ABSTRACT
Performance Considerations There are several performance qualities that are unique to the drama experience. Most noteworthy is the fact that the predominant mode of presentation is through dialogue. The performers themselves are a major element of the presentation, and what they say is critical to an audience’s understanding of a play. The audience must be able to hear the actors to follow the storyline, make observations about character relationships, and understand the themes, meanings, and motivations of a play. An audience tends to have a more difficult time hearing if they can’t see a performer’s face. This condition goes back to a basic psychological phenomena where involving a second sense (e.g., sight and sound) results in more information being observed and understood by an individual. When this principle is applied to theatre, sight and sound are found to be directly connected to the understanding of an audience. A major requirement for lighting most plays therefore relates to establishing enough visibility that performers’ faces can be easily observed by the audience. In addition to providing a reinforcing environment for the verbal elements of the play, increased visibility also allows nonverbal communication like facial gesturing to become a more significant element of the communication between a performer and an audience. The less physical action demanded by a play and the more that it is based in dialogue, the greater the need for good visibility. On the other hand, just maintaining visibility can lead to a design that doesn’t add anything to the theatrical experience. A design that only provides general visibility is often perceived as boring or uninspired and will often fail to make any real contribution to the overall production. On the other hand, lighting shouldn’t bring unnecessary attention to itself either. Lighting cannot upstage the action of a play-if elements of the design take an audience out of the world of the play, that, too, is a disservice to the production. One school of designers even claims that the best lighting should go unnoticed by an audience. My personal feeling is
that such lighting often fails to add anything to a production and that a designer should strive to use their lighting to enhance a production rather than to simply illuminate it. The secret to good lighting is in creating an appropriate environment for the production, which can at times become as important, if not more important, than simple visibility. The argument of selective visibility should be a major consideration of any lighting design because it relates to the specific needs of a production.
