The director and
the
light designer of the Playboy of the Western World had to also do a
lot of thinking and deciding on the
lighting of the
actors. Every actor had to have his “special” which
is a light that focuses only on that particular person and follows him in all
of the movements. Colors and lighting played a major role in setting the
“specials” for the actors because each actor has its own needs in
Color and the
brightness of the light. For example,
in the play Pageen Mike, who was played by Katherine Heasley, was a very pretty
girl who was the daughter of the shebeen in which the play took place. Because of the styles in the early 20th
century, Pageen had to have long
hair, and the actress had short hair,
therefore the wig had to be used. The
wig was closely matched to the actress’s natural hair color, but under certain
lights, it had different shades then the real hair, and looked very unnatural. Certain lights were used to fix that problem
and try to make the hair look more flawless in color and as natural as
possible. In addition to “special ”
there was also the follow spot used which was a light that followed actors
everywhere they went. That aided
audience to concentrate on the important parts of the play.
In The Playboy of the Western World lighting
was also used to create the atmosphere of the environment. The shebeen in the play was lighted very
dimly giving that
house very warm and quiet feeling. The director did not make the room bright because first, the
walls of the house were made out of stone, which gives the room that darker
shadow. Second, the electricity power
was probably not very strong where they lived, because there probably was no
major power plants close by and because of the rainy and stormy weather
outside it seems like the power would be very low, almost like it seems it could go off
any time. The light director also has
to follow the time of the day the play is taking place in, and make a contrast
between the lighting inside the house and outside the house depending on the
time. For example, if it was a day
time, then the outside should seem brighter then the inside of the house, and
in reverse when it is a night time, and outside should be darker.
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