Play Synopsis:
Billie Holiday, Malcolm X and Yusuf Hawkins are all in heaven. Emmy Straight enters and is looking for God. She is asking numerous questions as to where to find God and why she is up there with the others. With asking those questions, Emmy is curious as to how everyone had arrived to heaven. Then the real world down below seemed to gain a connection to heaven and then a door has appeared and the characters leave heaven.
Since the characters are in heaven, the colors for the show would be more in the light blues and lavenders. The set is going white so that is a great opportunity to bounce light. Whenever any of the characters flash back to their past to speak of their death, there would be a play of more richer blues and purples. Any song that Billie Holiday would sing, the lights would fade to a darker blue. This show would primarily have lights that would change per mood for certain sections of the show. In a meeting with one of the people from the creative team, they said that the pink panther theme would be used towards the end. With that little piece of information, the lights will be a bright pink and fade out when the characters are off the stage. When Emmy Straight is singing her song, there is an array of colors to be used.
How does this take a correlation with designing a show, is that you have to convey the ideas of what the creative team is asking for. In addition to making sure that the purpose of the light made sense. An example would be that say the director wanted light coming from underneath the actor, but then with the way it looked we had to cut the light out from the show. As a designer, you really need to learn to compromise with the creative team to make sure that the aesthetic of the show is achieved. Being the Assistant Lighting Designer, I had to make sure that any design changes had been implemented were kept and to remind the creative team the reason why it had gotten cut so we can move forward with making the show happen.
