Michael

Pretty Dirty

Production: "Urinetown: The Musical"
Venue: Annex Theatre at FSU School of Theatre and Dance
Lighting Design by Michael W. Bell
Colors: R383, R318, R80, L201, R388, R305, R33, R55
Templates: R77764 "Amorphous", R77787 "Cobblestones", R79654 "Blobs"

Set in a small blackbox theatre, only a few moving scenic pieces, so lighting the space was important to keep it versatile and ultra-simple. A standard conventional inventory and no LED's led to choosing the right combination of colors and texturs.

Creating a very gritty comedy in an intimate space didn't seem to be such a challenge at the beginning. However, most designers know that at least 60% changes in the design before it's complete (but it's never TRULY complete).

Choosing the right colors for this production was a lot of trial and error. After a few hours of throwing up colors at various angles (especially with a 13' grid) made for a nice color palette with which to work.

The deep blues: R383, R80 stayed mostly above, with a pairing with R318 mostly as diagonal back, and only a bit from directly above. Filling in the rest of the space with lavenders (R55) helped to cut trough the R305 (Front Light) and that nice R388 toning the dirty pipes hanging above and grimy urinals kept the scenery looking dirty and purposefully dingy--all while keeping the actors lit well.

We also rehung the house lights, blast-proof caged incandescents to mimic a "post-apocalyptic" theme.