Breaking Down The Show

At some point, once the basic concepts that will underlie the show have been developed, and you've established lines of communication with the other artistic staff, it's time to start a closer examination of the script (again, for non-scripted shows, this might be a closer examination of the choreography, or music, or whatever). The goal here will be to break the show down into individual scenes, so that you can think about each scene and how to light it as a unit. These scenes may follow the act/scene divisions of the script itself, but often there will be further division within those scenes as well. Anytime the lights should change to something significantly different, you should start a new scene.

What I like to do here is create a scene breakdown document, that simply lists the individual scenes chronologically. One "scene" that is often ignored, which I think is fundamental to the success of the show, is the way the house looks when the audience is entering, before the show begins (and at intermission, and afterwards). Many designers just turn on the houselights, and nothing else, and in my opinion that's boring. An example (this is sort of an interlude here): Othello in the Ex, the audience enters into the theater and finds that 3/4 of it is masked off. They are seated in the narrow space directly in front of them as they enter the theater. They see a mattress onstage, dimly lit, with a woman in it. This sets the scene for the first act, and the initial presence of the woman suggests what happened before the show started. After the act, the audience leaves the theater in normal lighting, but on reentering, the discover that the space they sat in last time is now blocked off, and they are to enter the main part of the Ex. There, they find a psychadelic drop (blacklight and deep red, fading in and out), low blue lighting on the stage, and only small clip lights to help them find there seats. The setting is underscored by storm sounds, and the whole effect is intended to suggest the transition to Cyprus, where the storm of the latter acts will take place.

The point being that you should include a separate section for "scenes" that aren't necessarily in the script at all. If you can strengthen the show by suggesting things that have happened outside the script, then do so.

Once the show is broken down into scenes, I then go through and start taking detailed notes on the script itself. Look for anything about the scene that is explicitly lighting related. What time of day is it? Indoors? Outdoors? In a bar? Setting, time, season, any physical sources of light that are mentioned are important. Any notes the playwright saw fit to include are also relevant. All these indications will help you do the design later, but of course you may eventually choose to ignore them entirely.

Also note the places in the script which clearly call for lighting changes. If radical changes are called for, it might suggest starting an entirely new scene, but you will also have smaller cues like adding specials, or filling in areas of the stage, or subtle color shifts.

If you have any questions about the various scenes, from a practical standpoint, talk to the other artistic staff. Check if the director is actually intending to follow the playwright's notes (this is rare, in my experience). Check if there are any particular scenes he or she would like lit in a particular setting, time period, etc. Ask if there are any practicals that you need to find.

You should end up with a fairly long document that lays out the entire show, from the moment the house opens until that last audience-member has left. You will have all the notes you took from the script and from meetings with the other artistic staff to refer to, whether you're going to pay attention to them or not, and you'll have the rough beginnings of your cue list. With these as raw materials, you'll now start to actually envision how each scene will be lit.

TOC - Visualizing The Scenes