Analysis

When I read a script for the first time, I analyze the scenes by the colors that best suit the mood. My first impression of the script led me to pinks, oranges and lavenders. It is the romance and setting of the Caribbean Illyria that formed these images in my mind. Psychologically, I see nothing dark about this play, but I have to remember the title is still a part of the play. The words “Twelfth Night” creates images of blues and dark colors which really does not go with the selected concept, but after reading the actual text I began to agree more with the chosen locale.

Viola’s (Brittney Kalmbach) journey is one of love. It begins with the decision to come to a new world, where her brother has good intentions of marrying her to someone who can care for her. But a storm changes their plans and separates the twins, forcing Viola to fend for herself in a man’s world. She takes on a new role and finds Orsino (Leo Barrales), a man in love with Olivia (Tori Ugarte). Olivia is in mourning for the loss of her father and brother and has turned her back on all courters, but eventually falls for the cross-dressed Viola. Viola’s twin brother Sebastian (Kevin Gonzales), who is assumed to have died at sea, appears in Illyria, and because he is Viola’s twin, they are mistaken for each other.

All of this is the set up for comical adventures with a sea captain, townspeople, Oliva’s servants, and Olivia. There are also subplots involving tricking a grumpy servant named Malvolio (Matt Guerra) and provoking a duel between Viola and Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Christopher Gelvin). The struggle of power is a major theme is these three story lines causing Viola’s change in gender appearance, Malvolio’s awkward behavior, and Sir Andrew’s idea that he has to fight for Olivia’s attention. The director decided to focus primarily on the first theme of masculine versus feminine by dividing the stage through scenery.

Stage right became Olivia’s world, lush in foliage and curved architecture. Stage left became Orsino’s world, very masculine and domineering over the rest of the stage with it’s second story. I retained this information and decided it would best be supported through color washes from opposite angles, but those final selections came later when I learned color schemes.

I really didn’t want to create light cues just for the sake of creating light cues, but the division of the stage made it feel as if every time we switched locales I had to change the focus. This kind of design always reminds me of a tennis match which fortunately, it really didn’t mimic. Lisa’s blocking took characters all over the stage regardless of where they truly were. Olivia chases Viola all over, even downstage of Orsino’s; Orsino, supposedly watching Olivia from a distance, wanders far downstage away from his home; Malvolio, Olivia’s servant, takes a seat on the steps of Orsino’s without leaving Olivia’s backyard.

Although I hate heavy isolation, I did want to really emphasize one part in particular. Viola seems to make a statement that I felt needed attention. Her aside sums up the main story line in two lines, much like the couplets at the ends of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Straight and to the point she says:

“yet, a barful strife!
Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife.”

The two lines preceding these are directed towards Orsino and are the start of the light cue that sweeps in towards her. And as soon as she’s said the next line, I began cross-fading to the next scene.

The first time Lisa saw this cue, she immediately came to me at the tech table and said the infamous phrase: “Roxanne, I think this cue is beautiful, but it’s a bit to theatrical. I think we need to cut it.” My first thought was to point out the historical inconsistencies on the stage or the fact that we were in fact sitting in a theater or the fact that she had described Illyria as a mystical place, but I remained calm and simply asked if there was anything I could do, because I really wanted the cue to stay where it was. She replied: “Maybe we could use it somewhere else, but it’s really… just… too theatrical,” then she walked away.

Later, we re-inserted the light cue in another place, it gave Viola more to say, but at this point in the script, I had grown weary of listening to Viola’s constant questioning of her abilities and actions in the story. Pointing out the foibles of the main character showed a weakness in the feminine though, creating the necessity to take on the masculine role for survival and I think it worked out fine in the end.

[picture inserted here]

Senior Project

We (the set designer) are now working on writing our senior project thesis so that we may graduate. We have already written an introductory paragraph, but it needs to be edited.


Below is my second section which deals with my first impresions of the play, which will be edited to go with hers. It is incomplete but it's a start.

I first met Lisa Wolpe in the movement class in spring of 2004. My first impression of her was one of amazement and intimidation. Her approach to teaching was one of Socratic Method, placing students in on-the-spot performance situations and answering in tones of skepticism and disbelief. She was not one to tout her own resume though, and I learned later from others of her very impressive list of qualifications.

During the winter quarter of 2005, the quarter when I took on Twelfth Night, I enrolled in Lisa’s directing class as part of my bachelor’s degree requirement. When I attended Fullerton College, I was able to design for a director while participating in their acting class. From that experience, I learned how to anticipate the director’s needs by seeing how they approach a script; I was hoping that would be the case again here, but it was not. Instead I was given a set of guidelines in Lisa’s class that plays should be directed with, but with Twelfth Night I witnessed the extreme disregard to those set rules.

