Blog 1: Eerie foreshadowing of the late 1920's.

On April 12th, I went to go see a fantastic production of Grand Hotel at the University Of California's Thorton School of Music. Although the show itself was adequate quality, one of my favorite parts of the show was the intense amount of sculpting lighting that took place. The show started off very positive and "happy go lucky" as some would say, but the lighting definitely gave off an eerie glow that seemed a bit off until bad things started to happen. The lighting designer did an amazing job of foreshadowing the creepy events that were about to occur before taking place. There was also an interesting choice that whenever the two main characters would meet in the lobby of the hotel in the first act, the main lights would dim and it would leave the characters swimming in a purple-red light. It was completely intoxicating, and although these two characters had other love interests at the beginning of the show, it was almost certain that at some point in the storyline, these two characters would fall in love. Sure enough, the act 1 finale was their love duet. I applaud this lighting designer David Hernandez for such creative emphasis on foreshadowing and for his love affair with dark purple gels.

(Please note the amount of eerie sculpting and intense blue lighting to create a creepy atmosphere despite the upscale 1920's costuming. Photo by Afton Reid.)