Blog #4

I never noticed the intensity of a ghost light until Friday night. I had just finished doing an improv show in the Little Theatre over in HH 161, and the stage manager turned off the house lights as the audience was leaving the theatre. Only the work lights on the stage were on, and I could barely see the seats in the audience from the stage. Then, the stage manager turned the ghost light on. Suddenly, I could see every seat in the house, all the way to the back. My phone was sitting on the arm of a chair about halfway up towards the back of the house, and the light was reflecting off of it brightly enough that I could clearly see it shining from the stage. Standing at the edge of the stage, I almost felt like I was a floating, radiant being looking over an empty theatre. This experience made me think about the power of one, highly luminescent light in an otherwise dark space, and how that contrast creates an ethereal feeling. Contrast in intensity of lighting can be visceral.