A play through the eye of a designer

Camino Real Review
Paul Reynolds

In theatrical productions, each of Aristotle’s elements are brought together to produce what we see. All of the elements are essential to the performance, and if one of the elements is lacking, the performance could suffer. During the performance of Camino Real, the actors were all over the place, including out in the audience. While some of the choices of Emil Boulos, the lighting designer, helped get some of the ideas of the show across, one of the choices actually brought the audience out of the show.
The first successful use of the lighting was at the beginning of the play when Don Quixote entered from the back of the theatre. Quixote’s entrance was quite grand in the fact that the aisle was lit up during his journey towards the stage. The illumination of aisle helps make the action very apparent and helps draw the audience into the action. This choice by the lighting designer was a good transition from general lighting to more specific lighting of the space. The scene started with much of the space being lit; then as Quixote approached the stage, less of the space was illuminated, and most of the lighting was focused on the stage.
The second successful use of the lighting was when Kilroy ran out into the crowd as he ran from the guards. The spotlights helped bring the audience back into the action by shifting the focus of light from the stage to the crowd. Although the lighting was very random, it still lit the scene and kept the focus on the action. This shifting of focus helped the audience watch as Kilroy attempted to escape the guards. Because the lighting in the scene was arbitrary, it helped enforce the action in the scene, as the action was chaotic and Kilroy seemed confused as he ran.
After Kilroy stole his golden heart, he ran out into the crowd a second time, the spotlights and the guards following him. At the same time the spotlights and guards were chasing Kilroy, a multicolored light spun and waved around the space. This light was a rough transition from focused lighting and structured scene to a more general lighting and chaotic scene. This colored light made the action confusing to me because I was expecting some cast member from the previous scene to come out into the audience. Every time I focused my attention back on Kilroy, the colored light distracted me back up towards the stage where some of the actors still stood.
As lighting designer, Emil Boulos made many decisions on how to light the space, focus the attention, and guide the action. Most of the decisions were effective except for one, and this one decision really brought me out of the action of the play, and had a negative effect on my experience of the production. This proves that to create a successful production, all of the elements must work in a logical and cohesive manner.