Period 7 Group Fences: Recent Episodes
Elouise Nicole
"Fences" is a 1985 play by August Wilson which describes a black man's struggles to keep his family together while also wanting freedom away from the burdens of his wife and son in the midst of the 1950s. As a tech theater group, we discuss how we can create the set of "Fences" by keeping the same message of the play and creating a unique and new environment. There is much to learn about the technical aspects of theater!
Painting Light Podcast Script
Objective 1: Describe painting & include what time it takes place
- A meeting may be taking place between two parties, one of which in the right is accusing the other party placed in the left side of the painting. This leads me to believe that an accusation is taking place in the painting because the two older people on the right are pointing at a certain, slumped figure.
- The men on the right are barefoot.
Objective 2: History of the Calling of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio
- The Calling of Saint Matthew is a masterpiece by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, depicting the moment at which Jesus Christ inspires Matthew to follow him.
- This painting is based on the chapter form of the Gospel of Matthew
- Jesus is the one pointing at Matthew while a ray of light shines on the faces of the men
- The bearded man pointing at himself is said to be Matthew
- Matthew is represented as a tax collectors with 4 other figures beside him
- Which main character is not as brilliantly lit? The character second most right is the most invisible figure.
- Why do you think that? He is facing directly away from light sources, so we can only see his backside and his finger pointing in a way of accusation.
- What mood does the light create? For me it creates a very dingy and dirty sort of feeling. However, very old and traditional. The men are from hundreds of years ago and it feels that way. There are also moods of tension, and the harsh lighting makes it seem violent, mysterious, or grimy.
Objective 3: Describe the lighting
- It looks like there may be a window at the right where light is shining through.
- There’s a ray of light shining on the faces of the men at the table.
- There are shadows where the light isn’t shining
- Where is the light coming from? The light is coming from a window on the upper right (perhaps obstructed by a ledge creating that harsh shadow of mystery) and it is coming from sort of in front to the right perhaps from a doorway or another window.
- Is the light coming from the visible window and why or why not? It is not. It looks to be fairly dirty, or blocked from the outside. But also, if a light source were shining from behind the men, it wouldn't add to their visibility from the front and perhaps might even make them more invisible.
- What time of day is it and how do you know. It looks like this painting takes place during the evening. To be more specific, it looks like it might take place maybe late evening, mainly because of how warm the yellow light reflects on the characters and the wall. Colors of light in the evening tend to be yellow or red while colors during the sunrise would be more purple.
Objective 4: Colors and angles in lighting
- The lighting is a yellow, warm color. In most paintings and forms of visual art, white light is often unused because the white color is unfit to evoke a certain mood and emotion. Though white is symbolized as purity, its bright and plain color may not highlight the emotions of the scene well.
- A sharp, dark angle in the wall is created from the lack of lighting in that area in order to hide the main figure pointing at Matthew. This creates a mystery surrounding the man, who is acclaimed to be Jesus, so the focus is directed towards who he is pointing at.
(Script made by Elouise Nicole, Jada, Mosses, Madison, and Elmer. Though the audio spikes and is muffled in some parts, all of our group members described and expanded upon these four objectives in the podcast.)
Our group is given a dimly lit picture of a teacher sitting in her room filled with plants and a shoji screen. We are asked how we could fix this dull image to make it seem brighter and more lively to fit the environment. In our response we suggest to change the lighting angles and the color while demonstrating why lighting is such an important aspect in theater.
Welcome to the first episode of our Tech Theater podcast! We (Elouise, Jada, Mosses, Elmer, and Madison) are excited to create more episodes about our process of designing!