ask him questions about HOW he lit everything. His design reminded me of The Dramatic Imagination, all of his work had purpose and total use of imagination, and completely worked. It was so successful.
OVERALL!!! This quarter has taught me so incredibly much, I can never thank everyone enough for the amount of work and dedication that we all created throughout the quarter. I love this lighting world. I am so proud and feel honored to be surrounded by so many amazing individuals and artists and feel very lucky that we all support each other no matter what. Thank you Lonnie. Thank you so much for helping us become designers.