GOOD KIDS
Written by Naomi Lizuka
Directed by Sofie Scott
Lighting Design by Jeff Fan
Produced at Round House Theatre
Good Kids explores a casual sexual encounter gone wrong, and its very public aftermath. Who is telling the truth? Whose version of the story do you believe? This play responds to actual events that generated a national dialogue.
Set in a high school in a world of Facebook, Twitter, smart phones and YouTube, Good Kids is loosely based on the Steubenville High School rape case, and explores a crime and its coverup.
Lighting plot, magic sheet, and gobos.
As Lighting Designer, I managed a 400-seat proscenium, dimmer-per-circuit theater with the guidance of advisor Kristin Thompson and master electrician Liz Sena.
We worked with the ETC Ion, controlling over 400 channels of Source Fours, fresnels, DMX LEDs, I-Cues, strip lights, scrollers, and mixers.
Lighting aimed to communicate space: Both physical in terms of setting, and the mental space of characters as they put on "face" - a particular identity they exude to others.
There is the chorus of the good kids, the various students from all walks of the high school who spectate, encourage, and comment on "what happened" as stories shift and conflict over the course of the play.
Throughout the play, the chorus projects different images of themselves, sometimes revealing their inner, more honest thoughts and other times reacting to societal influences.
Moments of honesty are be lit softly and neutrally, devoid of colors and sculpting to create a feeling of inner intimacy between the characters and audience.
In moments when the chorus exerts the full range of values and judgements upon one another, lighting will be more dimensional, using more contrast and sculpting to create the feeling that each character is almost like a crafted image.
And finally, the character Deirdre - a vigilante, cyber-presence through who we hear the entire tale - occupies a separate space of her own, a cyberspace that seems to observe and react to the play's events.
This space is shaped through a faint blue color and dedicated gobos.
Scene by scene lighting diagram
Cue list
Good Kids is the 14th Annual Sarah Metzger Memorial Play:
The Sarah Play was established by the Metzger family and friends to celebrate the memory of Sarah Metzger, an inspiring and active member of the theatre community, who was killed in an automobile accident during her freshman year of college.
The Sarah Play is directed, designed, stage managed, and performed by high school students of the Round House Theatre Teen Performance Company. Learn more about the TPC here.
