Skervald
Active Member
My wife and I recently saw a performance by the touring company of "Gentleman's Guide". VERY enjoyable production. If you haven't seen it, I'd encourage you to do so. Hilarious and well crafted source material, clever production/set design, great costuming, excellent cast. In a nutshell, it's fun and all the things I love about live theater.
For those of you who have seen the show, I'd like to hear your comments on the lighting design, it's implementation, and execution at the performance you attended. I'm particularly interested in the use of follow spots.
Here are some observations:
Was it a design choice to have the spots so visible? This is a farce, after all. Part of the charm of the show is the simple almost vaudeville quality of it and there is, in fact, a stage on the stage.
Were the spots obvious because certain compromises have to be made when a show goes on tour? Perhaps the spot perches were not in an ideal location?
Was one or more of the spot ops new to the show or an emergency substitute?
Did the design just call for so much spot work that there were bound to be moments of difficulty?
Was there some other technical problem that affected the rest of the lighting rig forcing more use of follow spots or making their use more apparent?
Did I just key in on the spots early in the show which made me look for them throughout?
I was more surprised than bothered by any of these things. (I'm not trying to soft soap this either!) This is a great production and the truth is, I found much to love about the lighting and projection design. There were some really great looks and moments in the show. (For example, the designer made excellent use of footlights and the color pallet was really well thought out. Also, some really great up-lighting of the soft goods and false proscenium and a particularly well designed lightning effect.)
Look forward to hearing your thoughts!
For those of you who have seen the show, I'd like to hear your comments on the lighting design, it's implementation, and execution at the performance you attended. I'm particularly interested in the use of follow spots.
Here are some observations:
- In the smaller scenes, every actor was lit using a follow spot whenever he or she was on stage.
- There is a projection screen used in the production. Often while lighting an actor, the follow spots would wash out sections of the screen creating a white blob and shadow of the actor on whatever was being projected.
- Actors at times walked, danced, or ran out of the lit area only to have the spot move quickly to catch up.
- Sometimes the actor's torso was being lit while his or her face was left dim.
Was it a design choice to have the spots so visible? This is a farce, after all. Part of the charm of the show is the simple almost vaudeville quality of it and there is, in fact, a stage on the stage.
Were the spots obvious because certain compromises have to be made when a show goes on tour? Perhaps the spot perches were not in an ideal location?
Was one or more of the spot ops new to the show or an emergency substitute?
Did the design just call for so much spot work that there were bound to be moments of difficulty?
Was there some other technical problem that affected the rest of the lighting rig forcing more use of follow spots or making their use more apparent?
Did I just key in on the spots early in the show which made me look for them throughout?
I was more surprised than bothered by any of these things. (I'm not trying to soft soap this either!) This is a great production and the truth is, I found much to love about the lighting and projection design. There were some really great looks and moments in the show. (For example, the designer made excellent use of footlights and the color pallet was really well thought out. Also, some really great up-lighting of the soft goods and false proscenium and a particularly well designed lightning effect.)
Look forward to hearing your thoughts!