The Color Purple
City Springs Theatre Company Byers Theatre Sandy Springs, GA
Lighting design for the 2022 production of The Color Purple at City Springs Theatre Company, directed by Kamilah Long.
About the Lighting Design
The Color Purple ran on a unit set: just ground and a back wall, no specific location markers. That left the lighting with the job of building everything else. Time of day, geography, scale, intimacy. The most central design idea on this show was lighting as architecture.
The rig overhead was visible. The substantial goal-post and boom structures on either side were visible. The fixture noses themselves became points of color in the sky and surround around the actors, creating a ceiling and a wraparound texture for an otherwise empty set. When all the booms were lit, even dimly, the points of light in the surround read as scale and largeness. When the rig pulled back to isolated specials, the same booms receded into the background and the space immediately felt intimate.
That dimmer/brighter range across the visible fixtures became the show’s primary spatial storytelling tool. The same set, lit broadly, was a vast field. Lit selectively, a single character alone in a room. The set never changed, but the space did.
Naturalism handled the rest. Without scenic location markers, the lighting carried where we were through time of day and angle. Moving lights carved isolation around featured characters in songs and key dialogue, with the rest of the stage receding back to texture and surround.
This was during my dual run as Resident Lighting Designer and Director of Production at City Springs.
- Book
- Marsha Norman
- Music and Lyrics
- Brenda RussellAllee WillisStephen Bray
- Based on the novel by
- Alice Walker
- Based on the Warner Bros./Amblin Entertainment Motion Picture
- Director
- Kamilah Long
- Choreographer
- Kenneth Green
- Music Director
- Lewis Webb
- Scenic Designer
- John Doyle
- Costume Designer
- Ann Hould-Ward
- Wig Designer
- Charles LaPointe
- Lighting Designer
- Mike Wood
- Sound Designer
- Joel Abbott
- Associate Lighting Designer
- Abby May
- Assistant Lighting Designer
- Marcella Barbeau
- Programmer
- Harrison Freni
- Production Electrician
- Barrett Roberts
- Apprentice
- Kristen Peck
- Lighting Shop
- Christie Lites (Rep: Chris McMeen ) 4Wall (Rep: Tyler Bevel )
- Company Manager
- Jalise Wilson
- Production Stage Manager
- Gina Cirillo
About the Show
Celie is a teenage African-American girl living in Georgia who is given by her abusive stepfather to an even more abusive husband. Though Celie spends most of her days as a servant in her own household, she tries to remain hopeful that she will be reunited with her sister Nettie and her children. Over the years, Celie finds ways to cope with life through a potential lover in the fabulous Shug Avery, a friend in her stepson's wife Sofia, and a love of making stretchable pants that turns into a booming business. Through her string of unfortunate events, Celie learns that the most important thing is that she is a survivor, and that no matter what happens to her, she is still here.
Source: TRW
Cast
Felicia Boswell as CelieGavin Gregory as MisterTrevon Davis as HarpoSafiya Fredericks as Shug AveryKayce Grogan-Wallace as SofiaLaTricia Akhagbeme as NettieJalise Wilson as SqueakCandy McLellan as Church Lady DorisKenya Carroll as Church Lady DarleneShena Renee as Church Lady JarleneSheila Jackson as Church SoloistDathan Thigpen as Preacher / BobbyAnthony Sweeting as Ol' MisterTimothy D. Parrott as PaGabe CainCharles PruittMerkell WilliamsZaria HallStephan JoQuan WilsonCandace MumphreyJazzmin Carson as ensemble
Production Photos
Press
The creative team lifts everything to a higher plane and meets the story at its best including choreography by Kenneth Green, musical directions by Lewis Webb, lighting design by Mike Wood, and sound designs by Joel Abott.