Coloring Between the Lines

We keep getting asked: How did you do it?

We "You Can't Take It With You" to great fanfare in February at Meadowdale High School. So many parents wanted to know: How did our kids create such beautiful technical design?

You see, the set, lights, sound, costumes, makeup and props were all designed by students. By all accounts heard, our audiences were deeply impressed by the polished, professional result. This, from 16- and 17-year-olds.

As director, how did I challenge them to pull that off so successfully?

The answer is simple: Rather than give them a blank page, I gave them a page with an outline and asked them to color in the rest.

For example, in the accompanying photo, we see two actors, Emma and Lucas, kissing. (Full disclosure:  Emma will have my hide ; however, it's such a compact example.) 

Take a closer look. Do you see the orange light playing on their hair and Emma's cheek? That's Lucas' lighting design.

We called it his "default look." In theater, lighting is often described as "painting with light." So, I kept asking him, "What do you want your default look to look like?"

At first he would give me a confused look. The one day, he replied, "Hot." The script mentions a dozen times how hot the weather is. 

Unfortunately, the school is limited in the number of gels available to color the lights. As a result, Lucas got creative.  He found a low-saturation (i.e., lightly colored) gel and doubled it, creating the orange look.

Excellent. Except the second scene takes place at night. So, I started asking him, "How do you want to alter your default look to make it look like night?"

His looks of confusion didn't last nearly as long this time. Soon, he had set up a number of lights with blue gels to suggest moonlight. 

When the lovers kissed, then, we had this gorgeous blend of orange and blue lighting that took the audience's breath away. 

Emma's costume design underwent the same process. The script has a line, "Here I am, a vision in blue." So, I asked her, "What does a vision in blue look like when a girl is on a date?"

Look at the photo again and you can see Emma's answer. To be honest, I disagreed with her choice for I thought it too dark. But I like to trust my designers' choices, so we agreed to wait until tech week so we could see that dress under Lucas' lights. 

You can see the result. She had made a brilliant design choice.

And that's how we did it. Instead of handing the students a blank paper, metaphorically speaking, I handed them one with an outline. 

They filled in the rest and earned the applause.