In this 4-part feature, PerformInk continues its INSIDE series and takes you behind the scenes of The New Colony’s production of PSYCHONAUT LIBRARIANS through blog posts written by the people behind the scenes. To read past articles click here.

Part Four
By Alexander Ridgers

During an initial read of PSYCHONAUT LIBRARIANS, my mind was racing – visualizing, imagining and believing every word. Through all this excitement and thrill, all I could think were exciting questions and explorations to start discussing with everyone – ‘what is this magic?’; ‘where are we?’ and of course ‘how can the light transform, evolve and shape this magnificent story?’. Once I had completed the read, all I could feel was a large rush of excitement and the need to share ideas to begin developing what was going to be the building blocks of the lighting design.

This show is a big one, and I knew that the light must live up to that however with that and for clarity, the light is rather simple in its essential form – two worlds – reality and abstraction. The light must root us in a ‘reality’ where we as the audience understand what the grounding place for the play looks and feels like and then it must flip and become a world filled with abstraction and magic – something we don’t know – the ‘anyverse.’

The light within the daily life of the Chicago Public Library is fluorescent – sterile, clean and something we can all easily relate to and see in our daily lives within public places. Within this space and ‘after hours’ there is a warmth that comes from the use of desk lamps. This idea of light gives us a change in the quality of light and gives the sense of an internal, personal relationship of Jane and Hester within this journey.

In complete contrast – the anyverse is a world bursting with saturate color, movement and should feel a complete contrast to the ‘reality’ of the library. Using color, shadows, and unnatural angles will create a world where anything can happen, and the light can become part of the character of the world itself completely changing the feeling of the space and bringing the mystery, magic and anyverse to us.

As the ideas develop in the theater, it is important to me that the light must feel musical. It must bind with the poetry of the play, the magic of the worlds and it must create a world where we, as an audience, can believe the magic – the magic of this plays words, the story, and the space where it lives within.