Where did it all go?

If there is something there is never enough of in the theatre it is time. Money comes in a close second, but truly time, as they say, is of the essence. The issue of time is often compounded by the issue of money. Due to the cost of people and rehearsal space and so on and so forth, rehearsal processes are shorter than most of us would like them to be. For those of us whose work can only be done in the theatre, these constraints can be deadly if not managed properly.

As a lighting designer, no matter how much preparation time I put into a project, I am limited by the time the lights are hung and plugged in properly to the time the curtain rises for the opening. Ultimately it does not matter how much time there is, it is incumbent upon the designer to get their work done by the opening. This is the importance of craft. In very time constrained situations, like festivals, one rarely has time to put little more than craft into a project. The Art, comes second. The lines between the two are not so rigid as that previous sentence may make them appear, but it does make the point.

The craft has to do with the construction of the light plot and its focus, the Cue structure and the composition of each individual lighting cue. A lot of this just comes from experience. The more light cues one writes, the more quickly one can execute a wide variety of visual images in a very compressed time situation. The first pass through any piece is largely based on craft. At least the way I work. I will sketch in the structure and look of a play, or dance while the performers and director are rehearsing. Thus, when we get to a run-through of the piece I can chisel away at the cues and refine them based upon the dramatic moment. The first pass is a rough draft. As someone once said to me, "the first time through a piece there are only five intensities for a light, 30%, 50%, 70%, Full and Off." Detail can always be added, but the basic compositional sense needs to be in place first. And in theatre, the composition is four dimensional, as it moves and transforms through time.

When I say it is a rough draft, I do not mean that there is not attention nor intention behind it. Quite the opposite is true. In fact, this may be the most important time a lighting designer has. The first time through a piece gives the designer a sense of how the light moves through the play and the space. Ideas that came up in meetings are found to not work for one or another reason, while new and even more exciting discoveries are made. This time is important and crucial to the design process. Let me say that again,

The first pass through the lighting of a play is crucial to the design process.

I have been involved in too many situations where not enough time was given to the lighting of the play. All that happens is the production suffers. It is often the case that there is such an eagerness to get out of the rehearsal room and on to the stage that the lighting time becomes curtailed. It is fine if a director or producer wishes to do this, but they must understand that it does negatively impact the final product that is presented to an audience.

Festival situations are a beast unto themselves and I am not speaking to them here. But when a play is being produced independently it is necessary that the producers allocate enough time to make the whole process function. It is unfair to actors to place them on an incomplete stage just as it is unfair to ask a theatre artist to work with you and then bind their hands.

The lighting designer too has an obligation to the people we work with. We must get the work done. First, before anything else. We must get it done and done well. But we also must keep an open and healthy environment in the theatre. By the time time a play gets to technical rehearsals everyone is often a strong mixture of exhausted and terrified. Long days of work on something that one has no sense of how an audience will respond can put one in quite a state. The lighting designer, being a kind of fresh air to the process, coming in near the end, can often help keep the spirits up and help carry a show to opening. Like money is to time, one's attitude and personality in the theatre is a close second to the work one does on the stage.