Lighting Journal Entry 8

Prompt

Select a lighting designer or inventor/contributor for stage lighting whose work inspires you. Please write a short paragraph describing the person and why you chose them. Create sketches and written notations of the light’s direction, color, and textures in the painting. Upload photos of the person’s work, drawings, and notations to your ePortfolio.

The Lighting Designer in Question

Tyler Micoleau

Why the Lighting Designer in Question Was Choosen

I choose the lighting designer Tyler Micoleau in question since several of there works have always stood out to me personally when seeing photos of them in the past. Specifically their work on a production of Be More Chill and Into the Woods. They are great at recontexualizing and bringing to life the beauty of fantastical locations using their lighting design.

Background of Lighting Sesigner in Question From Artist’s Website

Tyler is a lighting design from Brooklyn who is Tony award winning. His works on broadway include Buena Vista Social Club, Be More Chill, American Buffalo, and Into the Woods. He has worked at other New York and regisonal theatree. He has designed for Theatre, Opera, and Dance. He was on faculty at Sarah Lawrence College, visiting artist at Darthmouth, Yale, Bates, and Rutgers. His educational bacgrkound is from Bowdoin

https://www.tylermicoleau.com/portfolio/

Source Cited for Imformation on Lighting designer & Sketch References

“Home.” Tyler Micoleau, 6 July 2025, www.tylermicoleau.com/.

Sketch of Lighting Design For be more Chill

Light8_1.jpg

Analysis of Lighting Design:

  • Side of stage has bar lights on them creating pools of lights

  • Lighting helps to create a monoocramatic look

  • Figure lit from cross back Lighting

  • The Lights have to create a swirling highlight effect on stage

  • Negative space plus figure cast in shadow

  • Light beams highlighted through the use of haze

  • This look overall helps to highlights the effect of the SQUIP technilogical takeover of everyone in the play

Sketch of Lighting Design Into the Woods

Light8_2.jpg

Analysis of Lighting Design:

  • Sunset created using cyc lights. Sunset goes from a gradiant of organge to red to purple of blue

  • Some trees are cast in shadow while others are highlighted

  • Orchestra cast in shadow

  • Creating the sunset helps to highlight the timeline the baker and bakers wife our on in the story. While the shadow and highlight helps to capture the complex nature of the titular woods. All of this coming together in the finale number of Act 1 or 2 where stuff is almost wrapped up until the beanstalk grows or cinderella makes another wish.

Sketch of Lighting Design Fiddler on the roof

Light8_3.jpg

Analysis of Lighting design

  • Negative space cast in shadow.

  • Upstage and downstage corner of the table cast in shadow. Center of table cast in highlight.

  • All figures on the stage visible.

  • Floor closest to the set visible. But it is cast in shadow the further you get away from it

  • This look helps to highlight the community of Anatevka comming together