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and everyone else must enter the
space ready to adapt to whatever
the space may throw at
them. This author has personally
worked in enough intimate spaces
over the years to know that no
blueprint or plot, no matter how
detailed, can truly deliver all the
information needed to mount a
production.
Production team members
must prepare to compromise.
Some director requests simply
cannot happen because of
certain structural limitations
with which directors tend to be
unfamiliar, but some director
requests must happen for the
good of the show’s aesthetic,
regardless of what else must give
for them to come to fruition. (For
example, pyrotechnics may not
be possible for a death scene
because of code or structural
limits, but such limitations then
behoove the LD and director to
concoct an aesthetically pleasing
lighting solution that will work.)
Intimate spaces offer the
greatest challenges because
they confine the physical space
available, but such challenges
often offer the most ingenious
solutions. Lest we forget, many
of the lighting products on the
market today came from LDs and
MEs trying to solve certain problems
for which no product existed
at the time. The sheer quantity
of those products available in the
field testifies to the creativity of
those in theatrical lighting, and
its continuous expansion assures
us that such ingenuity still lives.
Intimate spaces, for all their limitations,
test our mettle in ways grand
houses simply do not, because when
our pocketbooks cannot solve our
problems, our minds must.
In this production (for a 96-seat house), the space did not allow
for enough positions for color mixing, so the designer opted to
abandon color filters for a “realistic” look. This can enable an
LD to reduce fixture requirements in a pinch, though it comes at
the cost of losing color options
www.stage-directions.com • March 2010 47