Blog #3

This week, I acted in a play called "Picasso at the Lapin Agile." While I was doing the show, I payed close attention to the lighting. Something really interesting I noticed was how subtle shifts in lighting could completely shift focus on stage. The play did not have any black outs. There was one part of the play in which one character had a large monologue from upstage-center. I didn't notice until closing night that, in this moment, the lights on stage-right and stage-left faded slightly, while the brightness of the lights on the upstage-center part of the stage increased slightly. It was a small enough shift that I didn't notice it until closing night, but I realize how important it was. There were three other characters on stage during the monologue-character's monologue, and it would be really easy for the three characters to pull focus. I could feel the audience's energy focused completely on the monologue-character, and I think that the lighting helped this happen. The lighting shift, though small, focused the audience's eye on the main character speaking, giving them all the attention. Even if audience members didn't notice this shift, as I hadn't for most of the process, it undoubtedly turned their eyes towards the important character in that moment on the stage.