the BRIGHT idea
Theatre lighting is what i say i know most about when folks ask me what my specialty is in theatre. i don't rightly know if this is true or not, but it is one of the things that i have done in theatre and studio spaces since high school. In film courses, i was always particularly interested in colour grading and mis en scene or, more specifically, how they affect the audience's perspective on what is going on in the frame. The ideology transfers to the stage - the light on stage works in similar ways to guide the audience's eyes towards where the director wants them to look, and using specific colours and intensities to provide insight to what is happening or how characters are feeling on stage.
But for my day to day working in a lighting booth, i'm not the one making creative decisions. i just know which buttons to press to make the lights do what someone else has told me to do. The most creative choices i get to make are when busking for a cover band that nobody higher on the food chain wanted to work. Sure, i have had fun making those choices, but my creativity is limited to 10 second snap decisions in reaction to what's happening on stage.
the IDEA
i am currently obsessed with the music from EPIC:The Musical. It encapsulates two of my lifelong obsessions: Greek mythology and musical theatre. Anyone who has asked me what i've been listening to in the past two months has heard me rave about this collection of Broadway concept albums by Jorge Rivera-Herrans. i even had a friend say, "Oh, you were a theatre kid, weren't you?", after i started talking about it, haha. My obsession started some gears turning in my head about what this show could look like. i started envisioning how one would design costumes for specific characters, how to would make it sound like 600 men singing for Odysseus's crew, or make a fleet of Trireme ships appear and disappear from stage. Then, i had an idea.
i want to play around with lighting this non existent show. There are no previous shows to interfere with my creativity. All ideas and creative decisions would be my own.
Which also means that i have nothing to work with. No set, no blocking, no restrictions to keep my work grounded. i can't simply borrow the original set for the show and light it how i would want to, because there is no set for this show.
the SETup
The base of every good show starts with a cohesive and functional set. i have never designed a set before. But i have helped build, paint, and dress several sets. i have seen and been in many community theatre productions. Slime tutorials have lead to many sleepless nights, and i've now worked a handful of load in and outs at the Kingston Grand Theatre and the National Art Center for Broadway (and not Broadway) musicals. i'm familiar with CAD drawing and design concepts. So... how hard could it be?
One of my favourite sets of all time has to be from the 2016 revival of Falsettos. The set is made almost entirely from grey blocks that fit together as one giant grey block, and they are taken apart and put back together throughout the show by the cast.
As much as i love this set, it's not what i have in mind when it comes to EPIC. Abstract and minimalist sets have always been some of my favourites, but they work better with specific genres or styles. EPIC is a retelling of Homer's Odyssey; set in ancient Greece, full of monsters and Gods, visiting magical islands and the underworld, fighting battles in lavish castles, traveling the seas on an ancient Greek ship. If i were trying to save on budget, i might make some sacrifices for this set - perhaps lean heavily on projections and props, or set the show in the future and use steampunk as a main inspiration which would allow me to make more industrial and abstract set pieces and in turn make the set cheaper.
Luckily, i don't have to worry about budget if it's never actually going to be built.
i don't have to compromise on historical and fantastical elements, but i still want to make the set theoretically possible on stage. So i'm going to have to look at actual sets used for large scale musical productions. i'm not afraid of research. i'm not afraid of hard work. So, as much as this is definitely out of my skill set right now, i'm positive that i can do this.
...maybe.