Savannah Wilson

TPA 2030C-12814

Contagion Lighting Design

11 September 2020

Part 1

Color & Texture Images with Corresponding Gels & Gobos

For this show there is going to be a cyc, as well as lights with color gels and gobos on the stage.
There are going to be lights from various angles including on the ground. I would create a light
plot for the master electrician to use to hang the lights. Primarily the lights will be out of focus
and slightly blurred, apart from the spotlight during Mackenzie’s death. We would have to play
with lighting through the tree gobo to determine how soft or harsh it needs to be to create that
filtered glow look. With our light board operator, we would work out the movement of the lights.
In the first scene, when she snaps out of the flashback it would be a harsh cue change.
Afterwards each of the scene transitions will be fade out and in to show real passage of time.
With the scene at dawn, we could start with the blue window gobo and then slowly fade in the
orange at the start of the scene to show the sunrise. During Louise’s death, we’ll have the
window gobo fade out and then we’ll fade in with the spotlight and the blue lights with reflection
gobos. The spotlight will encompass our main girl and Mr. Mackenzie but will get smaller and
smaller to only show her. The lights around her will fade and the spotlight will follow her as she
goes through the audience and then back and comes to the final scene where everything is on
fire.
 Part 2
The concept for the design is that our main character and everyone around her is in the dark, and
she is trying to find knowledge and meaning which is represented by the light. The knowledge is
trying to seek her out through her whole life, and it is the death of her friend that leaves her
exposed to the knowledge and harsh reality that is the world.

As a child, the light (knowledge) is filtered through trees and is made

beautiful and golden. The actors are harshly backlit to give that golden glow, front lit through
gobos to make it look filtered through the trees.

When she snaps back to reality, the light is coming through

the window and is a bit harsher and less filtered. The colors of the room are a little cooler to
indicate to the audience we are in the present. The actors in this scene are entirely lit from the
side through the window gobo. The colors are a calm blue to show her contentedness.

In her building, she can be sheltered from the outside

world, only receiving knowledge (light) from the newspaper (light fixtures). The light is warm as
she is now facing the oppression of the warden and the knowledge that Nora brings her.
Allowing the outside world to peer in.
 In her room at Dawn, the light is dancing through the window
beckoning her to come to the hospital and seek knowledge. The actress is backlit with a blue
light through a window gobo, with a small orange light at a 45 degree angle giving her a light
silhouette.

As she leaves the hospital, she watches the light on the water and
considers how this new knowledge effects her. She is still hopeful and so we see the light at
sunset where it is barely visible above the water. Here the actress is lit from an angle underneath
with floor lights to represent the light bouncing off of the water. She is lightly lit by the sunset on
the cyc.
 When Mackenzie dies, she has to
face the tremendous loss of her friend, and is therefore fully encompassed by knowledge which
she learns is pain. In the above image, she is the middle lightbulb. So she is harshly lit by a
spotlight above her head. There are blue lights with reflection gobos that light the other nurses
and doctors in the room, they continue working but the vision of them is obstructed through the
gobos, so she feels isolated in the spotlight.

As she walks out of

the hospital, crowds are cheering ominously because they believe it is over, although she knows
it isn’t. the crowd is backlit so they are in the dark despite looking knowledge straight in the face
(being surrounded by light). This is to represent the worlds ability to see what they want to see to
support their beliefs. There are red and orange lights on the cyc, cloud gobos pointed towards the
top that could be clouds or smoke from the flames, and flames spread out at the bottom of the
cyc. We want the flames to be slightly blurred so it isn’t immediately obvious to the audience
that the world is burning.
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