by Clare Barron
Brooklyn College, 2024
Directed by Katy Early
Set Design: Thea Goldman
Costume Design: Lety Moreno
Lighting Design: Lem Goldstein
Photos by Deanne Sokolin and Craig Stokle
**Check out my design process detailed below**
After reading the script several times, I wrote a lighting design point of view statement:
Clare Barron said about Dance Nation: “I wanted to write this play because I wanted to present a different picture of teenage girls onstage. One where trauma wasn’t the central narrative. One where ‘being the best’ was.”
Dance Nation was published in 2018, in the wake of the 2016 Presidential Election and the 2017 resurgence of the "MeToo" movement. This was a time where “bodies”, particularly the bodies of women, were constantly being debated and policed. One particularly abhorrent statement from Donald Trump in 2016 was, “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything” (it’s also important to note that Trump won the popular vote in Ohio, where the play is set). Parallels can be drawn between this quote and some of the phrasing that Barron uses in the script, specifically the use of the words “pussy” and “star”. What does it mean to a teenager to watch their body become a political battleground, what does it mean to “perform” and become a “star,” how are these questions connected to each other, and how can lighting be used to emphasize this relationship?
Clare Barron also gives us simple yet clear instructions in the stage directions that provide some clues for lighting. These include:
“BLINDING WHITE LIGHTS”
“THE STARS COME OUT”
“ONE BRIGHT LIGHT SHINING DOWN FROM HEAVEN”
“THE MOON COMES OUT”
“THE LIGHTS SNAP BACK TO FLUORESCENTS”
“CLIMBING UP A HILL, AFTERNOON SUNSHINE”
I began to think about Barron's very deliberate choice of simple yet specific stage directions. What emotions are Barron trying to evoke when she writes about imagery such as “the moon” or “the stars” or “a hill”? These phrases are indicative of “the outside world,” how is that symbolic of the experiences that these young teen characters are going through? How can the lighting not only establish a visual vocabulary to clarify dramaturgy, but also help create distinct atmospheres for these various spaces? And in the case of this particular production at Brooklyn College, how do we do all of this in a traverse stage setting?
Next, I synthesized all of these ideas into a cohesive list of design goals for myself:
Support the visual clues in the stage directions written by Barron (ie. “Blinding white lights” or “One bright light shining down from heaven”), both aesthetically and emotionally
Establish a visual vocabulary to clarify dramaturgy and create distinct atmospheres for the various locations within the play
The studio is cool, bright and feels harsh with fluorescent practicals; the dressing room is warmer and feels safe
The competition lighting needs to signal to the audience that the girls are performing on a stage within the play
Reality-break moments ("baby sexy robots" sequence, etc.) are vibrant and colorful
Reality-breaking monologues are intimate and occur in a void, completely and drastically departing from the scene light
Then, I thought more specifically about what lights I would need. I made a lighting key:
Because the show was in a traverse seating arrangement, I chose to label my major lighting systems as "fills" using the stage directions from the proscenium arrangement for the theater
I also made a list of specials:
Low sidelight
2 S4 Lustrs shins on booms
2 S4 pars on booms
Cubby scenic units
2 S4 Lekos
US window backlight
1 3" fresnel on taildown
Bathroom / toilet
1 S4 Leko downlight
1 S4 Lustr frontlight
2 S4 Lustrs door backlight
Shallow color diagonal fill idea
2 S4 Lustrs from DSR grid 1
2 S4 Lustrs from DSL grid 1
DS window wall "light box"
Chroma-Q Colorforce 12s, 5 ground row, 5 top row
US wall set treatment
2 S4 Lustrs from SL
2 S4 Lustrs with construction gobos from SR
Center sidelight specials
2 S4 Lustrs USC
2 S4 Lustrs DSC
Footlights- wireless wagon units with 4 3" fresnels per wagon
Star practicals
3 string light runs over the grid
Fluorescent practicals
2 8' fixtures hung below the grid
At this point, I had the scenic drawings from the set designer, Thea Goldman, and I drafted my light plot.
Here is my paperwork for Dance Nation:
Lem Goldstein MS - Dance Nation.pdfLem Goldstein LX Plot - Dance Nation.pdf