Hamlet
For this project, I created an entire theoretical Hamlet production, with full lighting design. This includes a light plot, magic sheets, some lighting keys, collages, and Matt Kizer light cues. Credit for the set and lighting of the set goes to Richard Finkelstein (Dir. Tom Arthur), picture credit is unknown.
I am deeply invested in Hamlet as a piece of art. Colors are really important to me for this show (as with most shows I do), with heightened emotions leading to heightened color.
The set I chose is mostly made of exposed metal, with an ornate floor and an overall diamond shape. It also has some kind of window structure around the entire angled ceiling and walls which can have light put through it, but it seems to only be able to do a wash, similarly to a cyc. This makes lighting complicated, but gives me lots of room to play.
I’m not very concerned with establishing setting, since this is going to be a fairly abstracted production. I’m imagining something that isn’t period, but isn’t modern either, just an abstract, odd world full of abstracted costumes and weird light.
My goal is to make a Hamlet that is just as weird as it is beautiful, and just as beautiful as it is meaningful. The show is about love and loss, about family, about obsession, about grief, about betrayal. Hamlet is the ultimate tragedy, starring the ultimate tragic hero. While it can be played straight and be just as amazing, a strong designing team and a bold take can shift the emphasis of the play and bring the play to new heights of beauty.