Halfway through focus today for The Last Word I realized that I have never lit a realistic interior. I have lit plenty of interiors, but they have been in musicals or somehow highly stylized spaces. I have lit quite a few realistic exteriors, with Becoming Adele being the most recent. But the realistic interior is something I have only done as a theoretical project in various classes.
Realistic plays enjoy their own degree of complexity and challenge in a way that more abstract works do not. This play is set in a rundown office space with an overhead fluorescent fixture and light through the windows. The light takes the lead from the fluorescent and is cold and soft.
Focus went well today. It was a little slower than I would have liked, but the space is deceptively tricky. So it took longer for the electricians to move around the room than would be ideal. But we got done. I think it will look nice. The trick of course is to maintain the realism of the piece and still have it be dramatically viable. Really this is all behind the scenes stuff. The conversations we had were about relating the scenery to the costumes to the lighting such that we could create the drama in something that through outward appearances looks like nothing special.
This is part of my job that I find fascinating. There used to be an idea about design that if you noticed it, something was wrong. In today’s world that is hardly a rule. In fact many shows work precisely because a costume or a lighting effect is particularly noticeable and calls attention to itself. This is not one of those shows. This is definitely a place where if you notice it, there may well be some thing wrong.
The lighting is also very old fashioned. Well, it is actually a hybrid of old and new. This is perfect for the play itself which deals with generational conflict as a central device through the piece. The color sense is highly modern, very contemporary. Yet the choice of angles could be pulled right out of Stanley McCandless 101.
My thinking about the lighting for this piece has been very strongly focused on the architectural reality of the play. After all, if we design the room right, then all we need do is make that room make visual sense. The set is fantastic. It is just the right balance of depressing and gloom yet still light enough to let this very comedic piece work on the several levels it needs to.
We begin rehearsals in the space tomorrow. So far things have been fairly relaxed, at least so far as I have seen. This promises to be a pleasant experience. Now go buy tickets!
Tags: color, focus, last word, practical theory, stanley mccandless
