I went back home to see my niece perform in A Dancer’s Pointe’s production of Beauty and the Beast. Due to their low budget and resources, I was very interested in how they were going to complete the transformation from the young Prince, who was played by a young girl, to the Beast, who was played by a grown man. To my surprise, it was executed well. The girl collapsed on the floor directly in front of an open door way after she realized she has been cursed. In a quick count the lights went to blackout. During the black out, the grown man came out and laid behind the doorway. A white back light came on at a low intensity aimed at the door way. The back light was followed by strobe lights coming diagonally from both sides. So, when the all the lights and the fog were cued the young girl and the man began to rise at the same time and at the same levels, but towards the end the girl stopped as the man progressed. Once he was fully standing, there was another blackout. The girl ran offstage then illuminating front lights came on revealing the Beast. As this lighting display was occurring, there was powerful music playing. The combination of light and sound made the change intense and frightful, especially because of the shadows and the loud booms of lightning. The light also served as a focal point for the audience as the crew made scene changes upstage. Overall, the lighting added a magical aspect to this well-know fairy tale.
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