The Thanksgiving Play

Trish was the Lighting Designer for this production. Below is her designer note from the program.

In my mind The Thanksgiving Play at its heart is about learning and growing. I think that people do their best learning if there is some element of familiarity. The lights in this show are to facilitate that familiarity. I want the lights to be the anchor of comfort so that the audience feels more able to connect with the uncomfortable moments in this play. This play has something to teach everyone if they are willing to take what they can learn from it. Comfort can foster connection and I hope to help each person connect to this play and can walk away with something learned.

In my lighting process for The Thanksgiving Play I started thinking about how I grew and learned in my grade school theatre classroom. That room was where I learned the power of words and so I wanted to recreate the light from that space for this show. That particular classroom had a warm smooth beam from the ceiling lights. There was a level of dinginess as the covers for our lights were probably not cleaned as much as they should have been. Contrasting the warm but dingy light that came from the ceiling lights there was a wall of windows that let in a flood of daylight. While the daylight still complimented the artificial light it was still different and added to the overall space. These lights are familiar to all people as for years we spent everyday in the same light. I hope that each audience member is pulled into the classroom.