Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 3-23-2018 A Tale of Two Birds: Lighting Design and Implementation of Anton Chekhov's The eS agull and Aaron Posner's Stupid Fucking Bird Running in Repertory at Swine Palace Theatre Chelsea G. Touchet Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Touchet, Chelsea G., "A Tale of Two Birds: Lighting Design and Implementation of Anton Chekhov's The eS agull and Aaron Posner's Stupid Fucking Bird Running in Repertory at Swine Palace Theatre" (2018). LSU Master's Theses. 4632. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/4632 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A TALE OF TWO BIRDS: LIGHTING DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ANTON CHEKHOV’S THE SEAGULL AND AARON POSNER’S STUPID FUCKING BIRD RUNNING IN REPERTORY AT SWINE PALACE THEATRE A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and College of Music and Dramatic Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in The School of Theatre by Chelsea Gabrielle Touchet B.S., University of Evansville, 2011 May 2018 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people contributed to the success and completion of these two productions. I am grateful to Jim Murphy for providing guidance and advice through the design and implementation of both The Seagull and Stupid Fucking Bird. I am also grateful for his unyielding mentorship and support. Kristin Sosnowsky, Adam Parboosingh, and Jim Murphy helped acquire the new technology implemented in the design. I am thankful for their trust and willingness to take risks. I want to thank The Seagull and Stupid Fucking Bird design teams: Gavin Cameron- Webb, Shannon Marie O’Neill, Grace Mimbs, Ronald Keller, Risa Brainin, Devin Painter, and Courtney Burton. Thank you all for your beautiful insights and collaboration. It would be impossible to make it through such a rigorous program and industry without the support from my colleague Nathan Ynacay and my partner Sarah Mercer. Thank you both for your encouragement and advice. Sarah, thank you for always believing in me and cheering me on. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their support, encouragement, and love. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................ii ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................v CHAPTER 1: THE DESIGN PROCESS ...........................................................................1 OVERVIEW ..........................................................................................................1 THE SEAGULL ......................................................................................................4 STUPID FUCKING BIRD ......................................................................................9 THE DESIGN TEAM ............................................................................................16 CHAPTER 2: ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH ..................................................................20 DRAMATURGICAL RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS ..........................................20 DESIGN CONCEPT ..............................................................................................22 STUPID FUCKING BIRD ......................................................................................23 THE SEAGULL ......................................................................................................30 SPECIAL EFFECTS, PRACTICALS, AND SET MOUNTS .................................35 CHAPTER 3: IMPLEMENTATION .................................................................................45 DRAFTING PACKAGE ........................................................................................45 HANG ...................................................................................................................48 CIRCUIT ...............................................................................................................49 FOCUS ..................................................................................................................51 POWER PROBLEMS ............................................................................................54 SPECIAL EFFECTS, PRACTICALS, AND SET MOUNTS .................................56 CHAPTER 4: EXECUTION..............................................................................................64 THE SEAGULL ......................................................................................................64 STUPID FUCKING BIRD ......................................................................................70 CHAPTER 5: THE CHANGEOVER .................................................................................76 TRAINING THE CREW .......................................................................................77 CHANNEL AND PRACTICAL CHECK ..............................................................78 TROUBLESHOOTING .........................................................................................79 CHAPTER 6: REFLECTIONS ..........................................................................................82 THE DESIGN PROCESS ......................................................................................82 SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF LIGHTING DESIGN ELEMENTS ......................84 FURTHER INVESTIGATION ..............................................................................87 MOVING FORWARD ..........................................................................................88 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................92 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................94 iii APPENDIX A: THE SEAGULL PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHELSEA TOUCHET ...............................................................................................96 APPENDIX B: STUPID FUCKING BIRD PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHELSEA TOUCHET ...............................................................................................98 VITA .................................................................................................................................101 iv ABSTRACT The course of creation never did run smooth. Every act of creation is a process of creation. While theatrical creation and execution may follow the same basic steps each time, the process will always be evolving. One may take many paths to reach the same destination. This project is a study of the process of creation and execution of a repertory theatrical lighting design for a professional company in an academic setting. In the spring of 2017, Swine Palace Theatre, the professional company associated with Louisiana State University’s (LSU) School of Theatre, produced Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull in full rotating repertory with Aaron Posner’s modern adaptation Stupid Fucking Bird. Different design teams were chosen for each piece but the scenic designer and the lighting designer would work on both. I served as the lighting designer. This project will track the design from inception to implementation, covering initial meetings, research, execution, and the changeover process. The final chapter will reflect on the success and failure of concepts and implementation methods and address areas that need further investigation. Finally, connections will be drawn between this process and the industry at large. Although repertory productions are not uncommon, very little of the repertory design and implementation process has been presented in a detailed written format. The goal of this work is to provide a case study of repertory design and execution through the documentation of the lighting design and implementation of The Seagull and Stupid Fucking Bird at Swine Palace Theatre. This work also bridges the gap between training and industry, illustrating how the presence of a professional company in an academic setting challenges professionals and students alike. v CHAPTER 1: THE DESIGN PROCESS OVERVIEW Theatrical design is a process with no set path that leads to the perfect concept for a theatrical production. Still, many educators have attempted to create a roadmap for students embarking upon their first designs or for artists who become lost in the process of conceptualization. In much the same way that the scientific method explores problems through experimentation and detailed observation, the design process helps to answer visual and artistic questions concerning a show through experimentation, observation, and evaluation. The design process with which I most closely identify and which guided my work on The Seagull and Stupid Fucking Bird is described by J. Michael Gillette and Michael McNamara in Designing with Light: An Introduction to Stage Lighting. Gillette and McNamara propose a method to “discover an appropriate and creative solution to almost any design problem” in seven steps: commitment, analysis,