Lighting and theatre design: ideas around “Designing the scene”

This week, the El Clot-Josep Benet library has been hosting the lighting talk as part of the activities cycle design organised by the National Theatre of Catalonia (NTC), the Design Museum and the library itself.

The event, which relates to the play La senyora Florentina i el seu amor Homer (Mrs Florentine and her love Homer] has benefited from the presence of Sergi Belbel (director), Kiko Planas (lighting technician) and Jordi Moya, lighting technician. But, what are the main ideas behind the talks?

The talk presented by Sergi Belbel focused on lighting and the play’s creative process. For Kiko Planas, who has worked with Belbel on a number of occasions, the first step in this type of design process is “getting to know the proposed scenery and, then, talking to the director to find out what their initial ideas are”.

La senyora Florentina i el seu amor Homer is being performed at the NTC, a venue that offers great technical possibilities and an enormous space. This made it possible to achieve the sought-after naturalistic, sunlight-imitating light. The realistic set, which includes a modernist window, specifically takes into consideration the theatre’s actual location, which is situated in the upper part of Barcelona. This is the reason for the suitable atmosphere found in the space and in the context of the play.

Kiko Planas has compared lighting to generating special effects, since, in both cases, solutions have to be found on planned scenes, all while playing around with direct and indirect light, filters and time to achieve the desired gradation. It should be kept in mind that the audience will see this one way or another depending on where they are sitting in the theatre.

You can see the work by Mercè Rodoreda in the Sala Gran at the National Theatre of Catalonia until 2 April. If you do decide to go, make sure you don’t just focus on the actors and scenes!