The Evolution of Theatrical Lighting

Story telling is ancient part of human culture and education. At first it was just words told to another. Then there was a specific place where these stories were told. As always human tried to ramp up the scale of the story telling into an experience that fully encompassed the audience. That is when controlling the lighting first came into being.

In the first theatres stories were acted out during the day in the sunlight, ancient performing spaces and amphitheaters were designed to allow for the best natural lighting. Later people discovered the pleasure of hearing their stories regardless of the weather and the first theaters were invented. To account with that theater would use lots and lots of candles and reflectors.

Later, lighting evolved to the usage of a network of gas lines leading to locations over the theater. In retrospect this was a bad idea because fires in crowed theaters became a common thing. Now due to the gaslight age of theater there are strict fire codes for theaters across the world.

The electric light changed EVERYTHING not only did building design change but so did design and the technologies. There was a split between technologies, the set up and managing of the systems, and design, the specific look for every scene in a play. To change the color of the light different colored films.

Now, the lighting technology is slowly evolving to LED's. They do not quite possess the color control we demand but they are getting better every month.  The evolution of lighting has gone quite far from just building orientation to today, a multi-million dollar industry driven by a need of perfection.

The Choreography of Wayne McGregor

Traditionally dance is an ancient art and has been controlled by a set of standards for centuries.  Wayne McGregor tears that notion apart with his new and interesting and admittedly unconventional approach to choreography. This new style of his is clearly successful because Wayne is one of the most successful choreographers around today, has appeared on TED talks, and his company teaches all over the world.

But what exactly makes his craft an international success?

Quite simply he stands out and creates arts in a new and unconventional way. His methods and style hasn't been seen before. People enjoy that. To the public eye unorthodox and bizarre exploits, when put on a stage, are considered entertaining. Due to his wide spread popularity companies will pay a lot of money for him to choreograph a piece for them.

But what exactly makes his craft interesting?

What makes his work interesting is not the interesting final look. That look is what makes him successful. It is his process of choreography that stands out and makes him an interesting artist. His dancers are tools used to fill space. They are funny shapes on an empty plane covered in layers of E.M. radiation. That is how Wayne looks at dance. To him they are not dancers on an empty stage with lights on.
That thought makes him interesting.

How did class impact my life?

In the past week my ArtS.T.E.M. class discussed questions, violence, uniting topics in science art and the humanties. We made a project and created collaborative pictures. How did that impact me though? How did thought about the real definition of violence impact me personally?

Quite simply I was forced to apply new definitions to things I thought I previously understood. For example, I always thought of birth as the creation of life and the advancement of a species. Now, it is lumped together with other violent things such as hard core punk shows and Tarantino films.  Another example that stands out is my high school experience. I went to many punk shows.

At first punk seemed like a group of generally friendly people who liked to rough house and didn't like the man. Now after consideration I consider punk violent but not in a physical sense. It is violent because there is such a high contrast between the punk life(live fast and die soon) and my other joy of theatre(mainly Shakespeare, musicals, and opera).  When I think about both of those things together in one life during high I have no clue how I survived the panic of one world and the boredom of the other world.

My project was a slam poem about my entrance and finally exit from the punk world with allusions to the epic poem Devine Comedy. That in by it self really made me think hard about how I got to where I am today. Along with that it helped me deal with the post traumatic stress I have due to attending an average american high school for 4 years.