Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1999 - 22

and it looked fabulous. The real show looked
exactly like the work we had done on the
model. TOW all that sort of thing can be done
on a computer."
The introduction of profile spotlights, tile
forerunners of the modern ellipsoidal, ended
tile use of the model theatre lab. According to
Pilbrow, it was too difficult to create scale
models of the ellipsoidal with their shuttering
capability. ow that it is no longer feasible to
use the model theatre he creates storyboards.
"I'm pretty bad at drawing, but I do some
sinlple little things," says Pilbrow. He goes on,
"I anI fascinated by tile software available now,
programs like WYSIWYG and Rob
Shakespeare's visualization software. It's the
future if you can't draw."
Pilbrow's ne},1 step is to begin the actual
light plot. "I always start off in Argus. I think
that little program is brilliant. It is the best for
instantly demonstrating what the instruments
will do wherever you put them. Sadly, it has a
very poor drafting capability, but I still use it. I
switch over to MacLux Pro for a drafted plot.
That is a rough plot. An assistant will redraft in
MiniCAD or AutoCAD and make it a little
smarter and more respectable."
Although Richard Pilbrow always uses the
latest technological advances in his own design
work, he does see some potential hazards with an
over dependence on computers. He says, "The
big danger is that you go for the flashy effect."
Color is always one of the most important
components of a lighting design. "I think I
have a reputation-and I didn't when I
started-for being relatively lavish in the use
of color. I tend to like freaky color. I find the
color in nature is about as freaky as it can get."
He continues, "It really depends on the
situation. For exanlple, moonlight has hardly
any color. There is color, but it is all brown and
gray and pale green and steel blue. I like lots of
color to capture the emotion. I mean, white light
is simply color stuck together isn't it."
Pilbrow has seen several changes in color
philosophy over the years. "After I began to be
sort of successful in London, the whole white
light school happened. The world sort of
adopted this Brechtian tlting about white light.
There was a great vogue in tile sixties with no
color in anything. Although I have done a lot of
shows with almost no color, I was part of the
old school still using color." He then chuckles,
"I actually lit several shows for the Brecht
Company, and, incidentally, they use a lot of
color. It is a total mylll that they don't use color
at all. They use pale blue everywhere and then
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LEGEND

Show Boat light plot from touring production, September; 1996;
front-of-house positions (house left side only).

very lurid accent colors."
He continues, "I actually did my first
Brecht in 1960 or 1961. It looked like white
light, but it happened to be brown and steel
blue and pale straw. It looked wltite, but it
modeled the stage like that. The no-color look
is a cheap intitation of Brecht. The Brecht
Company canle to London m~ce. The first time
I just saw the show. The second time I was the
lighting director and had to recreate the deSign. They had steel blue in everytlting except
some sOl1 of big 5K accent lights which were
geUed in prinlary red and green."
When cueing tile show Pilbrow relies on

the group functions of the computer board. He
puts the various units into groups and then sets
levels using those combinations. The advantage of group numbers over submaster assignments is that tile units can be assigned to more
than one group number.
For example, in his recent production of
Asbes to Asbes off-Broadway at the Roundabout he used about 230 luntinaires assigned
to 90 various groups. Pilbrow says, "I never
see anyone else work so I don't know if other
designers work this way. If you use the channel
numbers for everytlting you are just
nticromanaging the software."

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1999