When it comes to lighting, you don't just throw a switch for TSF
By LESTER MURRAY news2@kilgorenewsherald.com

Greg Mitchell goes over his drawings and his computer renderings of the lighting that will be used for this years Texas Shakespeare Festival. Mitchell will be setting up lighting for all the plays, some lighting non-theatrical.

Sitting in your seat, their anticipation grows, the play is about to begin, the lights come up and the Texas Shakespeare Festival is underway.

But have you ever thought about where those lights are, how many lights are there and what they do, of course not, but Greg Mitchell from New York City knows exactly what each and everyone does.

Mitchell, who is in his first season with TSF said his job starts with renderings of the sets, pictures of models of the sets made by Jimmy Humphries and discussions with directors.

A lot of the time a director will say you do what is best for the set, but there are directors who have specific ideas for certain lighting, colors of lighting and placement said Mitchell.

Mitchell, who is a free lance lighting designer said with the play Julius Ceaser the lighting used for that play will not be theatrical lighting. "This play is done completely different because it is based on modern dress and the light I will be using is a very harsh or severe lighting," said Mitchell. "This type of lighting can't be controlled like theatrical lighting, you can't dim florescents, these type of lights give off a different hue and some of them take a while to get to their full lighting effect."

I have a four man lighting team, called master electricians, who will take my diagrams and position the lights said Mitchell. "I will have all the lights in place for all for plays," said Mitchell. "It is far to dangerous to be changing lights between shows or acts, we will just unplug lights we don't need and dim others and replace gel colors to get the lighting effect for each show."