"Richard Hoover's set plys Expressionist techniques with commendable delicacy, creating a bleak, stranded environment so bleached of color that even the American flag in the warden's office is rendered in shades of gray.

4/30/25

The above excerpt from the NYTIMES is where the basis of my conceptualizing for the set of Not About Nightingales comes from. The color palette ranges from black to cool-town grays. I believe warm-tone grays would communicate a sense of warmth that is unfitting for the contents of the show. I agree with Hoover's base ideology that the drained color will communicate the bleakness of the contents of the script.

Moreover, the grays and blacks of the set will allow for more emphasis to be placed on the intentional color choices we will be making with the costuming and lighting. Allow me to explain in more detail.

Costuming

Costuming is going to be incredibly simplistic and I believe through that simplicity, there will be room for creative character decisions. The actors will be wearing black tank-tops and black scrub pants. This is slightly innacurate to the time period as scrubs did not exist until the late 40's (and didn't become associated with prison garb until far later) but I believe that the cost-effectiveness of this solution will outweigh the history major in me being horrifically upset. I digressed, over the black tank-top and scrub pants they will be wearing a light blue jacket. Potentially of a denim material but can be traded out if it proves to be too expensive. This is somewhat historically accruate as denim separates were a common uniform for prisoners in the 1900s (due to it typically being produced on-site at the prison.)

The goal for this outfit is that the light blue will be accentuated by the lighting color palette that I have chosen, the reason for the black underneath (besides ease of access/cost effectivity) is that it will allow the cast to easily "become" stagehands for scenes they aren't available. They can take off their jacket and they will be in an all-black garb which will allow them to remain hidden while doing on-stage work. I believe this will also serve as a mental separation for the audience as well as they will begin to associate the prisoners with the colored jacket, and therefore understand that when the jacket is off they are no longer playing the character.

The most interesting part of this attire in my eyes is that the actors will be allowed to costumize their costume based on the character. Slashing at different parts of the jacket to add tears that they may believe fit the character, cutting it to a short-sleeve, or rolling up the sleeve to make it a short sleeve, or intentionally keeping it long sleeve. While they will all have the same uniform, they will all be wearing it differently according to how THEIR CHARACTER would be wearing the costume. The character's personality should show through their costuming before they have even spoken the first line of dialogue.

Lighting

While the venue is still in limbo, I prefer to conceptualize my ideas at the highest scale I can possibly imagine and then later tone it down when reality has set in. I find that when looking back at ideas, I struggle to add onto pre-existing ideas beyond what I initially conceived and am much better at working within limitations set onto me from outside sources.

Acts I & II of Not About Nightingales will mostly be caked in a Cobalt Blue (0/71/171) during the scenes which revolve around the inside of the prison/prison cells. This should work very well with the design I have for the costuming and should accentuate their jackets. During the scenes within the wardens office, I plan on using a yellow with more green in it than red. While one would imagine an office space to use a light which is warmer based on conventional norms, I think this will immediately lead to a subconscious sense of unease since the first scene in the show opens in this room.

The Warden's office lighting has been something I have internally played around with in my head since it would be on an elevated platform. While initially I was going to opt to have the rest of the room be blacked out, I am considering having dim floodlights be lighting up the floor. This is all dependent on if I am able to prevent spillage of the lights off of the central platform. My idea there is that the dim lighting will allow you to see the outlines of the rest of the actors in their cells, I think this will allow for a very strong transition into the first scene with Butch O'Fallon. The central lighting will leave Jim/Eva in the Warden's Office and allow for an immediate scene change into the next scene as the actors will already be set, having been their since opening of Scene 1.

The most intensive lighting for the show will be present in Act III. We will be communicating the intense, trapped feeling of the Klondike through a spotlight operator. They will be swapping from a red hue inside of the Klondike, back to the cool yellow for the quick scene transitions to the Warden's Office. This will be the only part of the show to ever use a warm tone. This is an intentional choice which I believe will draw audience attention in as the change of the status quo of lighting has a sense of finality to it.
More to Come.

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