Lumiere's Luminescence
Lighting Design by Colin K Bills
There are three important images in our production.
The action of our production starts behind a gauzy curtain. In shadow, in silhouette, in half-light we see the origins of this story – the action that set the Beast on his journey. These images inform the forest surrounding the Beast’s chateau. This is a world full of foreboding shadow, which we see in silhouette against the walls of the space: branches that might as easily be horns or wolves’ teeth.
Contrast this against the world of Belle, which while full of longing is also cheerful and hopeful. Shadows are softened, are warm, but still exist. The branches of the encroaching world hover over Belle’s life, but without menace. In the tavern, we see a combination of this – the cheerful fire of Gaston’s space, but with large foreboding shadows cast from the fireplace against the opposite wall.
Rose Window Rendering
Over these two images is the ever-present rose window which symbolizes the Beast’s race against time. In the original Disney movie, the rose was literal, gradually dropping petals as the household became less human. In our production, the metaphor is more theatrical and of a larger scale: a rose window. This window – initially fully lit -- loses its petals by changing color, by losing light. The vibrancy of the window recedes, pane by pane, over the course of the play,
until but one pane remains.
​
-- Colin K Bills, Lighting Designer