Try thinking in terms of systems - front, side, back, down - and playing with how individula units in each
system can work as a special.
I guess it's Tom Slelton influence, but think about shadows and highlights. Tom did not like unlit. His shadows were always colored. (Google or this text editor does not like that word.) Whether fronts, box booms, or side, work for colors that make a show white - not necessarily white but a mix.
Don't not get light in the eyes - foots,
rail, low bb - but eyes are a very important actors tool.
Don't let corners of the
stage - doesn't left and right --all off. In
halogen days if hot spot on the
proscenium or
torm and
shutter in to get enough light there. And cross whites - high diagonal backs blasting into those dl and dr corners - at full for entrances. Got to draw the audience eyes to that important entrance. Bam?
Focus. You want to control the audience focus. Tom taught me to look through my fist which blurred the
stage picture and showed what was brightest and what drew audience focus.
Think out of the box and metaphorically. He told me to put a pair of 1k 8" fresnels on the floor and for end of scene about riding in a far
fade them up. Everyone loved it ( and all thought crazy when I showed them on
plot.)
Take control, listen, look, and innovate through combinations