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The Indiana Daily Student

arts

Graduate student overcomes pressures of light design

A 15-foot shadow of Katie Gruenhagen is cast on the backdrop.

She stands before seven lights, each resting on the ground. Different colors mix on her face as they change from blue to green to red.

As lighting designer for “Romeo and Juliet,” Gruenhagen is in charge of 300 individual lights. Each of those lights has to be pointed in just the right direction, with just the right intensity, at just the right time.

In preparation, Gruenhagen tests each of the seven ground lights with Master Electrician Matthew Wofford. He turns on all of them, but only five light up. Gruenhagen checks the lights and tells him which to adjust.

Each of the 300 lights is controlled from one master list, operated by a single button. Mistakes are not an ?option.

“It’s so easy to freak out,” Gruenhagen said. “It’s so much stress, so much pressure in that final week when everyone’s watching you.”

***

Gruenhagen has to get creative with her work.

Directors have nothing tangible to see when she explains her design. So, she uses photography.

Gruenhagen first started planning for “Romeo and Juliet” in October. She searches for real-life scenes she can reproduce in a theater.

She said photography is one of the most important tools for a light designer. Being able to recognize light in a photograph helps designers create a composition on stage.

Designers rely on the natural instincts lighting arouses in ?an audience.

People know red is used to convey passion or anger, and blue creates a somber mood, Gruenhagen said.

“We have to be cautious of those,” she said. “But it’s about finding ways to take it a step further. I think that’s where lighting designers can grow. Use those instincts, sure, but then find a way to build on those instincts.”

Choosing the right hue can have drastic effects on the mood of the production.

“Light can sort of make visible what lies beneath the surface,” Head of Lighting Design Allen Hahn said. “You can suggest things to an audience in subtle ways that reinforce what they’re watching.”

A light designer’s main work begins about one week before production. After finding inspiration and configuring his or her ideas on paper, designers sometimes only get a week to hang every light, point them in the precise direction, determine the intensity and time it perfectly with the stage directions.

“It’s a lot about figuring out what role the lighting can play in enhancing the audience’s understanding and the emotional impact, making it every bit as alive as the actors that embody those roles,” Hahn said.

Some lighting designers figure out the physics first and see the artistic vision later, but Gruenhagen knows exactly how she will light a scene after reading the script.

Putting the artistic vision to work culminates in a process called focusing. In this process, electricians stand on the rafters and the sides of the stage with the lights that have already been hung.

Each light is turned on one by one, and the lighting designer stands on the stage where she wants the light to be pointed. After determining the exact position, the electrician secures the light so it doesn’t move during the process.

With more than 300 lights in a single production, this process can take hours.

After focusing comes the tech rehearsals, where the lighting designer makes sure all of the lights are working at exactly the right moment with the right intensity and color.

Using math and physics to determine the exact positions and organization of the lights is the most challenging part of the process, Gruenhagen said.

“I get distracted with all those numbers,” she said. “And that’s where I almost lose that inspiration.”

Another way inspiration can get lost is in undergraduate lighting studies. Professors teach students the basics.

These classes can make lighting design students think there are rules to designing, Hahn said.

“A lot of the graduate work is about questioning what the rules are,” he said. “It’s an attempt to dismantle any notion that there is a right way and a wrong way.”

As a graduate student, Gruenhagen has to remember what will affect the audience the most in every scene. This requires her to look at the bigger picture and focus on how light influences the audience.

Most final decisions about the design are made during that one week, with the director, actors and electricians watching.

“It’s like they’re watching you paint and you have to be quick,” she said. “You have to make those quick decisions.”

***

Gruenhagen always wanted to be behind the spotlight.

She tried out for the school play in 7th grade when all of her friends did. She stepped on stage, forgot her line and ran off in embarrassment.

Her theater teacher felt bad and let her control two sliders, one for daytime lights and one that brought up blue lights for nighttime.

“I still can’t think of why I wanted to do it,” she said. “It stuck for some reason.”

In high school, she was the only girl in her tech theater classes. She was able to work with lights firsthand, and in 10th grade she designed the light for her first show, “Anatomy of Gray.”

After this first experience in light design, Gruenhagen never stopped working toward her career goal.

She attended the University of Northern Colorado and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater arts with a focus in design and technology. Straight from her undergraduate work, she came to IU to earn her Master of Fine Arts.

She has designed many shows at IU, and her last one will be “Into the Woods,” which opens April 17.

After graduation, Gruenhagen hopes to work at a regional theater. A community aspect similar to the one at IU is what she said she is looking for most.

But she understands the challenges of getting a job in the lighting industry.

“We know that the money’s not good, the job opportunities are not there,” she said. “We’re definitely told from the start that if you want to do anything else, do that.”

Despite the challenges, Gruenhagen said her parents and family have been supportive of her decision to pursue a passion.

Gruenhagen’s father wanted to be a chef, but instead went into accounting. Because of that, he always told her to do what she loves and the money will follow.

I think its nerve-wracking knowing how few jobs are out there and that the money is so poor,” she said. “But we do it because we love it. You’ll find some of the most passionate people working in theater. We’re ?doing what we love.”

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