Brighter Days

During the COVID-19 pandemic, theatre, without a doubt, had to make huge adjustments in order to continue. My high school theatre department’s approach to this was a “devised theatre” project. When our directors announced their idea, it was definitely a little intimidating. 

Every aspect of the show was to be entirely created by students from the ground up and that seemed like a daunting task. I was excited to meet a new challenge.

One of the many adjustments that we had to make in order to accommodate the world we now live in, was to film the show instead of performing it live. A live audience simply was not possible at that time. One major decision that we had to make was whether to film a stage production or create a motion picture production using different locations and settings. 

We chose to create a motion picture production. I knew, as the lighting designer, that this would require me to think in a completely new way. I would not have access to our lighting system at any location. So, I had to learn new ways to create the effects, using limited resources, yet tell the design story I envisioned. In the end, I enjoyed the challenge and process and I do not take for granted the new applications that I learned in lighting design.