I recently signed on to be the Lighting Designer (LD) for Legally Blonde at a local high school. To preface, I have never read the book and have never watched the movie. So like I do with any show I am designing for, I read through the first time just to get the story (and listen to the recordings along with the read through). And it is quite the ride. I am glad it is a story I can follow, unlike some shows I’ve done in the past, but this is by far the fastest-paced show I’ve done.
On top of the fast pace, the school putting on this production is (thankfully) following socially distancing guidelines for the performers on stage. The only downside is that when you get 30 kids socially distanced on a stage, there is literally no room for scenery. SO lighting has to make up for that fact. For an average High school show, I average around 200 cues for something of this caliber. This one is looking like it may be upwards of 400. Almost every song has a dance break that the director has requested we highlight the obvious musical cues in them.
I’ll be programming on their in house ETC Ion. I am very excited about this because ETC has recently released their newest software which has included a built in visualizer. This is going to allow me to program the show from the comfort of my desk or recliner and then be able to load the file into their console, and make sure virtual matches reality. So I’ll probably only be spending a night updating focus and colors, rather than pulling all nighters 2 or 3 times to get the programming done.
Drew Lighting Design 