This evening we had a panel discussion led by the lighting design team of Lincoln Center Theatre's production of The Coast of Utopia: Natasha Katz, Brian MacDevitt, and Kenneth Posner. It was a terrific discussions, and maybe one of the most useful panels of the whole lab. It's not always clear how and when to integrate the lighting designer's work in the process. Many good points were made. Here are some from my notes:
- Talk to a lighting designer like you would talk to an actor. In other words, speak to them in emotional terms. Say things like "I think this seen should be intimate" not "I think this scene should be darker." Don't rob them of their creative contribution. Trust them to do their work.
- Research is useful for a first meeting. The director should bring whatever he has to the table- images, thoughts, ideas. Also, always ask the designer to bring their research. And take the time to consider it.
- Lighting designers like it when the director says "this is what the play is about, this is how I see it."
- Think of light as another character. Speak about it with image and emotion. Lights will help to tell your story in very unexpected ways.
- Never use the words "warm" and "cool". Ever. Banish them from your vocabulary.
- Lighting designers can function as storyteller. Imagine them as telling the story of the play without words. This is the job they can do.
- After the very first run-thru of the play, the director will naturally want to know what his designers think of the work. But remember, the designer is just trying to take it all in. She is seeing the show for the first time. Give them a chance to just absorb it.
- Sometimes lighting design can make or break a show. Think of "Grand Hotel". Not much plot to go on there. But the design made it all very interesting.
- Without a strong director the lighting designer can become defensive, rather than offensive. Give them the respect they deserve and let them do their work as an equal!
- Lighting designer Jules Fisher used to say two things: Never put a drink on my tech table, and never ask me "is that it yet?"
- Don't "hunker down" during tech. Remain fluid. Stay active between he stage and the house. Use down time to work with the actors.
- Nobody knows what its going to look like until you walk into the theater.
- No idea is too small that a director shouldn't tell the designers.
Friday 5/30 - Andre Bishop
Friday morning we were treated to a special visit and talk with the Artistic Director of Lincoln Center Theatre - Andre Bishop. Andre is one of the most intelligent and articulate personas in the American theater, and has succeeded in making Lincoln Center a great national theater where many before him have failed. He was candid and honest in his talk, and fielded questions on a variety of topics. He said that "producing is the intelligent exercise of your own taste." It isn't something you learn how to do over night. He talked about the toll the pressure of his job sometimes has on his life. But I was left with a feeling of inspiration, that somebody cared about theater so much, and was striving to achieve the very highest of artistic standards. Andre's choice in plays is never based upon clever structure. He reads a play for its performability. He likes writers who are idiosyncratic, who have a unique voice and strong convictions. He said LCT cannot take a risk with beginning or unproven directors. But beginning next year they are launching a new initiative called LCT III, which will bring to the stage newer, more experimental work.
Friday evening I attended a presentation on director Robert LePage. The talk was given by fellow lab member Joanie Schultz. I went in knowing almost nothing of LePage's work. I left feeling inspired, wanting to see more, hoping for an opportunity to check out his work when he directs the Ring Cycle at the Met in 2009.
"Dreams become reality and then you have to live with them." Robert LePage
Saturday 5/31 - Macbeth Presentations
This morning we saw the presentations from the directors who had been rehearsing Act III of Macbeth all week. They were instructed to move their rehearsals to different locations, including a loading ramp, a hallway, a bathroom, and a the smoke ring of the theater. The idea was to allow the location to inform the text, and see how it manifests itself in the playing. It's a good idea. I see how it could be a benefit to work with a play in this way. Unfortunately, for me, most of the work was self-involved, and unintelligible to the audience. American directors still don't get that Shakespeare's work is about the words. If we can't understand what the actors are saying, then we're never going to hear the play. Perhaps I judge my fellow directors too harshly. But I was completely underwhelmed at the level of the work.
Now on to the final week!
ciao - w.
