Drama 16 Stage Lighting

1. 12.00AM, Thursday, March 8, Speigal Theatre during cabaret.

2. The row of lights backlighting Philip Schaffer as he read his new poems made him glow in red, yellow, and blue.

3. I love poetry at cabaret. I love the energy, the passion, and the care taken when spitting out images. If a poet is passionate, it comes through his words, his actions, and the aura he casts. Philip Schaffer, is often one of those poets. Up on the Cabaret stage, he shines, and flails, and forms his words with such love and hate and allofthefeelings, that it is impossible to not get swept up in the sound of his voice, even if you don’t catch every metaphor. The cabaret stage lets him shine in other ways too. The frontlight picks up the reds in his skin and the plaid of his shirt, but its the backlight that is really impressive. above Pip’s head is a row of alternating red, blue and yellow lights that catch his movement with flares in your cornea. The lights melt on him, stretching across his skin as he moves, hanging onto his words as tightly as the audience. Something about his performance makes the lights dance as his teeth do. In pure colorful poetry, a subtext under his.

1)      February 22^nd 2012, 11:25PM, Outside of the Spiegel Theater

2)      Watching Phil Tyler and Alex Beja fight each other with lightsabers outside of the Spiegel.

3)      Cabaret is definitely one of my favorite activities on campus. I try to go every week even though sometimes I would be better off staying in catching up on work. Regardless, I made the executive decision to go to Cabaret this past Wednesday. As Geena and I walked from the Design Studio to the Spiegel we caught a glimpse of blue and red in the distance. The colors seemed to mix together and bounce off each other, but very gracefully. As we got closer to the source of light we realized that Phil and Beja were dueling. Up close, the lights seemed much more volatile than they did from far away. With the sources of light in view the two colors seemed to dance very roughly with each other. The blue lightsaber would move quickly up and down as the red lightsaber would intercept the light it by moving right to left. I couldn’t help but think of the light moving to danse macabre. The light moving so quickly, so violently. At first it seemed so artistic graceful. Sadly looks can be deceiving from afar. I was whipped out of the moment as Phil fell to the ground because Beja claimed victory.

1) 2/8/12, 12:30 am – Cabaret in the Spiegel Theatre

2) Phil Schaffer reading poetry in blue and yellow light at Cabaret.

3) As Phil was reading his 3 poems, the lights in the theatre were dimmed to create a romantically mysterious mood. It was so easy to relax into the words of his poems. The colors of the lights coincided perfectly with the way he dressed. After he finished reading, the lights brightened up and Phil’s face brightened up with them as the applause finished.

1.) Thursday Mar. 24th 2011, 12:00 A.M. Spiegel Theatre.

2.) A performer backlit in silhouette by the Alpha Psi gobo.

3.) In between acts during Cabaret the Alpha Psi Omega gobo illuminates the back wall of the Spiegel. After an act finished, the lights blacked out but for some reason the gobo came up immediately. The shift was sudden and very startling. The large Greek letters in white against the black wall were very powerful-looking, and there was enough light to provide the backlight necessary to put the actress still onstage in silhouette. It made her immediately imposing, which was unfortunate, considering the fact that she had just finished performing. It was a visceral experience.

When/ Where:  Cabaret, midnight

Objective Description:  Shadow of light on back wall.

Subjective Description:  The shadow of this light (I mean an actual light fixture that’s hung above the stage, not light like from a bulb) was huge, it looked bigger than the people who were up on stage, which made it seem very foreboding and creepy.  The shadow looked like it wasn’t supposed to be there, so it gave me the feeling that it was shifted by mistake or something had gone wrong.