Light It Up!

My eyes have been opened to a great deal this trip, and yesterday I learned even more. We had the awesome opportunity to sit down with Neil Austin, the lighting designer for Bend It Like Beckam, a musical we watched that same evening. Not only was he funny and inspirational, but he also took us onto the actual stage and then behind the scenes to look at what went into the production we were going to see. As a non-theatre major, this was incredible—I’ve only seen the backstage of church plays, never a working theatre. Listening to Austin was basically a foreign language to me. From “revolution four” to “LED-one-oh-one-double-oooh” to “spotlight” (and no, not the big bright light at center stage but a computer software), I was lost as to the technical jargon.

I never quite appreciated what a lighting designer does until talking with Austin. I’m about to make a Twilight reference (sorry, but not really):  in the series, one of the vampires named Jasper has the special talent of being able to control a roomful of people’s emotions. At first, compared to Edward’s mind-reading and Alice’s ability to see the future, I felt sorry for Jasper; it seemed like he got the short end of the stick in the cool vamp tricks department. However, whenever he could subtly calm someone down when they were roaring angry or cheer them up when they were on the verge of a collapsing into depression, you realize that what he does is vital to the survival of the Cullen family. This is how I felt about theatre lighting. As a mundane audience member, I never thought, “Wow, that LED blue light shining just perfectly through the hint of smoke makes me feel sad,” but I still cry during emotional scenes. After the talk with Austin, I realized all the ways in which lighting affects my viewing experience, even when I don’t consciously register it. Austin described the way he uses different colors in different scenes, making me think back over all my other theatre experiences to realize that I have always allowed lighting to carry me along down the path of emotion. As a matter of fact, my friends and I scored half-price tickets to Les Miserables the day before (amazing, right??), and the lighting in that play definitely influenced me. At one point when one of the key characters dies, and you’re already sad to begin with, the brilliant white light that beams down on her to signify heaven’s rays just takes your heartbreak to the next level. Having reflected on light’s roles in setting the mood and drawing attention to important features, therefore, I began to realize the incredible weight on Austin and other lighting designer’s shoulders.

I definitely paid more attention to the effects of lighting during the show thanks to the talk with Austin. The choreography, special effects, and divinely sparkling costumes all contributed to a fantastic spectacle. The extremely expensive set that made the house light up was awe-inspiring; it looked like a giant Christmas tree with white lights. Paying attention, I saw that the lights were bouncing in time with the music, blinking brighter with the more up-beat numbers.

Lighting was also used in an excellent way to create realism that is difficult to do in a live performance in one spot. The colors made me feel like I was outside on a soccer field, with the use of yellow and green light that created an outdoor ambiance. Furthermore, they did an amazing trick with a spotlight so that it looked like the characters were doing tricks with the soccer ball that would be impossible indoors and in one take—like curving the ball to go all the way around the curve of the theatre and into the goal. Because they were actors and not pro soccer players, they definitely had a hard time doing all the athletic stunts, like dribbling a ball on their knees or doing fancy tricks, so the light was absolutely pivotal to showing off exactly how talented Jess was at soccer. Without the light, I would not have been sold on the fact that Jess was good enough to make it to America, but thanks to the help of the special effects, I saw her “bend it like Beckham,” which I had never heard of before but totally understood once I saw that scene.

Some of our members were not huge fans of this show, saying that it was just too much to handle and too over-the-top. However, I loved it. They sold their souls to the side of sensory explosions, and I think it paid off. No, it was no gut-wrenching Merchant of Venice, but just because it had confetti and giant, glittery props does not mean that it lacked substance. The song about “there was once a man with a dream in his eye,” which covered the way Jess’s father was discriminated against due to his Indian ethnicity when he dreamed of playing sports and enjoying society, was deeply moving. He forbids Jess to try out for the soccer team because of his paralyzing fear that she will also be rejected because of “the color of her skin.” The play certainly was a different theatre experience than some of the “high art” that we have enjoyed so far, but I did not like it any less. I think I squealed and aww-ed more during this show than any other, simply because the good time it seemed like they were having on stage was contagious for the audience. The fun and the party-atmosphere that goes into such a high spectacle play makes the viewing experience extremely memorable.

Side note, one of the best moments of this trip followed after the show. We stage-doored (waiting creepily for all the actors to leave the theatre) and caught the leading male star, Jamie Campbell Bower. He's been in Twilight, Harry Potter, Camelot, Sweeney Todd, and most importantly, the movie adaptation of a young adult book series I read, The Mortal Instruments.