Monthly Archives: December 2011

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December 24, 2011

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POEM...

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SILENT CONVERSATIONS…

Circa December 2010…

 

I often wonder what is it to talk in silence

I hide your secrets from me and you hide mine from you

I pretend to not hear what u don’t want to say

I wonder, if you can still hear what I never can say…

 

The other day I heard you,

In the crunches of the fresh snow, talking to my pace…

Sun came and turned snow to ice

Your voice slipped away over frictionless glaze

and all that spoke was the cruel gloss of the arrogant sleet…

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December 2, 2011

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LIGHTING DESIGN...

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LIGHT A POEM…

This project was “lighting response to a poetry”. Group – B, C and me. We selected Sleepover by Kathy Ebel, mostly because I liked the sound of how it read, I liked that it did not have real things mentioned in the poem and that it had too many prepositions going on – next to, over, under, besides, etc. The requirement was that the poem should not be enacted out or performed but the light design should suggest the essence of the poem. So not having real things in the poem like a bagel or a bicycle left us with no choice but have no theatrical performance. The poem was abstract enough and that helped us in achieving the abstract quality of performance in light design.

Besides, having prepositions would help us creating allusions to spatial configurations with our light. These were initial impulsive thoughts all three of us had when we spontaneously and simultaneously picked sleepover over other choices of peoms. So our group started off on a great note – everyone simultaneously in agreement!

Lets read the poem before we see what the light design was like.

I was always sleeping when

you were and we were always

sleeping, I was never awake

before you I was never awake

before this

we

and we were always.

You never slept with me

watching you sleep,

you slept with me and you next to.

You were never sleeping when

I was and we were always

this we,

and we always

slept over with this

we of us watching. You were

always awake and watching

over me

sleeping and you next to

sleeping while I watched over

and me next to

and we were always this we of us

we were sleeping

under and watching over

We brainstormed the meaning of the poem before deciding the design. Main things that emerged were the I, you and we that was cyclical, the simultaneous being-in-moment and outside of it, simultaneously being together and detached. Being here and being there, being in thoughts and being conscious; being awake and asleep at the same time.

Scenic design – floor rug, over which we threw another area rug – was flowery – that was the only one available in the tv-studio store. We found a blanket and a cushion but somehow during final show we forgot to put it, and it did not matter much also.

We went for a simplistic look – three light sources – all source-fours. Two shuttered well to throw a rectangular light each on the rug. The two light rectangles were adjacent to each other with a prominent line in between them – kind of signifying the two people. First cue – rectangle 1 @full and rectangle 2 @ 30; second cue – rectangle 2 @full and rectangle 1 @ 30; third cue – source four 3 @50; fourth cue – source four 3 @100; last cue – slow fade out.

When the first cue came up Paul walked in from the side of lesser intensity rectangle and stared at the brighter light. Second cue Becca walked in from the opposite side and stared at the other rectangle that was now brighter. They stare at it for a second and then the two rectangles merge to one big rectangle (cue 3). They stare at it for a moment – the rectangle brightens up (cue 4). At that moment they stand up (to show detachment), they stare again at the rectangle and slowly start looking up – when their eyes meet the lights fade out (final cue).

Comments: powerful, essence of poem captured well, only thing that could be tweaked was standing up – it wasn’t necessary to have them stand up; the line in the middle of the two rectangles was a strong statement; the composition of light was beautiful and simplicity was gorgeous. Overall, it was enjoyable but it was hard to get the intention, partly because the poem itself is so difficult to comprehend. The rug – was it the choice or would you have gone for a better one? I think we would have, we also thought of sleeping bag, but area rug was chosen just to define the space for bed. Placement of audience – did u really want them to be outside the floor rug or did you want them to be on it? The coming in of two people one after another was powerful to show the inside and outside of moment idea.

Overall I think it was a success, I again enjoyed working on it! And again I loved my group!

Next project – Light response to a musical composition. And yes, we will be designing in the Studio theater at Krannert! It is a big-big deal for me. Getting to work in a real theater with real stuff, so looking forward!