The performance of If An Orchid Was All You Had featured two key components that made the show what it was. It was very Tech heavy and feature a lot of aspects of movement be it physical theatre, dance or mime. Therefor it was in our best interests to try to link the themes between lighting and choreography. Working as assistant choreographer as well as a technician enabled me to have an inside scope into how all the movement was choreographed and how I might be able to link that with the aspects of the lighting. Most of the lights within the scenes where designed around the choreography and simply required organisation and communication. The final dance that concluded our show was choreographed by Kerrie Crockford and I was used as a stand in for the man character whilst kerrie experimented with some movement techniques. Being able to suggest idea’s and approach’s towards the dance and having Kerrie direct me in the way that she need, I was able to begin to understand the themes and narrative of the dance and how it aimed to make the audience feel as well as the character of the man.

We experimented with many different songs, each time using the same movements but creating a completely different atmosphere and narrative. The character of the woman, during the dance needed to appear manipulative, beautiful, mesmerising and yet rather malicious. The song that was chosen in the end had,rather than a soft and calming melody, had a more dub-step and technical melody which suited the theme of madness and chaos; yet it also had a rather beautiful violin and strings accompaniment to the dub-step which checked the criteria we needed for the final dance.

Final Dance (#1)

When it came to lighting the dance I was aware that the dance was supposed to manipulative and malevolent but in a beautiful way, so the the design for the dance, in terms of lighting, was similar to the scenes with the creatures, where the darkness and light bleed into each other. This creates the shadow effect on the actors faces making them seem more ominous. Mixing the light with colours of dark pink and purple created a nice juxtaposition between what is meant to be beautiful surrounded by the darkness in which the creature loom within.

References:

Final Dance, Image #1: Lincoln School of Fine & Performing Arts (2017) IAOWAYH photos [image]. Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/with/34016768033/ [accessed 27 May 2017].

With the ethos of our company we try to reuse and reform unwanted items and objects into completely new and unique items. I believe we accomplished this with great success in If An Orchid Was All You Had, including the amazing design and structuring of the set. I knew that because of the level and amount of technology we had in the show, we would have to use theatrical lighting for the performance, however I wanted to include some level of up-cycling and creativity within the design aspect of lighting effects. I first did some research into some easy DIY lighting effects that included: make-shift spot lights, a laser effect, a light up cloud & an illusion mirror. I would like to have used all of these techniques however the laser effect was costly and the light up cloud we decided did not fit artistically with the narrative and atmosphere of our show, however the make shift spot lights were easily do-able and the illusion mirror really intrigued me and I thought it would fit nicely with the theme of our piece.

Although they were not used, the instructional videos for the laser and cloud are listed below:

Spot lights

Like I mentioned above I knew that we were going to be using the theatre’s lights and that we were doing intricate lighting designs so the need for extra spot lights were not needed. “Before trying to create pleasant light, always be aware of unpleasant light” (Mende, 2000 ,22). Instead of getting too caught up in trying to make cool lights I made sure we didn’t go too over board and create too much hassle than it was worth. However I thought that as a contingency we may need some kind of back up lights that we could use to brightly light up a specific area on stage if we needed to.

These small make shift spot lights were made by using two piece’s of empty toilet roll tubes and cutting down the edge and opening them up. Then we used LED circular lights donated to us by flat mates and family members. Simply wrapping the two toilet roll tubes around the light and taping it into place all that was left was to draw on a place that signifies the lights power button. These lights were useful as they provided a movable hook so they could be placed in all sorts of positions and were also powerful enough to light up a designated area with decent intensity. They were used during each scene in which Jacob Toon was on the bike, placed just in front of him on the bike/organ, helping to keep his face well lit as to be seen on the live feed. They were also used during Jacob Kay’s speech during the Sadism scene to light up his cue cards as the only light source came from a spot light above Jacob making the rest of the stage rather dark.

Illusion Mirror

I first found a video on YouTube instructing on how to make a mirror with lights around the frame and cause’s the reflection to create an illusion effect were the lights seem to go on forever. However in the original video he uses black window film to place over the mirror as its two way reflective so lets light through as well reflecting it back and this is what create’s the illusion effect. However the black window film was rather expensive and so I thought it best to sacrifice that aspect of the mirror, but I didn’t to drop the idea completely. “One cannot encounter innovative light without, in the end, possessing courage. One should not be satisfied with incidents that have been experienced. One must gain courage to see unknown light when passion and experience are put forth” (Mende, 2000, 22). Instead I took the frame apart and took the mirror out and attached LED strip lights around the frame, and then sawed a fraction of the frame to make a gap for the wire to thread through. I then cracked the mirror several times and refit it to the frame. The cracks in the mirror are designed to help portray the cracks between the worlds as well as the cracks within the man’s mind. The lights are designed to highlight the cracks within the mirror as well reflect the light back towards whatever is in front of the mirror; which in the show was the Orchid. The Orchid was placed in front of the mirror as to suggest that it was the reason behind the cracks.

Original Illusion Mirror Video  

References:

Kaoru Mende, (2000) Designing With Light and Shadow, Mulgrave: Images Publishing.

HouseholdHacker, (2016) How to make a cloud light, Available from: www.youtube.com/watch?v=07m0e7NwzKc , Accessed [May 4th 2017].

