Color is often used to help provide a sense of the play's location. That's what lighting designer Thom Weaver did for a production of "Villa American." He also has some important things to say about how to use Roscolux and gobos effectively on a cyc. Here are Thom Weaver's comments on what he was trying to accomplish and how he did it:

Al Crawford, Lighting Director for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater creates the lighting for many of the famed company's modern dances. But he also designs the lighting for one of the company's most important fund-raising events, a gala for approximately 700 people to benefit the Ailey School.This event is housed each year in a 50' x 200' tent erected for the occasion in Harlem in New York City.

The initial color choices for the 'Adding Machine A Musical' came from a painted elevation of the scenery. It consists of a wall that rolls into several different locations and it has a sickly green hue. We knew that we were going to be using light and haze as architectural elements, and I found that R87 was the perfect color to do this. Almost the entire show became sourced from a down light system using R87. It has this effect of creating an uncomfortable atmosphere, and leeches the color from the actors giving them a somewhat sickly hue.

The Off-Broadway musical "ROOMS" is about a love affair between two young punk rockers. Ian is an alcoholic introvert who doesn't want to leave the comfort of his room in Glasgow. Monica the extrovert wants to see every room in the world. The two travel through 37 locales and 18 songs in just under 90 minutes. Having a toolbox of gobos to create texture and locale really helps!

"Between Sand and Stars" is a collaborative piece developed by Sandglass Theater of Vermont, Gemini Trapeze (a pair of aerialists who hailed from Cirque du Soleil), and Rob Mermin of Vermont's Circus Smirkus. It is adapted from the work of "Little Prince" author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Eric Bass and Ines Zeller Bass, founders of Sandglass Theater, received Vermont's 2010 'Governor's Award of Excellence'.

For an acclaimed production of Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues' THE ASPHALT KISS, lighting designer Traci Klainer conjured a distinctively noirish vision of Rio de Janeiro in a black box space at 59E59 Theater in New York.

We looked at stills pictures of the original 1975 production and decided immediately not to go in that direction. In 1975 they had used very simple elements to change the space , such as a piece of silk to create the 'Road', We wanted our production to capture the visual perspective of today’s computer and I-Pod generation. The junkyard where the Tin Man is discovered had a broken Starbucks sign in it, for example.

The Brooklyn (NY) Museum held a gala in honor of the opening of its Murakami exhibit. It was quite an event, some 1500 people in attendance and Kanye West performing. The balloons you see are Murakami's art balloons.

'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.

all included are pictures of various musicals and dance shows at Howard W. Blake High School in Tampa Florida. lighting LD mike Wood, Director seth travaglino