I was the Lighting Designer for this production of Picnic (by William Inge) with Central Theatre Ensemble in November of 2018. Below are some production photos from the show.
Photo Credit: David Dick, Directed By: George Bellah, Costume Designer: Claire Cosby, Scenic Designer: Jerald Dougherty
This production was a prime example of battling through adversity and coming out on top. Our show was set back a week into our fall quarter when we were not able to cast our originally intended show, Mother Courage and Her Children. We then in a manner of days, a month before tech rehearsals began, were tasked to press the reset button on all of our design processes with a new show. But despite our frustration or exhaustion as we worked through it all, the group never exhibited (and I never contributed) any negative energy; we all just came into work and decided that we were going to make the process enjoyable. It was an enlightening exposure into the power of the mind and the power of small group dynamics. In that sense I find this production to have been a success. Now when it comes to the details of my design, I would also say it was also a success but with more speed bumps that I learned from. I was introduced to a mechanic of Vectorworks that assisted in setting up my plot to be focused effectively (establishing focus points and drawing the beam angles), and I used this mechanic to have a more sound focus than other projects of mine, but I still ran into focus issues. By the end of the process I recognized where those issues occurred and how to avoid them in the future. There was also a bit of indecisiveness on my part when it came to finalizing the plot, and I walked away from the process with a solid understanding of the fact that what I was putting onto documents needed to be final and I needed to be confident about. As far as the narrative arch of the show is concerned, I am extremely proud of my contributions. I supported the emotional journey of the show without ever drawing attention to the lighting, which was a goal of mine.