My first meeting with the director, along with Bill Morse and Christina Russo, made me feel a bit unprepared. I had read the script, but was not given any information on the concept at this point, leaving me a bit in the dark when the set designer began pulling out photos of Caribbean architecture. I quickly had to begin rethinking my initial ideas due to the new information I received. My reading left me with a feeling of a romantic comedy that evolved into a television sitcom. Later miscommunications also had me confused on the final choice in time period; the director and costume designer both had about a century’s gap between ideal settings for the play.

After reading the play again, with more information to take into consideration, I began seeing the stage washed in pinks, oranges, and lavenders. I also had keywords straight from the director that I contemplated: “Life force.” Illyria is a mystical life force, lush with tropical foliage and femininity. Olivia and Viola take priority in the story, along with the gender change in casting for the role of Antonio, the Pirate King. The idea of life force immediately made me think green (a rather scary color for many light designers). Green is affiliated with many bad concepts (illness, envy, inexperience) and I had to try to position it in such a way that it would enhance the foliage and cover a wide area, but not affect the rest of the scenery or costumes and make-up for the actors.

Preview Night

Last night was preview. Basically, there is an audience, but they didn't pay. So the designers are free to touch up as the show goes on and take pictures. I spent it running up and down stairs in order to fix some problems. We didn't have the tech table set up anymore so I couldn't just call on clear-com to fix stuff. Then I made two cues at the end of the show (Cues 900 and 901) for Zach to photograph. They were cues I wanted in the show, but the director said they were too dark. So I re-created them for my portfolio's sake.

I decided to post the pictures next to some research I had been using for a while.



And here is a scene of virtual light lab next to the ending pose.




So does this look caribbean to anyone? I hope so. I posted just the first picture on LiveJournal for theatertechies and they loved it. I'm so happy (sniffle)

All this work comes down to this. Now I've done the happy pretty show, now I need to balance it with a dark dirty show. That should be great for my portfolio. But I also have to recognize that if there wasn't something beautiful for me to light, it'd be useless. Christina Russo's set design is amazing. After all that hard work, both of our projects won't exist in two weeks. And it's kind of sad.

I think I made some really good friends doing this and learned a lot. I know I definitely need to be more paper organized. And I need to learn how to delegate more stuff out. And somehow I need to learn to be more stern in getting what I want without stage managers thinking I'm a bitch.

Thanks to whoever reads this. I'm sure I'll post more when the show closes and post-mortem hits. (post mortem is a meeting with all involved to discuss how the show went, its not a morbid thing, its a constructive criticsm thing). ;-)

A night off

Didn't get to update yesterday. I was so tired. I've gotten totally drained, I think I'm coming down with something. (Damn telemarketers... where was I?)

Yesterday was the addition of the eigth practical and three more front lights (Porch Door, Porch walkway, USC). Also, Lisa asking for a brighter scene (again) and the introduction of the lightning effects. I couldn't get the effect to work by adding it to the cue (proper syntax used I swear). Cue 4 FX + 10 * should have started FX number 10. Instead I just have my board op using a macro designed by Ozzy.

Today, rehearsal was cancelled. Everyone just needs a break. And I need to catch up on homework. We spent two hours doing lighting notes. Most of the time was because its hard to get to certain lighting positions with the set in the way. The genie lift can only do so much. Poor Zach. At least he has longer arms.

The I had the master electrician touch up the bench focus on some lights and hang another light (Orsino's Platform).

Ahh... a night off. I think I'll do my art homework.

Yeah... Can we make that one brighter?

That was the catch phrase for my first night of cues with the director. "Can we make that brighter?" It's called Twelfth NIGHT! Night! Night as in dark. Night as in, it's ok to make the stage look like night time. As in, the audience won't have lights on a tech table in front of them causing their irises to open and allow them to see in the dark better.

Ugh!

She walked in as we finished running thru the show for the first time tonight. When we were ready to start the second run thru, she initially sat in the front of the house. But after criticizing my first two cues, she thought it would be better to sit right next to me so she could just "tell [me] what to change."

Basically, every cue's front light went up in intensity and the whole show is now a big tennis match. Every time a scene takes place on Stage Left, there is a cue, if it's on stage right... well that's another cue. And the two times I did actually focus on one part of the stage, she didn't like.

