Pre-Show Activity: Lighting Design

Warm Up:

1. The students lie on the floor and are told to think about different colors and light intensity. The teacher cycles through a variety of colors and levels of light intensity while the students listen and visualize.
2. What do those colors and light intensity make them think? How do they make them feel?
3. How do the colors and light intensity influence the student and his or her perspective?
4. Following the activity, the teacher asks the students to share some of their thoughts.

Main Activity

1. The teacher breaks the students into small groups of 3-4
2. Have the students refer to the Plot Overview presented in this resource guide.
3. The groups must create a list of themes, focal points, and a numbered list of lighting cues for the overview.
4. Following the group work, each group will share their work and discuss their choices

Discussion Questions

• How can lighting help influence the show?
• How does different lighting make you feel?
• Are there specific lighting designs that you are expecting?

After viewing the play, look back to the lighting designs created in this activity and ask students to compare their work to what they saw in the production. What was similar? What was different? Why might that be?

• Return to the Pre-Show Activities Menu