Books, films and music set around the sea and the coast I always find so exciting and inspiring! The stories, charm and atmosphere of the sea are unique though also the sense of power and scale of the ocean is something very special to explore.
Shortly after Duncan Sheik’s Whisper House album was released I visited the isolated and atmospheric Castle Hurst that is located at the end of a sometimes submerged spit near Keyhaven. Some of the imagery really connected to me with the music. Both imagining it how it looked though also how it would have been in darker stormier times in a different era:
Immediately the score and Kyle Jarrow’s atmospheric story and setting became a favourite and a show that would be extremely interesting to light at some point moved to one I am thoroughly grateful that the opportunity came around. I’ve always liked lighthouses too as such fantastically individual buildings, layered with such an immense responsibility and sense of isolation. The ghosts in this present a fascinating challenge too.
Director Adam Lenson and Designer Andrew Riley came up with a superb multi-levelled concept that could represent being within the light house, outside of the lighthouse and even within the sea. It was then down to Projection Designer Mark Holthusen and I to enhance the surroundings to echo each of these locations and also to enforce how the characters perceive them.
Initially I think about the key scenes in a show that need to make the most impact for either visual, emotive or character journey reasons and what will allow these to have maximum impact. Then it becomes about effectively suggesting each location and how, particularly in a darker show such as Whisper House - how atmosphere is going to be maintained whilst characters remain well lit wherever they need to move.
The nature of the show meant quite a high use of sidelight to light characters moving in circles whilst keeping light off the stage to maintain atmosphere, though the circular recesses allowed quite a lot of uplight to be used as well. Due to restrictions in being able to have Follow Spots in the place it also meant some heroic moving light people tracking from Eos console wizard David Stone!
I experiment in Capture Visualisation Software as generating some images through this, although not always identical to real life, is close enough. It’s a good discussion tool throughout with the creative team and it also helps highlight any beam angle howlers or if a light position is in the way of a piece of set!
Whisper House’s main additional tricks and features were 60m of LED tape around the circles and semi-circles that could turn into rippling waves with the assistance of a Glaciator in the pit and a central ‘Lighthouse Lamp’ that had a central Tungsten bulb, though 50 Philips Colour Kinetics LMX nodes in the bottom that could create any colour of eerie glow around the central bulb!
There were also some videos shot of songs from the show that really channel the atmosphere we were designing to including a version of ‘And Now We Sing’ featuring composer Duncan Sheik on Guitar and Whisper House MD Daniel A. Weiss on Keys!