Drama 16 Stage Lighting

1)2012-05-03 at 12:30 AM walking across Memorial Quad

2) Blue light from a projector that didn’t get turned off inside Davidson Hall, streaming out of the window and catching the water in the air.

3) The moment you walk out of Emily Lowe you see this unearthly glow emanating from the hall across the grass.  It is the brightest thing in any direction, almost blinding when you get closer and look directly in the window.  The rich blue catches the damp night air and looks like there could be all sorts of alien happenings or top secret experiments inside.   The reflection of the light isn’t particularly noticeable (even if it is damp) and so the fact that you only see it catch the air rather than fall on a particular surface is interesting.

2.http://www.coolchaser.com/graphics/tag/big%20empty%20stage

3. Theme: #Allofthefeelings

4. The stage is my sanctuary. This is where I love to be, because I love to act, and this is where I get to do that. This image is the image in my head when I imagine being on a stage alone. When I did a soliloquy in a show back in high school, I was in my element and I loved it. And I love sharing this with my friends when we are on stage together. Then, once I’m on stage, all of the feelings come out, no holding back. These are the lights I see, and I like the addition of the flowers on the stage, because this is what it’s all about: affecting people so much, they would be inclined to throw flowers on stage to show their appreciation. That’s why I do what I do, so that I can express all of the feelings and give people all of the feelings.

1. 5/3/12 1:00 p.m. on the Spiegel Stage during Undergrad Cabaret

2. Lights shining the stage and the first few rows of seniors.

3. This was a special moment and it happened just last night during Undergrad Cabaret. I was on stage and the lighting was perfectly lighting up the seniors and the stage. So it felt like a really intimate moment, like it was just me and the seniors as I told them how much they meant to me and thanking them for what they have done for me. So it was probably the most special lighting moment I’ve had this entire semester, and it was happening in the perfect moment.

2. Taken at Dance Unlimited of Hanover – approximate dates (top) April 1996 by Dawn Forristall and (bottom) April 2010 by Linda Turner.

3. #Allofthefeelings

4. There are not many things I miss about home, the big exception being the studio I danced with for sixteen years. That studio was home to me, the people there were and are my family. That’s why I chose this picture for this week – they aren’t remarkable photos, but it’s a snapshot of how I grew up. The top photo is class when I was younger, and the bottom a class in my last few years with the studio. The photos were taken at the same point in the year, and the same girls are in the photo – we grew up together, and stayed together. The lights in the studio aren’t anything special – actually, the lighting was always pretty awful. The fluorescent lights are harsh and very bright, but they always got the job done so that’s all that mattered. The lights hang pretty low in the ceiling. I can remember all too well hitting the lights if we got too much height in a jump or trick. I guess that just added to the charm of the place – it may not be five star quality, but it’s home.

THEME: #Allofthefeelings

Prior to leaving for college, I was adamant about getting pictures of my parents and my puppies for my dorm room. This picture happened in between attempts to force my dogs to pose, a concept they didn’t quite understand. Regardless, I snapped this image of my dad and my oldest dog Rajah (a ginormous black labrador who might as well be a shetland pony). Not only does this show to individuals that I love dearly, but it was taken at a time of both joy and wistfulness. I was both excited and apprehensive for my foray into the next chapter of my life, college 3000 miles from home, and in taking such pictures I managed to take a little bit of home with me. My dad is his typical perpetual tan (though not like the Jersey Shore tan – he just likes to sit out in the sun and read) and my puppy looks as sweet as ever. They’re both in between the camera and the brighter light source, casting them in enough shadow to give them a faint glow around the edges. That coupled with the brightness and beauty of a perfect summer’s day gives off a feeling of comfort and nostalgia for me, of the memories I have and the home that I miss. With showcase and finals and so much work getting packed into the next two weeks, it’s a little bit of hope for what I get on the other side.

26 April, 2012
Webster Hall, New York City, NY
Around  7:30 pm

I got to go to a mosh-style concert for the alternative punk rock band The Wombats. They had two bands as opening acts, the first being an unknown quasi-progress rock band, the second a very loud punk rock band.

Prior to this I had never been to a rock concert before. I’d been in sit-down atmospheres for a couple of my favorite artists, but those had assigned seats. This was a full-on standing room only, potential mosh pit style venue, with loud speakers and crazy concert lights. With all of this, before the Wombats came on stage, before their opening acts, before anything but radio music was playing and people were only just filtering in, I was in a perpetual state of wide-eyed excitement. As an overall experience, it was wonderful. It was loud and crazy and busy and I felt the bass in my chest and the movement of the floor. I was with good friends listening to wonderfully blaring and fantastic music, and all of this pretty much carried on throughout.

While I am an avid fan of the Wombats, I was a lot more impressed by the first opening act (whose name I conveniently cannot remember), a watered-down progressive rock band a la Coldplay and Young the Giant, though with slightly less enunciation. For their set, they had four giant light bulbs on stage, set up between instruments and band members, mostly surrounding the drummer (as he was center stage). Before they started playing my friend and I were somewhat confused as to what they were exactly – it was pretty dark and we only saw lights glinting off of the bulbs because they weren’t on yet. But then when they started playing their music, when it got super loud and fast and busy and energetic, the lightbulbs went off and on to the beat. Flashes of muted amber went off with the other LEDs and moving lights in the theatre, completely drawing you in trance-like to the music and sucking your focus almost primarily to the beat of the drums amidst the loud and full music coming from the band as a whole.