Hello all,
One of the most important elements of the festival is lighting - without it, the show couldn't be seen once the sun goes down! Because Electrics does most of their work at the Ewing Theatre at night (when the world is dark) I was unable to visit them, but I did get tot take some day-time pictures of our lovely Spotlight Operators at work and Marley Wooster, Festival Lighting Designer, was kind enough to grant me a Q and A session via email!
Twelfth Night
ES: Hi Marley! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions!
MW: These are great questions. I hope what I have written is interesting and useful to you.
ES: Do you have a design process or is it different for every show?
MW: It is a little different for each show, because different material leads you down a different path, but typically the steps are the same. I read the play, do a little research about the play and the playwright, read the play again this time taking notes about lighting moments and my first reactions about locations, time of day, emotions, etc, then I start looking for imagery that captures those emotions and if I'm lucky locations and time of day.
I usually gather 4 or 5 times as much imagery as I need. I often pull from the art period of the play or of the time period the play is set in. I organize that imagery into a collage called an image board that I share with the rest of the productions team and especially the director. After that meeting I read the play again. This time deciding lighting for specific moments.
I usually choose between 5 and 10 of those moments and create renderings, using an early sketch of the drawing to show the rest of the team some of hte angles, colors and textures I'm thinking about. Then after I create a color key. A color key is a chart that lays out the colors, angles, and textures I'd like for a show. I use the color key to create the light plot which is essentially a map for where the lights will be hung, how they'll be controlled and what kind of color and texture they'll have.
ES: When was your first Design meeting for the Festival this year?
MW: Our first design meeting was in December of 2015.
A view from the Booth
ES: Where did you draw your inspiration from for Twelfth Night?
MW: The lighting color palette of Twelfth Night is drawn largely from Art Nouveau Artists.
ES: Where did you draw your inspiration from for Hamlet?
MW: I looked at a lot of modern sculpture and ancient architecture for Hamlet.
MW: I looked at a lot of modern impressionism paintings of islands and lots of artsy photographs of ships for Peter and the Starcatcher.
ES: How long does it take to hang all the lights?
MW: It only takes about 3 days to hang all of the lights, it takes a full work week before that to clean them, prelace all of their rusty parts from last summer, and get them in good working order for this summer.
Hamlet
ES: What types of instruments does ISF have - how are they secured?
MW: We use combination of ETC Source Fours, ETC Source Four PARS, and PAR 64s. They are each secured to our catwalk or other positions with a c-clamp and bolt and then each instrument also has a safety chain in case the bolt fails.
Ryan (Light Board Operator) at the Board
ES: Do the gels (which determine the color of the light) get changed manually for each show? Or do they get changed within a single show?
MW: The gels and gobos (the pieces of steel that make the lights have a texture like trees or sail ropes for Peter) are changed manually by the electrics crew for each show. They do changeover after the show each night, so they can check to make sure each light is correct before they head home and come back the next day for the show. The spotlights color is changed manually during the show by the spot light operators who are all members of the electrics crew.
ES: Do we have any of the fancy self-changing instruments? Or anything else fun that you want to share with our readers?
MW: We aren't using any automated lights this summer, but we are using a fog machine which always creates a cool effect. We also collaborated with the costume crafts area on a a magic light-up accessory you'll have to come to Peter and the Starcatcher to see!
ES: Speaking of the Fog Machine, it plays quite a role in some of our shows this year -is this included in the lighting design or the set design? Can you talk about how the fog diffuses/changes the light quality?
MW: Fog is controlled by the light board, so atmospherics (fog, haze, smoke) are typically designed and controlled by the lighting designer and setup by the electrics staff. Putting particles in the air makes it so you can see the beams of light coming out of the theatrical fixtures.
Hamlet
ES: What is your favorite part of your job?
MW: I love that I get to work with lots of other people to tell stories. I like how flexible light is and how it can move and flow with the actors telling the story. I like how lighting can be about location and time of day but it can also be about emotion, mood and feeling and when it's done really well, it can subconciously tell an audience member where to look, what they're looking at, and how to feel about it and then in the next breath change all of that and no one really notices.
Emily is having fun!
ES: What is the biggest challenge about designing lights for three shows?
MW: It's hard to create a light plot that works with three sets, but we work around that by having basic systems we use for every show and adding what we call specials usually between 10 and 15 for each show. We add specials to light actors on stairs in different locaitons, to light actors on different levels in different sets and to light different scenery. We also add specials for special moments in each show.
Twelfth Night
ES: How far off the ground is our catwalk? Are all of the lights hung there - does that mean the crew doesn't use ladders to reach anything?
MW: The catwalk is approximately 28' above the deck of the theatre. Most of the lights are hung there, but there are some hung on pipes attached to the walls of the theatre and some in the upstage structure of the theatre that the crew uses ladders to get to .
Entrance to the Catwalk
Views from the Catwalk! (too high for my taste)
MW: Each show has 2 or 3 dedicated spot light operators. Just in case some people don't know, a follow spot is a light that moves during the show to follow an actor on the stage. It's manually operated by an operator. As a designer, I use follow spots to help pull focus to particular characters and to help make poignant moments feel more intimate.
Two of our lovely Spot-Ops, Emily...
and Bailey!
ES: Is there anything else you would like to add or tell us about?
MW: Designing for an outdoor festival is interesting because there's a giant changing light source in the sky that I as the lighting designer have no control over. It's something I'm careful to remind directors of early in the process, but besides knowing that some days the first few dark and cold scenes of Hamlet will be playhed in the sunlights, it's out of our control. So we control what we can. We're using fog to indicate that it's hard to see. I still light night scenes in blue and still isolate to actors because on cloudy nights, or later in the run, when the sun sets earlier, the lighting will be visible. It's an ever-changing element that I like working with. It makes me appreciate lighting that much more in Act 2.
ES: Marley, thank you so much for speaking iwth me - it is fascinating to get more insight into the lighting design process!