I should have bought a pack of cigarettes today. I only smoke when I'm stressed. This is my senior project and its completely unfair that I'm losing creative control. I was really starting to like the show and today, people were just looking jaundiced from the amount of yellow light to emphasize the "daytime."

Ever heard of establishing the scene? Yeah, the scene lights get brighter with an auto follow after I've established a time of day. She decided to start criticizing before the cue was even finished running its course.

So in conclusion: I have a lot of work ahead of me this week.

Tech Rehearsal One

Today started at 11am. With no crew.

Nobody decided to show up and rather than be hindered by my light board op, I decided to work alone. First thing, I changed my blue cyc color from R65 to R80. And I changed my warm diagonals from R41 to R339. This made such a big difference. I also added a gobo to an SL on the first and blind focused it to Orsino's platform (mental note: I don't blind focus well).

I set up the ground row of Par 38 striplights (4 of them). The center 2 have R23 in their center cells. All 4 have R86 in the first cell. I am not using the third cell as of yet... We'll see...

To my pleasure, when I came in, all of the practicals had been set up and wired. (I love my stage manager Seth). He also helped me by placing two mini-pars up above the hut's window. One R15 and one R23 pointed straight down to make the window glow just slightly.

The tech went well. The director still has not attended because she is in grad school. So we had to use a lot of self-restraint from goofing around. I think we did an ok job seeing as how we were done at 10:30ish instead of midnight.

I think tomorrow will go well.

Building Light Cues

So yesterday at 3pm, Teresa (my LBO) arrived so we could get ready to do light cues. We built groups and finished a little patching. Then at 4pm we started building cues. It was nice having some random painters and carpenters walking through once in a while because it gave me a chance to see what it would look like on actors.

We would have been done by 8pm but I forgot an important thing. I forgot to turn off tracking. So after running through the cues again, I finished at 9:30pm and went on a set dressing adventure with the stage manager and assistant scene designer. They proceeded to pull a lot of practical lighting devices which I began to fear would out number the standard lighting instruments.

They wired one up and it looked great, so I didn't fear them so much anymore as I did the amount of work it would take to wire all of them up.

Dress Parade

We used the lighting class today to try to finish focus the lights, but unfortunately not a whole lot of people showed up. But luckily I got a hold of the program and started crossing names off so :-P to them!

So now I have the flippers done. My paperwork was kind of screwy. Still haven't figured that out. Just labeled them wrong as SL for SR and vice versa.

I'm noticing the reason I had so many problems when the set moved, was that it didn't just move downstage, it flattened out to be parallel to the stage. And the balcony on SL isn't drawn correctly for me (I think). I might be reading it wrong, but I thought I was going to have some opening on the DSL of Orsino's. So my high side light on the farthest part is useless. But I'm sure I'll find some use for it. ;-)










The set designer and I also went shopping. She purchased two light poles that resemble Bamboo. They're very cute. And she also bought some tiny lanterns that were very cool. But the theater manager pointed out their size would be lost by the back row of the theater. So I believe the set designer is going to return them and we'll use some other lanterns that the theater manager will convert into powered flickering lamps.

Today was also dress parade. It was a very nice chance to see what my lights look like on the actors and the costumes. I turned on my front, side and back lights to help the costume designer and took the opportunity to ask a friend what he thought. His only advice was to add top hats to some fixtures out of courtesy to the people in the first few rows. Not that they were being blinded, it's just as though they were getting quite a bit of ambient spill. I think he's right, so I'll do it.

Tomorrow at 8:30am, an asst. stage manager will let us in so we can finish focusing. I'm just going to rip through these as fast as possible. Then at noon, everyone should start showing up for dry tech, I'll build my cues and do a paper tech thing with the stage manager.

Moving scenery wasn't planned

One week to go till the show opens

Today the director decided to move the SR scenery downstage about 5 feet, and she flattened it out, so now it runs parallel with the proscenium and not at a 45 degree angle. So that screwed me over... A LOT!

My front light is affected so much as architectual lighting I specifically place for the scenery. I created 2 new electrics in the theater using drop boxes, but now those positions are no longer capable of making the shots because of masking. So now I am in a rush to work on refocusing them tomorrow. (Not like I got a whole lot done today).

Today we finished focusing the proscenium pipe and then we got 3/4 of the first electric done. It was a mess though because I didn't know how to focus them. So now I'm back on vectorworks changing the scenery and re-doing the purposes for lights. Some lights that would have been down or back lights are becoming set toning.

Although as I type, I'm wondering if I should just delete lights, re plot them, and rehang partially in the morning.... hmmm.... Although that would cut into the whole 3 hours I have to focus tomorrow. Damn!

