Even if the audience are unaware of it (often rightly so), lighting has a massive impact on their experience of a performance. Based in York but working all over the UK and Europe, this is what I love. To play with mood subtly can transform a show, from a gentle highlight of a particular area, to using a little more warmth, a different angle. Sometimes, this is as satisfying as creating the effect of a train tearing through the auditorium for 'The Signalman' or the abstract but terrifying blade in 'The Pit and the Pendulum'. Though now a West-End and international LD, I find this as interesting with small- or mid-scale shows, where sometimes 12 channels must do the job of a full rig.
The use of a single gobo to locate the action in Drama, multiple moving lights to bring out the best of a gig, it can be big or small, but dramatic lighting should add that extra something, a touch of class or the effect that singles out a show in the memory long after the curtain comes down. Manipulating emotions is the point of art. But before we forget, this is the entertainment industry. let's make it, above all, fun! |
All photos by Duncan Hands unless otherwise stated.
Please do not reproduce without permission
Photo credit this page, banner: Sherlock Homes: A Study in Fear(Rumpus Theatre Co),
Left and centre: Pinter's The Lover/Dumb Waiter (both Eric Lund)
Right: The Story Giant (Peter Wiles).
Please do not reproduce without permission
Photo credit this page, banner: Sherlock Homes: A Study in Fear(Rumpus Theatre Co),
Left and centre: Pinter's The Lover/Dumb Waiter (both Eric Lund)
Right: The Story Giant (Peter Wiles).