BlainRadfordDesign | Spring Awakening

By Steven Sater

Lighting Designer

Performed by the University of Montana School of Theatre and Dance, 2020

Directed by John Kenneth DeBoer

Scenery by Aaron Chris Projections by Mike Post

Costumes by Claire Peterson Music Direction by Jane Best

SA Research, Tranquility

Emotional Research

SA Research, Spotlight

Emotional Research

SA Research, Golden Light

Emotional Research

SA Research, MET Gala

Emotional Research

SA Research, Emotional Research

Emotional Research

SA Research, Projections

Emotional Research

SA Research, LED Tunnel

Emotional Research

SA Research, Trees

Emotional Research

SA Research, Cool Light

Emotional Research

Research

As the last show of my University career, I wanted to put everything I could into this production. Early on in our meetings, I pitched the idea that the lighting for this show was a reflection of our characters' emotions, a look into their private lives. As the show progressed, the idea was to make the colors richer, more vibrant, and more emotive.

Aaron Chris, our scenic designer, made a crazy, off balance stage which served to clue the audience in to how hectic and confusing the private lives of the characters are. I conversed with him at length about where we could hide lights, under and around the stage, and different ways that the light could be played with on the ground. It was an extremely fun collaborative process, and I used these images above, as well as others, to show how powerful and mesmerizing we were going to make the lighting.

Renderings

SA Rendering 01

Mama Who Bore Me

SA Rendering 02

All That's Known

SA Rendering 03

Bitch of a Living

SA Rendering 04

Touch Me

SA Rendering 05

The Dark I Know Well

SA Rendering 06

I Believe

SA Rendering 07

Guilty Ones

SA Rendering 08

Don't do Sadness

SA Rendering 09

Totally Fucked

After pulling together research and talking with the team about my direction, I sketched out renderings for each song. These are colored pencil and pastel on black paper, made very quickly to demonstrate which colors and moods I want to use for each song. I then brought these back and we talked about my choices to distill the most important aspect of each.

Drafting

Here is the final plot, formatted very smartly by Nathan Greeneisen, my ME. Because this show was in the round our inventory was spread all over, and I got a lot of miles from our I-Cues and Colorados. I'm also showing a color palette that I put together, to help me visualize how the lighting evolves over the course of the show. Lastly there are three pages of magic sheets, containing all of my instruments and organized so I could get to them as quickly as possible.

Pictures