Stage Directions: This summer, the historic Cape Playhouse staged a revival of the Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents classic Gypsy. Lighting Designer Zach Blane had little time to get the show up and running, as he and his lightng team had to set up a Broadway-scale production in only one 10-hour day. Despite the short lead in, his nuanced lighting evoked the powerful emotional tides that shaped the complex relationship between legendary striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee and her mother, Rose.
6 comments:
What an interesting article! This reminds me so much of why I love lighting design, and it's so cool to hear about other lighting designers having these crazy experiences. To only have 10 hours for this whole process, must have felt impossible, but because Zach Blane is such a professional, he was able to smoothly plan out what all would take place in those 10 hours. Just from the description if the show, this play does not seem short, nor does it seem realistic, so for Blane to be able to know beforehand what was necessary, and act on that to make the tech run smoothly, proves that Blane really does know what he is doing. And, since this article was written just about that one aspect of the show, he clearly did an outstanding job.
I find it quite interesting that the emphasis of the lighting for this particular production was on the emotional impact and movement of the show as a whole. Since I am not a lighting designer, I tend to think of lighting for any given show as both a practical and environmental choice, not necessarily an emotional one. It was really interesting to hear about the choices this particular designer made, as well as how he assigned different lighting choices to different character arcs and motivations.
I also find how this designer approached the significantly shortened timeline they had to craft the lighting for this show quite interesting. The emphasis he places on having a framework is what I would have expected, but it was also intriguing to hear that he so adamantly allowed for room - even on such a tight schedule - for the design to develop and "flesh out". I would be interested to hear whether or not audience members felt and saw the show on all the levels the designer intended.
I think that this lighting designer has a great way of talking about mood and emotion in lighting. It can be a fine balance between being able to see and setting the mood. While it is true that the audience may not notice how the lighting enhances the mood, they would certainly notice if it contradicted it. What I find most interesting about the article, however, is the talk of only having ten hours to set up the show. To some degree, the article makes it seem like the entire design was done in ten hours. The working of hanging, circuiting, and perhaps focusing may have been done in ten hours, but not the design. The article even points out that the lighting designer met with the artistic team to walk through the lighting for the show. I would also argue that using LED fixtures and moving lights takes a lot of time away from hang and focus time.
Hearing Blane's process when lighting this production of Gypsy is really interesting. Because of his short time frame of only 10 hours, he had to really have the analysis that we are given in this article already planned out beforehand. All of his moves seem well thought out, right down to the evolution in lighting from act 1 to act 2. I also think that going through the script beat by beat can help the overall emotional journey of the viewer. Blane is right in assessing that most theatre goers don't notice light cues. Often when I go to plays with my friends who don't do theatre and mention lighting to them, they say things like "I knew something was different". Good lighting should make the viewer feel something rather than hitting them over the head with large shifts when said large shifts are not needed. As my high school stage design teacher told me, lighting is the psychology of theatre.
I have a lot of respect for this man, being able to design a full show in one day is incredible work. At the start of my senior year of high school I was designing an outdoor show and on the morning of our last show I came in and found that the wind had knocked over all of our stage and lighting equipment. I had two hours to find a way to move everything inside and find a way to light the show in the same way as it was outside, but with a different set of fixtures and hang locations. If I was in this situation without having any idea of the script, actors, or overall mood of the play I think I would have been stuck, even if I had another eight hours. I loved his description of how he went through each scene to determine what the mood should be. I also like how he included so many subtle changes regardless of the fact that the audience wouldn’t actively notice them.
I am so suppressed by the progress that has been made in the last 10 years with LED technology. This year was the first year I have had a chance to work with these LED Sours4’s and I am so impressed. 10 years ago there version of this was a tiny lamp that was built into the burner. But it had several set backs. One the led lamps could only be replaces by sending the entire burner. And the price tag on one of these lamps were really high and the light output is stepped up and down in terms of dimming capability. And that version could not color change. If I remember correctly gobos had problems being sharp. All of these things seems to have been fixed. I cant even tell the difference between the sours 4’s and these new ELD ellipsoidal.
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