Lighting the Magic: Innovative Design for 'The Rogues' Trial

Transforming Visual Storytelling with Chroma-Q Color Force II 72s

For Vida Huang, a third year MFA Lighting Designer at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), the presentation of her final show, The Rogues’ Trial, required representing the passage of time and travel to and through different places or realms. To achieve that, Huang relied heavily on 6 Chroma-Q Color Force II 72s to light the venue’s cyc.

Mounted at the 400-capacity Mandell Weiss Forum, the play is a beloved Brazilian morality play written by Ariano Suassuna and directed by Ludmila de Brito.

Set in the Brazilian drylands – a semi-arid region encompassing roughly 1,000,000 square kilometers – the setting of an environment degraded by overuse and exploitation offers a bleak but potent underpinning of a blend of Commedia, Clowning, and Brazilian folktales – and a story that follows a pair of friends attempting to navigate ‘broken systems of power.’

 “This is a Brazilian culture play,” Huang notes. “It starts with a group of people putting on a show - putting up a set piece on stage and then getting ready to tell a story about what happened in the history of this town.” Given the many "magical" story moments as characters move through various settings, including a circus, the town itself, and the underworld, "I used all the lighting fixtures to create moments that are separate from the reality of the original setting,” she adds.

Huang’s method of lighting design was critical in portraying the players and the various times/places they experience. "I create lighting by using my drawing method: starting with a blank canvas, shaping the structure, and then adding color to bring the vision to life," Huang explains. "Lighting is like dance. It creates movement, grabs focus, and represents emotion."

That approach and aesthetic were particularly important for meeting one of the central challenges of the production - how and when to light the cyc to maximize the impact of scenic transitions and enhance the audiences' perception of them.

During the design process, the creative team dedicated a fair bit of time to determining the optimal moments to light the CYC, ensuring that the Living World, Story World, and Underworld were clearly distinguished. “This careful consideration allowed us to use lighting to separate and define each realm visually,” Huang explains, enhancing the storytelling while helping the audience understand the transitions between the different worlds.

Designed specifically for applications like this, where smooth, even coverage with no colour shadowing is required. "The Color Force fixtures were incredibly helpful in my design process. Given that the show features many moments focused on nonsensical stories, my goal was to make the setting feel magical, and the fixtures truly helped me achieve that with their wide range of color changes. They also supported me in creating dramatic effects, such as flashing for gunshots, blinding lights, and summoning moments, all of which added intensity and enhanced the impact of these key scenes.”

They also streamlined her design process. “Their wide spread evenly illuminated the CYC, allowing seamless color transitions that enhanced the storytelling. This fixture truly brought my design to life - ensuring the passage of time and changes in location were conveyed beautifully on stage.”

Spaced six inches apart and used as a ground row cyc light, each Color Force II 72 was assigned a single channel, with the mode set to RGBA and configured in a group x3 setup. “During the design process, they were primarily controlled as a group, providing an even and dynamic wash across the cyc. We used the fixtures creatively to recreate effects such as a sky and rainbow for specific scenes, adding depth and atmosphere to the production.”

Huang utilized a variety of lighting instruments to bring her design to life, shape the atmosphere, and support the story, in addition to the temporary installation of the Color Force fixtures for the cyc. However, “our lighting inventory lacked a fixture that could evenly illuminate the 40 ft wide and 18 ft tall cyc while also providing the ability to change colors. “This created a challenge in achieving the smooth, dynamic transitions required for my design, particularly as the lighting needed to support the thematic shifts in time and location throughout the show.”

In achieving those results, Huang credits the support and swift response from A.C. Americas as extremely helpful. “I truly appreciate how smooth the entire process was. Whenever I had questions, Chris Souza (National Sales Manager) was incredibly responsive and provided detailed information, making the process even more seamless.”

Ultimately, the show, Huang’s design, and the deft use of the Chroma-Q Color Force II 72s drew excellent reviews from everyone involved in the production.

“According to our lighting supervisor, the overall experience with the fixtures has been highly positive. They were easy to install and operate, providing a bright intensity with a great range of colors. And the creative team especially appreciated how effectively the fixture illuminated the cyc, enhanced the visual storytelling, and brought the design to life.”

Photo Credit: Rich Soublet or Tzu Yu Su