Drama 16 Stage Lighting

1. Tuesday, April 10, sometime between 9:00PM and Midnight

2. The orange lights of the highway lamp posts glowed through sleepy eyes

3. A six hour drive with your best friends in the dark is fun, and silly and wonderful. We had made it out of DC, on through Baltimore, out of Maryland, through Delaware and a bit into Jersey when my headache hit. A headache that pounded behind my forehead and shot back to just above my ears when I was least expecting it, the kind of headache that meant I needed to let someone else drive. Luckily, Phil and Beep are natural worriers. As soon as I pulled into the rest stop they were trying to shove medication at me, and clear out a spot in the back seat for me to curl up. When we got back on the road, Beep drove, Phil co-piloted, and I collapsed in the back, blanket pulled over my head. I drifted in and out of sleep for the remaining 3 hours of the drive, once coming to my senses enough to stare out the front window for a few moments. I don’t know which highway we were on, what state we were in, or what the boys were talking about, but through my sleep-blurred eyes I saw the lights illuminating the highway. They were a row of orange sunbursts disappearing onto the blackened horizon. Further than the eye could see, they wound ahead of us, a path through the unknown. To my dream filled eyes, we were the inhabitants of a magical universe, blurred and foggy around the edges. Against the deep blue sky, they appeared like fairy lanterns, and as we passed under them, their warm glow made me feel safe, I knew they would lead me home.

<http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0yaxqSAeP1r3hjv9o1_500.jpg>

THEME: Portrait or Strong Central Figure

Honestly, this was one of the first images that came up in my tumblr and I thought it was perfect. Maybe that was due to the lateness of the hour or the fact that I thought it was simply adorable, but either way, it fits the assignment so I’m not complaining. It’s pretty cute in it’s own right, but to an extent it can also say a lot about the story of Anakin/Darth Vader. He starts out as this unsuspecting boy who doesn’t realize the weight of his decisions and what he will become. Half of him is cast in shadow, giving the impression that he was, to an extent, predestined to eventually succumb to The Dark Side (they have cookies!). Though that could only be insofar as the potential everyone has to be either good or bad, light or dark – it all depends on the decisions one makes, and Anakin ended up making the choices that led him down the darker path.

13 February, 2012
South Campus
Around  5:00 pm

I’m walking west from work (the Plant Maintenance Facility south of the stadium) towards the NAB, just as the sun is setting over the top of the buildings on South Campus.

It had been one of those days, my busiest, with work and class and work and class and work (in that order). A day of accomplishment, of productivity at work as well as in my classes. The day had been warm and sunny and pretty much the beach weather I was used to. Overall it was a good day, full of things getting done and being happy and hopeful. I was on my way to the NAB to join Lee’s paint call for ‘Cat’, and the way the orangeish beams of sunlight spread away from the roof of the NAB was just so beautiful. It was a picturesque ending to a rather picturesque kind of day, and overall it made me feel really happy, despite the fact that I was on my way to do more work. I didn’t really mind, after having such a day with the easy breezes and warm sunlight. The hopefulness I felt (for whatever reason)  after that view seemed to make it okay that I wouldn’t get to bed for about eleven more hours.

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomvu/2614894638/>

THEME: Vibrant, Colorful, Saturated

After a few bland ideas, I remembered Coney Island being a big deal in the lighting world, as well as my own fond memories of visiting it once upon a time. I searched ‘Coney Island’ tags on tumblr and when this one came up I knew it was perfect. Not just because it fits the theme, but because of how alive it is – and it’s all unnatural lighting. Nathan’s has been around since 1916 (1), so it’s essentially a Coney Island staple. The landmark mentality of all things Coney is perpetuated by the fact that everything is pretty much still there. What I love is that that combines with the fluorescent and neon of the contemporary world to show that it has adapted, for all that it will always retain it’s classic Coney feel. This picture combines the carnival-esque innocence of what Coney was with the bright and busy of the contemporary world, showing that Coney Island has withstood time and will continue adapting as long as there are people around to appreciate the history.

(1) http://nathansfamous.com/PageFetch/getpage.php?pgid=39

8 February, 2012
South Campus, outside Lowe
Around  7:30 pm

I’m walking north just before the ramp to Lowe. Gold light of the mid-setting sun covers the south side of one of the trees outside the building.

I’ve come to realize that I spend a lot of time looking at, speaking and thinking about trees – and I think I’m okay with that. The settings changed drastically for me when I moved coasts for school, and one of the most noticeable differences (besides the flatness of Long Island) was the trees. There aren’t nearly as many evergreens here as there are at home, just as there aren’t many non-evergreens at home like there are here. So naturally, I notice trees quite a bit. This particular instance really struck me because it was in the middle of the sunset, which is something I typically associate with the beach, if only because of how many I witnessed on the Puget Sound. What hit me most was the pure gold of the sunlight, and how that was visible even in the murky brown of the bark. It was also pretty contrasting, as the natural grooves and pockets in the bark were cast in shadows, giving them even more dimension with dark on one side and gold on the other. The tree was tall and scraggly and devoid of leaves, which in my mind collided with the gold of the sunset in a way that spring and winter really don’t. There’s usually more of a natural fade from one to the other – maybe with some freak snow storms every so often – but seeing these two examples of seasons so drastically converge startled me to an extent. You never really think of the seasons as being separate, rather cyclical, but at their heights they can be severely different.