Limited Coloring

My colors seem...limited.

For the current show in production, I have been placed on light crew. I'll be honest, lighting is my absolute least favorite part of theatre. That's not where my skill or love is found when it comes to theatre. I'm so grateful God gave other people that passion, because I just don't have it. However, I am envious of their color options.

I was assigned to cut gels (colored plastic put in lighting fixtures to make the light shine that color). So there I was, pulling out sheets of gels, looking for the right color. The paper said to cut 12 of the R33 pink and 1 of the R333 pink. I pull them out of the shelves.

They look exactly the same to me.

I have very, very little idea of how colors work for lights. I'm pretty sure that red, blue, and green create white light when added together. I don't get it, but I'm fairly confident that I'm remembering that right. How the difference in R33 and R333 shows up on stage, I don't have any idea. But the difference must be there, otherwise there'd be no point in choosing one over the other.

Lights are magic, don't you think? I think so. Everything changes with lights. Costumes look different, sets look different, actors act different. Lights are game changers. And the scope of color possibilities are limitless. That's something to be a bit green with envy about.

Last night I went to a rehearsal for a show that some friends are producing off campus that opens this week. They are performing in a coffee shop that hasn't been open for almost four years, it's falling apart, really sketchy. Their lights are just clamp lamps run through an extension cord to a power strip. Reminded me of lighting last summer when I was in Waco.

Yet, with such simple lighting, it was still magic. Maybe I'm just easily excited about magic in the form of watching beautiful things happen, but there is something about it that never gets old. It doesn't take much to do something spectacular. 

I love colors. The brighter the better (usually). I guess it was a good reminder that even on a crew that I don't like, there is something to be appreciated, even if it seems as simple as flimsy pieces of colored plastic.

Until next time, color your world.