Drama 16 Stage Lighting

Calkins Hall, one of the art rooms, at 11:11am on April 25th
I had walked into the room for my class; the blinds were down, the lights were on overheard, and the spotlights on either side of the room, the lights that we use to better illuminate the models, were turned off.
As soon as I walked into the room, I felt like something was off. It took me a few minutes, but I realized that whenever I have had class in this room throughout the semester, the spotlights would be on. These spotlights were used so that we could more easily see the model(s) that we were using on any day. However, for this class, my professor had decided that we were going to work outside, and thus had not turned on the lights. It felt odd to me, because it seemed as though the classroom was missing some of the warmth that it had previously. I didn’t feel as though I should’ve been in the room, because I felt like it wasn’t my classroom anymore.

1. 3/8/17, 11:45 pm, behind Hofstra Hall
2. In front of Calkins, the footlight coming from below the flagpole was creating a shadow against the flags. This illumination also created a shadow on the grass from the nearby statue.
3. I was walking behind Hofstra Hall late at night. I turned to check if the Calkins cat was sitting in her normal spot, but the flagpoles in front of Calkins quickly caught my attention. Aside from the consistent light the moon provided, I had realized the area was particularly well lit. The light flooded around the nearby objects, creating various shadows in many forms. These shadows wrapped the surrounding ground and buildings, giving a very eerie feeling to the scene. The footlight below the flag poles pointed up towards the flags themselves. As the wind moved the flags, the shadows they had casted moved as well. The statue that stood in front of Calkins was lit as well, casting a tall shadow which loomed over the entire quad.

My friend Justin is a photographer of very eccentric (often macabre) tastes. His latest exhibit in Calkins was themed around 1980s underground gay culture in NYC. In the room he was given, he set up what looked like a trashy apartment from the mid 1980s, complete with a Fabulous Pop Tarts CD playing on a boombox, a leopard print bed spread, bottles of cheap alcohol, milk crates, lewd magazines, and a dusty upright mirror — not to mention the photographs of meat, isolated stills of the male anatomy (some mine), and kinky toys.

Above all, what set the scene for me was the lighting: An old desk light (shown in the picture), like one my dad had at our old house, sitting on a red milk crate, illuminated the room, making everyone a little purplish. Just from the way the light hit the bed spread, and bounced off the old mirror, I could imagine what this seedy place would smell like, what the owner would sound like if he answered a phone, what his refrigerator would look like. Justin did an other-worldly job in creating this atmosphere.

(PS: I have NO clue why I am making that expression in this picture?!)