And knowing Bill, he'll probably take up the first hour trying to lecture. Damn! Damn!

And on top of all that, I have a shitload of art homework tonight. Lots of painting to do.

I wish I could take a break. I wish I could get away.

half an electric

Class started at 10am, we only had 2 hours today and the first hour was spent listening to Bill lecture. He set my trims on the masking so that was nice. (I hate that part)

Then I focused one light.... that changed after he pointed out some issues with it... so I moved Olivia's set upstage, flew in the first, moved the light back to its original position, added a fresnel to it, changed the circuit of a Data Flash, flew it back out, had the guys flag the electrics on the lock rail, and searched for missing paperwork.

When that was all done... I sent Rich and Keith (master electrician) up in the genie lift. Junior was dead so Ryan couldn't focus at the same time. And he wasn't up for focusing on the A-frame (pussy... just kidding... my trims are way fucking high) Damn set (oh did I say that outside of a parenthesis?)

We started with the proscenium pipe, the numbers were wrong on my paperwork. I couldn't understand why the dimmers I called out were coming up wrong. I assumed it was my fault (bad job at transferring numbers from the plot to vectorworks then to excel). Then I decided to check on my rookie light board op (maybe she was doing something wrong). She was doing fine as far as I could tell. Then my master electrician started calling out numbers from up above, looking at the labels on the connector. He called out 222 so Teresa brought it up, and a different light came on.

BINGO! The socko cables were plugged in wrong upstairs to the back of the rolling dimmer rack. There's no reason for those to be changed. Why would someone unplug the socko connectors? Socko that's permanently labeled for specific circuits. (Am I spelling socko right?)

We were finally able to get focusing steady at about 11:45.

So at 12:15, class was way past over, and we only had HALF OF ONE ELECTRIC focused. I can't believe I'm supposed to be building light cues on Friday. And Zach's show opens this weekend so he'll get priority, but he only has some circuiting problems to deal with. The theater manager doesn't like the way some cables were ran I guess.

Humf.

So now I'm dealing with bad transfers from Vectorworks to Excel. Vectorworks paperwork publishing is awful. So I copy and paste into Excel to make it pretty, but Vectorworks only publishes stuff it thinks is important. If you decided to use a specifically created symbol, as opposed to a symbol created within the resource browser, it doesn't list the name of the "instument" and creates something really confusing to look at. (It's kind of hard to explain). Basically, the theater manager's template for all designers to start off with has buried symbols that conflict with the light design. I wound up copying and pasting lights just to avoid some of the confusion. (And convert to instrument didn't help this situation).

Maybe I'll get some work done tomorrow, but doubtful. I'd only have the theater from 4 to 5:30, not a lot of time to get stuff done. Especially with a limited supply of manpower.

Light Focus Tomorrow

Production Meeting today:

Very short, very nice.

My only concern: the change in color for the upstage hut on short notice. Went from a greenish oceany color to a purple and orange wood hut. Why? Budget. Reusing mixed paint from old shows and because the building on SR is very green.

Walked through the scene shop to see this little change of color. Not bad. Wish I would have known sooner. That's the only thing.

Talked to the sound designer regarding the opening light cues and sound cues. We have to communicate clearly about the start because of the lightning and thunder that starts the show off. Plus I pitched my idea about the preshow cue that will run as the audience filters in.

I want the stage to look very happy and "Caribbean" and over the course of 30 minutes get darker and become more storm like in appearance to get us ready for the show. He will be playing upbeat caribbean music anyways and no storm sounds will appear until we start to dim the house lights.

Now I leave you with some virtual light lab photos:



Opening Picture downstage




Opening Picture upstage




Malvolio in his cage




Sunset


Pictures created with Virtual Light Lab 1

Load In Part 2

Well as usual, things were not organized at Cal Poly. We arrived (we being Zach and myself) to the mainstage at noon because we were not allowed to work in the studio right away. The set designer worked on painting the floor for the third day, then enlisted us to help load in her scenery.

After all that, we were able to continue focusing lights. We had to get it done today because tomorrow is the first tech. Yesterday the tech designer kicked us out at 6pm promptly. Today she was kind enough to give us an extra 15 minutes to actually finish.

Now we didn't get finished, but it was focused well enough for the first tech. We will definitely have to do a lot of notes. My show got the front lights focused (I love having Zach to watch my back).

Our master electrician didn't show. He was supposed to be late, but instead he allowed himself to be kidnapped by his fiance for valentine's day celebrations. Which sucked because the only people we had were Connie and Teresa. Connie left early and Teresa arrived late so it was as if we only had 3 people to do all the work all day long. I still can't believe we got that much done.

