Marcus Doshi On Lighting "The Lives Of Giants"

"'The Lives of Giants' is the Cambodian version of an ancient Sanskrit epic. It tells the story of a giant in the heavenly realm who, abused by his contemporaries, resorts to violence and brings disarray to the world. In choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro's dance piece, it becomes a vehicle to lament the triumph of violence over compassion. My scenic design for the production which toured the US placed the heavens in the depths of an otherworldly lily pond - in silhouette upstage and graphically downstage. The costumes were vivid colors, accented in gold. The lighting design needed to support the water-and-heavens idea while working with the intensity of colors in the costumes."

"I did this by making the lighting design an exercise in color, using saturated colors for the background and middle ground and subtle tints for the foreground. This allowed me to create drastic changes in the space through the use of color. I specifically chose Rosco colors for this project because of how the cools tend to shift slightly warm down on dimmer. The chameleon-like response of Rosco color was crucial for this show given the skin tones of the dancers, the color spectrum of the costumes and the frequent presence of gold on stage."
E-Colour #119 Dark Blue
E119
E-Colour #180 Dark Lavender
E180
Roscolux #3202 Full Blue
R3202

"In the beginning of the show, the world needed to feel dark and expansive so I blanketed the background and space with a very deep blue and filled shadows with deep purple while cutting away the figures with corrected clear from the low sides. For the space. I used E119 on the cyc, E119 from the diagonal back and E180 from the diagonal front, and for the dancers, R3202 from the low sides. The deep purple in combination with the correction run down on dimmer from the booms helped pop the various warm costumes while still allowing the space to feel cool."
Roscolux R370 Italian Blue
R370
E-Colour #117 Steel Blue
E117
Roscolux #3202 Full Blue
R3202

"When Preah Visnu arrives he brings with him his intense energy. We wanted that energy to shift the world drastically, but still within the context of the lily pond. I keyed off of his costume and the world became defined by greens and aquas. For this, I used R370 on the cyc, R370 from the back, and E117 in complement to the R3202 from the sides. I was delighted how the R370 and E117 made the space feel like the light was emanating from Preah Visnu while not making anyone look sickly and I was happily surprised that the amount of blue in E117 made it such that the warms didn't turn brown."
Roscolux #3203 Three Quarter Blue
R3203
E-Colour #180 Dark Lavender
E180

"This is the broken world after the departure of Preah Visnu. It is simply composed of 3203 run hot off the low booms and E180 on the cyc. I love that the same correction that feels really lavender warm near the bottom of the dimmer run at the top of the dimmer becomes very icy and ethereal, especially from that angle."

Biography: Marcus Doshi

Marcus Doshi designs scenery and lighting for theatre, opera and dance as well as collaborating with artists and architects on a wide array of non-theatrical ventures. His work has been seen internationally in Edinburgh, London, Amsterdam, Castres, Venice, Vienna, Mumbai, Delhi, Phnom Penh and Jakarta. In the US at Theatre for a New Audience, The Vineyard Theatre, The Signature Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, The Mint, The New Group, Soho Rep, Joyce, Lincoln Center, Chicago Shakespeare, Steppenwolf, Seattle Rep, Intiman, Portland Center Stage, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, TheaterWorks, Seattle Opera, Virginia Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Greenwich Music Festival, Florentine Opera, The Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, The Museum of Chinese in America, The Indianapolis Museum of Art, among others. He holds degrees from Wabash College and the Yale School of Drama. More at www.marcusdoshi.com