Coordinator: John Ford
Light in Performance provides students with the knowledge and tools to analyse and understand how vision, light and seeing have been used to shape the audience’s understanding of a live performance work. We investigate the key tools and media that the theatrical lighting designer works with- intensity, angle of light and colour- learning how they apply these tools to perform the most basic aspects of illumination- allowing the audience to see the performance and directing their attention- as well as supporting the narrative and creating the poetic visual environment of the performance.
Students are asked to engage with a number of performances over the semester, culminating with a response to a performance text or stimulus- a play, short story, poem or photograph are used to create narrative supported by light. The major project required students to create a storyboard responding to one of these texts, with illustrations created or modified by the student to communicate the way light supports storytelling in live performance.
Banner and Hero image credit: Yijing Miao- Response to Sonamu