2010DeanoRiordan, (2010) How to make a simple laser show, Available from: www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7Mc3o2MD3s , Accessed [May 4th 2017].

Mist8k, (2014) Make an L.E.D Illusion Mirror!, Available from: www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2bvWArORSc , Accessed [May 4th 2017].

When rehearsing and devising “Orchid” we, as an ensemble, were very much set on having a rather abstract and creative performance and we were all perfectly willing to take risks which allowed us to trail and experiment with amazing idea’s which all of us were having. Through research into different stimuli such as Samuel Beckett and Sarah Kane as well as a “Russian sleep deprivation” experiment, we were instantly hooked on creating something weirdly wonderful to invoke a huge range of emotions and reactions within our audience. We wanted to creep out, horrify, amaze, befuddle, inspire, question and provoke thought into the audience, we wanted each audience member to interpret the show in their own way. With all these hopes and ambitions towards our show, varying themes began to naturally surface in which we all agreed upon. “What is the theme of the design of light? What is the concept? Everything begins with efforts to respond to these questions. Lighting design without any subject often turn out to be a mere collection of consumption-oriented ideas” (Mende, 2000, 22). Themes such as Madness, Lunacy, Pseudo-randomness, Denial, Sadism, OCD, Passion, Obsessiveness and Pain & Pleasure. With these themes I, as a light designer, began to gather initial thoughts on how to create some cool lighting effects that would communicate our themes to the audience. One of my first thoughts was how the lack of light can create an eerie and creepy affect as well as an immersive and intimate one. Within one of the first rehearsal’s we had with each other we tried turning the lights out and trying out a scene in darkness with each of us holding only torches. It gave a nicely uncomfortable affect for an audience member and also made cool shadow effects across the stage; only we quickly discovered it was difficult to be seen or to see. so we began to think how we could recreate this effect, whilst also allowing us to see onstage. Immediately we knew that the stage should be dimly lit with a soft edge so that it gives the effect that the darkness is seeping into the light.

(Memory Scene) (#1)

As can be seen in photo #1 above during the memory scene most of the focused light, throughout the performance, is directed centre stage and bleeds into darkness as it gets closer to the edge of the stage. When rehearsing we kept most of the action in the centre of the stage, so that the important information can be seen by the audience, and choreographed the creatures around the edge of the stage to keep them concealed in the darkness as much as we could. Also when stood on the edges of the stage in the darkness, it creates a nice shadow effect on the centre of the stage which would loom over the action. This created a nice atmosphere in which the creatures could be seen and both not seen, giving the effect of always being watched from the dark, until they suddenly stepped into the light, as if from nowhere.

When it came to designing the lights for the individual scenes, we knew we wanted to create this dim shadow effect as discussed above; however we needed to create something that would fit the atmosphere of the content of the scenes and also we wanted to create a different atmosphere during the orchid scenes to help separate the world of the man and his orchid, from the world inside his mind. In order to do this, during the Orchid scenes, we simply intensified the two lighting states we had. What I mean is we made the edges of the stage even dimmer and the centre even brighter and instead of using a soft edge, we made it a hard edge. This gave the effect of the light pushing back the darkness and keeping it from seeping in. There was a clear separation between light and dark, rather than them fading into each other. For the scenes within the man’s mind and is inner creatures taunting him; they were all centred around a certain theme and so we wanted the lights to relay those themes as well. The memory scene had a hint of blue filters among the lighting, giving a calm and comfortable yet eerie and taunting feel to it. This linked up well with the slow, almost “creeping”, movements of the creatures as well as the pace and intent in their dialogue. (Refer back to Image #1)

In the Sadism scene there was a lot of action on stage including the fight scene as well as the game show style presentation of said fight scene. So the lighting for the fight scene we knew had to be at a bright enough level for the actors in the fight to be able to clearly see what they were doing for health and safety reasons. We simply used boxed edged lights to create sharp edges on the stage to seem like an arena during the fight. We wanted the game show aspect of the scene to be a complete contrast to the savagery of the fight scene to make the audience feel uncomfortable and give the fight more of an impact. So to create the atmosphere of a game show the use of strobe lighting during the exits and entrances of Jacob Kay (playing the role of the game show host) gave more of an effect that the audience where in a live studio setting.

(Sadism scene, #2)

During Jacob Kay’s speech in the sadism scene, he tells the story of a man and the moon who speak to each other. This came through the use of research into the lunar effect; the moon and the effects it has on people and animals(and of course the brilliant writing of Aiden Clarke). We discovered that there are many legends and theories on the full moon and how it can make people and animals act and respond out of character and cause madness and can cause/heighten paranormal activity. During this speech, we agreed that because of the intensity and emotion that comes from this speech it was best delivered from a spot light. Moreover we wanted the spotlight to come from just above the game show host, so that it gives the effect that the spotlight is in fact the moon itself and it shines down on him driving him crazy.

References:

Kaoru Mende, (2000) Designing with light and shadow,  Mulgrave: Images publishing.

Memory Scene: Image #1, Lincoln School of Fine & Performing Arts (2017) IAOWAYH photos [image]. Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/with/34016768033/ [accessed 27 May 2017].

Sadism Scene: Image #2, Lincoln School of Fine & Performing Arts (2017) IAOWAYH photos [image]. Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/with/34016768033/ [accessed 27 May 2017].