Tomorrow I will have my patching and circuiting done. And Tuesday is the light focus with the class. That should be interesting...

Twelfth Night Load In

Ok, I guess this will be my online journal of the progress of my show.

Yesterday was load in. When we first arrived half the plot was already hung, so my master electrician, assistant M.E. and myself started working on the flipper sections. My light board operator was no where to be found. (Basically, she hasn't inspired any sense of ambition yet)

When that was done, Zach (the L.D. for the studio show arrived) needed us to help on his show because his opens first. So I switched gears from L.D. to crew and we did as much as we could since the floor was being painted. I (in my own little way) made it clear to the set designer that when she runs behind, she makes other people run behind. (She didn't like that)

So 5:45 rolled around and the technical director wanted to leave so we had no choice but to stop working and go home. Or as she called it "return to your lives people."

Today will be fun because the set designer requested the first 3 hours of the 6 hour call to keep painting. So I guess we'll work on my show for that three hours, and have to rush to get Zach's show working because IT OPENS FIRST. God I hate all crew load in days.

skool sux

I hate my life... No wait, I hate school... No wait, I hate school schedules.

How am I supposed to take a MWF class next quarter when festival season runs FSSun? Imagine all the money I'll be out because one fucking class goes on friday mornings. Fuck this shit. I hate school. I'm so ready to turn and run and just try to get by in life without a fucking bachelor's degree.

And then I see my parents and go... Oh wait, I can't do that.

Damn't! Damn Cal Poly and its fucking budget cuts and its stupid class scheduling.

Disaster Relief

New Blog : http://roxannerosas.blogspot.com



















I just mailed in $1. I know it's not much, but I'm dealing with financial problems. If everyone else posts this and sends in a dollar each though (you can mail it in as well) we can really help.

Thanks guys

PS Sri Lanka just hit midnite, they were crying and yet when the clock struck midnite they kind of cheered. It's really sad, but they managed to have a small celebration. Happy New Year everyone!!!

These are so great!

Technical Theatre is Total Love



Alan Rickman is Love



Kingdom of Loathing is Love

The Cash-In of the Christ

Passion Story on Yahoo



' Breaking with a growing Hollywood practice of heavy-handed pre-Oscar marketing, Gibson and his Icon Productions partner Bruce Davey have vowed not to spend a cent on television, radio or print ads hawking "Passion" for Academy Award consideration, a spokesman said on Friday.


However, Icon is presenting promotional screenings of "The Passion" and plans to send out thousands of DVD copies to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (news - web sites) and other industry groups that present year-end film awards.


"This film should be judged on its artistic merit, not on who spends more money for advertising. That's really what the academy was meant to be and to celebrate," Davey said in a statement issued through Icon's publicist, Alan Nierob. '



Not spending a cent on advertising for the oscars? But promotional screenings and sending thousands of free copies to academy members for oscar consideration isn't advertising?

Huh?

I'm a little fishy

This is my fish twitch. He's the bastard who keeps me awake at night. Below him are little decorative pebbles. Well, he likes to flick those against the glass bowl, but only at night.

Why not remove them you ask? Well because the fish poop and excess food he doesn't eat would be totally visible and that's not pretty to look at.

I thought these fish only live about a year, he's coming up on 2 years.

Little bastard!

Phew

I had a meeting with my evaluator today (nice lady), she says my US History class should have transferred over too. She was a little confused as to why that didn't happen automatically... humf!

Then I helped out with The Foreigner for a while. Nice times. I was about to leave for the day, when I spotted Ozzie and out of habit asked if things were going okay with the show. He said he had a few things I could help him out with... damn! But it went quick, it was ok since I got out of costume design early.

Now I'm at home, trying to relax. It's kind of hard because I have a to do list that stretches a mile and I don't know where to begin. Plus, I have to talk to my step-dad about maybe skipping rent this month since things are kind of tight. I'm living off my savings account to get by and now that it is getting small, I have to focus on work as much as possible and skip on some school activities. (Hence my not being on running crew for The Foreigner).

Ugh, I am so tired. Not just physically, but mentally. I'm so close to being done with school, and there's no time to stop and rest. As soon as school ends, I'll have to sell my soul just to get by. I have to think about moving out as soon as possible because living with my parents (even if it's in the guest house) is just a bit too corny for my age.

Just think when Bush is leaving the white house, I'll be 30!

Ugh....and since I'm in such a rotten mood, I think I'll end on a funny note:

Our President Ladies and Gentlemen

See the video for yourself