Week 10 - Jacqueline Malenke - The Dramatic Imagination and Me

Overall, I found The Dramatic Imagination incredibly inspiring. It made me think about theatre, design, and lighting design in a much more pointed way than I have been. What I mean by this is I have always looked at theatre and design fairly surface level. In a way, it seems that when I do my first read through, I always initially go for the obvious and cliché choice. That choice isn't necessarily always wrong, but reading this book made me want to dive even deeper into the meaning of design and how I can better serve the story through lighting. 

To begin, in the first chapter when Robert Jones talks about film and movies, he says, "We accept them unthinkingly as objective transcripts of life, whereas in reality they are subjective images of life. Motion pictures are our thoughts made visible and audible. They flow in a swift succession of images, precisely as our thoughts do, and their speed, with their flashbacks." I found this incredibly interesting, and I wonder if this is where I get my attraction to film. I love the reality that film is usually based in, and I love that theatre has started to take the route of realism. I once worked on a show at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2014 called A Great Wilderness by Samuel D. Hunter. The set was literally a house on the stage cut down the middle to view the inside. I had never seen anything like this before. There was a working sink, a working refrigerator, and even a working stove where the actors cooked eggs. The house also had a full ceiling piece, which made the lighting design that much more challenging and interesting. Matthew Richards did an incredible job working around that set. I still think about how small the slats in the ceiling were that the light shot through, and I think about how beautiful it was to see a fully realized and working home on the stage. 

A Great Wilderness set

A Great Wilderness set

Continuing through the book, Jones says, "There is not enough workmanship in [theatre]. There is too much incompetence in it. The theatre demands of its craftsmen that they know their jobs. The theatre is a school. We shall never have done with the studying and learning." I whole-heartedly agree with both statements. I have found in my professional career that there are many, many people that not only do not know what they are doing, but they don't really care to learn because their way is the "correct way". I feel like it is a disservice not only to themselves as artists, but it is a disservice to the production and the people they are working with on said production. I am not quite sure why there is a mentality among many workers on the technical side of theatre (master electricians, electricians, sound board operators, etc) that once they have the job, they no longer have to keep learning new things. I am sure that isn't the case for every worker, of course. However, that mentality seems to be fairly present from the people I have worked with in the past. I am grateful to be in school because not only am I in an environment surrounded by people also wanting to learn and soak up as much knowledge as possible, but it is okay to fail. I feel that the fear of failure may have plagued the people I have worked with before that no longer want to learn anything new. 

Me focusing lights in a theatre.

"If the designer's work has been good, it disappears from our consciousness at that moment. We do not notice it any more. It has apparently ceased to exist. The actor has taken the stage; and the designer's only reward lies in the praise bestowed on the actor." I absolutely love this quote, but I am not quite sure it is entirely true now. Theatre design doesn't necessarily sink to the background anymore, but rather is seen as a character in it of itself. After watching Hamilton on Disney+, so many people (non-theatre people especially) spoke of the lighting and set design unprompted. I wouldn't say this is a failure though. The lighting team worked incredibly hard to get the timing of every cue just right, and I feel it is only fair to recognize their efforts and successes. However, there are some shows that really do need the lighting or the set to blend in, to create a world that is seamless and honest. Those shows usually don't have a full concert light show within them. 

Hamilton

As we continue through The Dramatic Imagination, Jones talks about what is potentially to come of theatre. "I know that there are young people in this country who will really create for the theatre of their time, who will bring something into existence there that has never existed before." When theatre existed pre-covid, I felt like this was happening before our eyes with shows like Hamilton and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. Hamilton created a completely new genre of musical theatre that never existed before, and Curious Incident made an entire set out of deep black walls and white projections! In the zoom age of theatre, I feel a lot of people are stuck with what to do in the zoom realm. It feels like our options are limited in the creation of theatre without calling it film. I know covid won't last forever and that we need to make the best with what we have in the meantime, but I feel so uninspired by zoom. I wish I could come up with some big brand new idea of how to move forward with a theatre production in a covid-safe manner, but I don't really know where to start. 

"Stage designers, like musicians, are born and not made. One is aware of atmospheres or one isn't, just as one has a musical ear or one hasn't." This quote is so interesting to me because I can't help but to disagree a little bit. I started out my artistic path as a dancer. I never even considered the technical side of theatre until way father down the line. I would say that artists are born and not made, but if you are an artist, you are likely to learn other forms of art. I only say this because I do believe you have to be born an artist, but I feel that many aspects of design can be taught. You can learn which light is best to use based off of the brush stroke you want, the throw distance of where the light is focused to, etc. But I suppose what this quote is saying is that one cannot teach someone to have artistic instinct. For that, I feel very lucky. 

Dancing in 2010

Dancing in 2010

When it comes to inspiration, I feel many different things inspire me. Nature, film and television, paintings, other lighting designs. The list truly can go on forever. "There is no formula for inspiration. But to ask ourselves, why did that artist do that thing in that particular way instead of in some other way? is to take the first step toward true creation." I constantly find myself studying other's art to inform my own. I feel that I don't have enough knowledge or experience to create something completely on my own just yet. I also feel that I hold myself back in a way. If I create something, it could somehow be wrong and so I just don't make it or try it. I have had a vision in my head for quite some time now of making some type of short film/music video with fun lighting and color, and I always end up coming up with some excuse of why I shouldn't do it. "I have too much homework." "It won't look good because I don't have the right equipment." The list goes on, and I am pretty ashamed of that. This book is kind of helping me get passed that anxiety hump to just go ahead and try it anyway. If it isn't good, I don't have to show anyone, but there is no way I can get better if I don't at least try. 

A beautiful summer evening in Irvine. The sunset is inspiration for how I can design a cyc at sunset.

"Lighting a scene consists not only in throwing light upon objects but in throwing light upon a subject. We have our choice of lighting a drama from the outside, as a spectator, or from the inside, as a part of the drama's experience. We use light as we use words, to elucidate ideas and emotions." I absolutely love this quote! Lighting is really so much more than just visibility. It is a storyteller. Light tells us so many things like the time of day, where to look on stage, etc. But it also can be so much deeper and more subtle than that. This is the part of lighting I am still trying to figure out - the meanings behind those choices. Jones talks about the candle of Lady Macbeth and how, "the layman might see nothing more than an actual candle, made of wax, bought for so much, at such and such a place, the dramatist has seen a great revealing image. He has seen deep into the meaning of this terrible moment, and the taper is a part of it." He is talking about how the candle has become a symbol for Lady Macbeth's life - flickering, burning low, vanishing into darkness. I mean, WOW! That is so smart and clever. I want to train my brain to think in these terms for design rather than just saying, "Oh yes, it is daytime. Here is the sun."

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and how it made me think deeper into the meaning of design and design choices. It makes me excited and I am incredibly inspired! I am so ready to return to work!