10/25/09

Lighting

By William Andersen

If you are asked to do your ventriloquial act at a party, at a store, in a club room, in a Sunday School room or some similar place not normally used for staging programs, you may have some difficulty with the lights.

The people sponsoring or running the program probably are not experienced in all the little things which are important to a performance and may place you in a very poor location. You should arrive early enough to check out the setting for lights, as well as sound and other things you need. Look for lights behind where you will do your act. If there are lights behind you where people can see them they will definitely distract the eyes from you. Turn off or cover such lights. If there is a window behind you with light coming through, cover that, too. It is not easy to see a person work if he is silhouetted against a bright light. Look for a way to turn lights to face you rather than onto the audience.
* * * * * *
Condensed from the chapter on "Lighting" found in Andersen's book, Ventriloquism From A-V. See post below.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting and very important topic. School stages always seem to have colored lights, that don't throw off much light. Usually the darkest place in the room is the stage. I carry lights with me for days when you need them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't carry lights with me, too much trouble and after my show, many children attack me and want to see all the puppets and with all that wiring around, something is bound to fall, I do carry tripods for my speakers and I worry too much about that. I will say this, never and I mean NEVER perform the Axtell Drawing board with a mirror behind you. I'll let you draw your own conclusion.

    ReplyDelete