BILLY THE MUSICAL (Based on Billy Liar) see Billy The Musical Wiki Page
Which was performed at: The Windmill Theatre, Blatchington Mill School:
My Role within Billy was to organise and design the lighting, then to operate the cues during the performances.
The specials (Lighting on stage) included:
An old lamp on a stand:
Found on a prop sourcing trip to Emmaus, the standard lamp had a nondescript cream lampshade on which I decided to paint a brown stripe, so it would fit in with our all round brown and beige theme.
A fireplace:
Within the fireplace, we set 2 erratic flashing bulbs with red gels, and 1
constantly lit orange gelled bulb, we then put a little tin foil around it and covered it with logs, it was very effective, if a little ‘rave like’.
A window:
At the very beginning of Billy Liar, dawn breaks over the stage and you become aware of a dimly lit figure in bed. I decided to light this through a net curtained window with the use of a birdie light. The director didn’t use this light as much as I would have liked, however the effect it gave when it was being used I thought worked well and was realistic.
Many times during the play Billy snaps from reality to his own fantasy world, and this is mainly indicated through an obvious lighting change. When Billy is in the real world, it is dreary Yorkshire in the 1960s. I wanted to give the cast and set during these scenes an old sepia look. However, this was harder to achieve than I expected, especially as I didn't get any input into what the cast would be wearing. Some of them were wearing reds and other bright colours that didn’t fit in with my sepia idea. To overcome this problem I decided to use brown gels in six Frasnels across the lighting bar located at the front of the stage. This gave the cast and set a brown, almost dirty tinge which was close to my original idea.
I was quite pleased with the look I created in the end. The fantasy scenes consisted of down light from centre stage so you could only really see the cast's silhouettes, and a deep pink back wash to the entire set. This gave an other-worldly feel to the scenes. The Director did however want some front light, so that the faces of the cast would be visible. I felt this made sense, even if it did dilute the fantasy look that I created and loved.
Rope/cable light:
We used this on the set during a nightclub scene. I was slightly concerned that this was a mistake. Rope light has a bit of a cheesy reputation, I wasn't sure that it was really appropriate for a nightclub in 1960s Yorkshire. In my opinion it gives a 1970s or 80s look. Don't get me wrong, personally I love the stuff, but I worried that it wouldn't fit what we were aiming to achieve.
I'm happy to report that despite my worries the rope light did work. It helped create a totally new scene without any major set changes.
Propping:
Our main technician Tom, sourced 200 Friday Ads (free local advertising paper). These were for the calendars needed to play a significant part in the play. Myself and others spent a good part of an hour sticking covers onto them so they resembled calendars.
I had a plan that when the lighting changed from reality to fantasy, the cast would quickly whip out colourful props, in place of the plain ones they had been using, this would include multicoloured feather dusters in place of old yellow dusting cloths, and crochet blankets could quickly be thrown over the drab furniture. Sadly this didn't happen - it didn't work time-wise as the cue changes were meant to take only a split second, and this isn't possible when an actor is trying to tug a blanket from under an armchair five minutes in.
A lesson learned today:
When operating the specific lighting programme at the Windmill during performances:
Don't be nervous - shaking hands can cause double clicks when single ones are intended. This happened to me, and confused the actors terribly because we went from nightclub to blackout, instead of fantasy like rehearsed. Luckily my nervous shakes made the double clicks so fast that the audience didn’t notice, and it seemed as if the blackout was meant to be there.
All in all, the performances went amazingly!
Which was performed at: The Windmill Theatre, Blatchington Mill School:
My Role within Billy was to organise and design the lighting, then to operate the cues during the performances.
The specials (Lighting on stage) included:
An old lamp on a stand:
Found on a prop sourcing trip to Emmaus, the standard lamp had a nondescript cream lampshade on which I decided to paint a brown stripe, so it would fit in with our all round brown and beige theme.
A fireplace:
Within the fireplace, we set 2 erratic flashing bulbs with red gels, and 1
constantly lit orange gelled bulb, we then put a little tin foil around it and covered it with logs, it was very effective, if a little ‘rave like’.
A window:
At the very beginning of Billy Liar, dawn breaks over the stage and you become aware of a dimly lit figure in bed. I decided to light this through a net curtained window with the use of a birdie light. The director didn’t use this light as much as I would have liked, however the effect it gave when it was being used I thought worked well and was realistic.
Many times during the play Billy snaps from reality to his own fantasy world, and this is mainly indicated through an obvious lighting change. When Billy is in the real world, it is dreary Yorkshire in the 1960s. I wanted to give the cast and set during these scenes an old sepia look. However, this was harder to achieve than I expected, especially as I didn't get any input into what the cast would be wearing. Some of them were wearing reds and other bright colours that didn’t fit in with my sepia idea. To overcome this problem I decided to use brown gels in six Frasnels across the lighting bar located at the front of the stage. This gave the cast and set a brown, almost dirty tinge which was close to my original idea.
I was quite pleased with the look I created in the end. The fantasy scenes consisted of down light from centre stage so you could only really see the cast's silhouettes, and a deep pink back wash to the entire set. This gave an other-worldly feel to the scenes. The Director did however want some front light, so that the faces of the cast would be visible. I felt this made sense, even if it did dilute the fantasy look that I created and loved.
Rope/cable light:
We used this on the set during a nightclub scene. I was slightly concerned that this was a mistake. Rope light has a bit of a cheesy reputation, I wasn't sure that it was really appropriate for a nightclub in 1960s Yorkshire. In my opinion it gives a 1970s or 80s look. Don't get me wrong, personally I love the stuff, but I worried that it wouldn't fit what we were aiming to achieve.I'm happy to report that despite my worries the rope light did work. It helped create a totally new scene without any major set changes.
Propping:
Our main technician Tom, sourced 200 Friday Ads (free local advertising paper). These were for the calendars needed to play a significant part in the play. Myself and others spent a good part of an hour sticking covers onto them so they resembled calendars.
I had a plan that when the lighting changed from reality to fantasy, the cast would quickly whip out colourful props, in place of the plain ones they had been using, this would include multicoloured feather dusters in place of old yellow dusting cloths, and crochet blankets could quickly be thrown over the drab furniture. Sadly this didn't happen - it didn't work time-wise as the cue changes were meant to take only a split second, and this isn't possible when an actor is trying to tug a blanket from under an armchair five minutes in.
A lesson learned today:
When operating the specific lighting programme at the Windmill during performances:
Don't be nervous - shaking hands can cause double clicks when single ones are intended. This happened to me, and confused the actors terribly because we went from nightclub to blackout, instead of fantasy like rehearsed. Luckily my nervous shakes made the double clicks so fast that the audience didn’t notice, and it seemed as if the blackout was meant to be there.
All in all, the performances went amazingly!
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