"Kabuki Final 2012" First impressions 2

Saturday 26^th May, 2012

Primary foot of lighting board

Green Light

Today, Sat 26 May 2012, I worked with the lights for the first time! I re-organized the lighting board in order to fit my mental schema, and for it to become more familiar!

For the very beginning, I illuminated the musicians first with a yellowish wash on the left stage, as they were the first to open the show, and I believed that they should therefore be the first to be introduced. I chose yellow, as it is as if a candle was lit in the house when dark, the beginning of something; of our story.

Illuminating the musicians made me realize of a mistake I made as a dramaturge
I chose a green center wash instead of the naturalistic yellow that my teacher first suggested for two reasons:

1.     It fitted perfectly with the size of the platform, illuminating the 4 characters perfectly without illuminating anyone else and isolating it from the rest

2.     The color green appealed to me, as I thought, that along with the brownish and greenish costumes and bright make up, it created a very interesting  combination in terms of a mysterious composition, making the first tableau of the show freeze with curiosity and a tint of modernized interpretations.

I then decided on two different colors, RED and BLUE, for two major changes of mood and relationships between both the actors on stage, and the expected reactions of the audience as a response to the actors feelings.

RED was used in moments of intensity, as shown below in the picture. It would appear in a drastic change, normally from a calm, naturalistic overall yellow/white wash on stage representing normality, to a 100% RED wash. The moments I chose to use this effect were in:

Red Lighting and Mie's

1.     When actors struck a MIE. All of the MIE’s in our play were caused my a negative/aggressive stimuli, and therefore they needed the emphasis from the light to intensify them e.g. “Hearing you talk this way, it almost sounds as if you were trying to black male us!” – Master Seibei to Negina's character.

2.     At climatic moments of the play, where the audiences were meant to feel feelings of surprise, fear or shock from them e.g. When they discovered that Kyuta was the dead man, and the whole cast was in shock, and expressed this in unison with noises.

BLUE washes, from the upper sides, center stage and from the side lighted were used accordingly in moments of empathy and confessions, as I liked to call it, and the audience is meant to feel sorry or moved by the emotional charge of the moment, by the use of pathos and ethos (emotional appeal to language and content in the script) e.g.:

1.     When little Kyuta is describing to the audience the story of why he was dead (the incident with the blow fish and the glutinous rice)

2.     Nigina’s ironical monologue of when she explains how she is so overwhelmed by her brother’s death. This was an exception, as the monologue didn’t have truthful intentions as the actress was aware of this story not being true, and so was the audience in a way by her over exaggerated, falsetto manners of expression (fake cry)  (a theatrical  form of comical interlude known as “Kyogen” from Noh drama (Oracle educational foundation) However, I thought it was very effective as it added a comical element from my part, as we are encouraging the actress to deliver this monologue under what I created to be a very miserable atmosphere, making her believe that she is being successful at lying to the other actors, however not to the audience. As a dramaturge, I knew that this was an important moment I had to make good use of, as one of the main and most important concepts of Kabuki is that actors are never trying to hide the performance element of the work, and are never afraid of exaggerating.

PICTURE MISSING

As a minor use, I also incorporated the blue light as a method of isolation on stage, for example, while the group of actors were having an aggressive conversation onstage and the ligting was read to symbolize the intensity of their emotions and words, I kept the blue centre light shining at the ‘dead’ body of Daniel, to show how the actors also were sad by this young boys death, and to represent with this symbolic color the isolation of sorrow on stage.

The spot light, as shown in the picture, was mainly used for:

1.     The 4 main monologues = (Both Negina’s monologues, Grace’s short monologue and Daniel’s final monologue). This idea came to mind through research, as I found out that in long-standing Kabuki performances, when there was no electricity, they had a man called Koken who was  the chief puppeteer and was incharge of the Tsra- akari (face light), to enlighten a character by holding the candle closely.

Spotlight on entrances

2.     To strengthen the mies! Fro this,  for example at the Amanda’s mie of “who are you, and how did you come about this?” I had to make sure the lights were bright enough so that the spot light, because it didn’t have a dimmer, could be switched on from the booth with our the audiences noticing, and then bringing the lights down and the red lights up to create a contrast in color. By this I fortified its power, making the actor seem much bigger and powerful.

3.     Follow the characters through the “Hanimichi”, to make distinct the two physical distances, and to illuminate Kihei and his wife at the end, when the stage was in complete black out.

Other minor used of lighting were simple things I wanted to make sure I included,  like:

ü  Entrances and exits- A purple sidelight was used to indicate the opening and closing of doors when characters entered the Aburaya Shop. I likes the color purple and the effect, as althought it might have come unnoticed, I thought it was a minimalistic and simplistic way of incorporating lights to show realistic actions.

Black out and spotlight

ü  I had in mind the change of time- at the sart, what I called the ‘stand by lights’ (the yellow/white overall wash) used for when the mood was at a ‘balance’ in terms of emotion, were brighter than the ones at the end. In the lighting board, the scale measures 80% white and 60% yellow, and as the play went on, I lowered the intensity to 50% white and 30% yellow. I used previous artist experiences  in terms of balance of color, always starting with the lighter colors and THEN adding the darker colors, so that if I found the lighting was too dark at some point, t would be easier to fix without it being too apparent.

Over all, I was very proud of my performance on the day. I believe that I managed to impress my group with the lighting I put on, as it was colorful yet appropriate for the changes of moods. “I felt like a painter, and treated the show as my canvas!” In the second performance, because of the wonderful experience, I asked my teacher if I could be the one, instead of Bong, to be in charge of the lights, and in 5 minutes, I reorganized the whole board with my new tags and put on the second show!!!!

Things I learned on the way:

v THE BLACK OUT BOTTON- an easy way of switching everything of, as I was working manually.

v Ways o programming the board- this I didn’t have time to do, as there was little notice, and sometimes I found it hard to keep the flow of the lights if I had to treat the board and the spot light separately….. but for next time!

Evaluation from my mother:

I was happy by this feedback as she appreciated the beauty of the lights, and understands that it is more than just putting lights together, but it is about thinking of the adequate light, form, color and moment.

I liked how she enjoyed the drastic fusions of red, green yellow and blue. I thought of this through, as because I always had in mind that Kabuki lights had to be simplistic, I thought of “THE PRIMARY COLORS”. This was my interpretation of adapting to old practices of Kabuki, in a modernized way. Also, how she comments ‘’I enjoyed the abstract touch”, i believe she refers to the combination of unexpected colors such as the red from the lips, the big black eyes, the pale faces that are covered with “blankets’ of color washes to create a very interesting and surprising piece.

When she comments on the harsh intensity, I guess this is something we agreed to do and it depends on the viewers taste more than on its knowledge about the elements of Kabuki drama’s, however it is something to have in mind for next time!

VIDEO MISSING