Lighting design of the drama "Iron Stream Entering Eastward": Collaborative creation of artistic sym

This paper takes the National Theater's original play "Iron Stream Eastward" as an example. During the creation process of lighting design, we explore the aspects of using professional vocabulary to embody artistic symbol elements, the combined use of lamps and stage scenery, and lighting to cooperate with performance forms. This reflects the overall rhythm of the stage image and achieves a light and shadow effect consistent with the atmosphere of the plot.

0 Preface

For a dramatic work, the lighting design must form its own vocabulary. In the stage space, in addition to the use of light colors and the expression of beam cutting space, the lighting design should have the style characteristics of the play, and should not destroy the visual picture of the stage space. While the lighting (and multimedia) cooperates with the actors to perform, it must also consider the strength and changes of the visual symbols of the stage, combine elements such as the scenery to unify the visual picture, and strive to extend the form constructed by the scenery to a deeper imaginary space through the strengthening of the lighting., making the stage space full of imagination charm.

The original play "Iron Stream Entering Eastward"(hereinafter referred to as the play) launched by the National Theatre of China in 2022 is based on the novel "The Last Radio" by Ji Yu, winner of the People's Literature Award. The play is a story about search. In the play, grandson congratulates himself in reality to find the identity of his grandfather who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, grandfather Li Anben searches for the glorious footprints of his comrades in history, and the audience follows the perspectives of two generations of grandparents and grandchildren to find the revolutionary martyrs of the New Fourth Army. Original intention [1]. As the lighting designer of the play, the author worked together with the writers, directors, stage designers, actors and other main creators to jointly complete the creative task and conduct new explorations in telling the story of China well.

1 The electric wave symbols of tick and tick are the keynote of lighting creativity

The play has a unique theme and focuses on the combat life of the New Fourth Army's Signal Corps during the Anti-Japanese War. The story content intersects the two trajectories of the battlefield behind enemy lines where the New Fourth Army penetrated deep into Central China in 1941 and real life: In reality, his grandfather Li Anben, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, suddenly declared that he was a martyr. Through his grandfather's narration, his grandson gradually revealed the mystery of his identity; on the Anti-Japanese Battlefield, the Third Regiment of the New Fourth Army's Central Anhui Independent Division was besieged by Japanese invaders in Baima Mountain, and then successfully broke through the encirclement and marched eastward. The two trajectory lines are intertwined with each other, with a small character Li Anben as the protagonist running through them.

The director's idea is to integrate the radio symbols with the battle of the Iron Army to form a powerful eastward flowing iron stream on the stage. At the beginning of the creation, the director raised a very good question: How to use lighting to vividly express the abstract element of radio waves in war on the stage? To this end, the author reviewed a large amount of information: the background of the New Fourth Army's deep penetration of the War of Resistance behind enemy lines in Central China; information on radio stations, Morse code, and the application characteristics and methods of various communication means in the war. During this period, I was deeply moved by the revolutionary spirit of the revolutionary martyrs who were not afraid of sacrifice and fought bloody battles, and was also attracted by the specific radio wave elements of the signal corps. The author envisions combining abstract radio wave symbols, beating radio wave rhythm and the blood boiling state of soldiers, and using the rhythm of lights and multimedia images to turn invisible radio waves into visual sense symbols with sensation and temperature.

The tone of the creation is set on the radio rhythm of the radio symbols tick and tick. Although the radio rhythm is invisible, it is visualized and becomes the most important image symbol. This image runs throughout, sometimes as cruel as bloodshed, sometimes as mysterious and cold, and sometimes as Lee Anben said when lecturing to the signal soldiers, the radio waves are like flowing water, which also symbolizes the soldiers 'yearning for a better future life.

The author believes that the focus of the use of lights in the play is to reflect the rhythm of the radio waves. Therefore, in addition to the use of light color and the expression of beam cutting space, the brightness of the light, the changes in rhythm, and the beginning, transition, etc. are all characterized by the rhythm of the radio wave as much as possible. This is also in line with the overall style of the show. Leverage each other during the performance process and performance scheduling to reflect the atmosphere of the stage space and the fighting spirit of the New Fourth Army soldiers. See Figure 1.

Figure 1 Heroic portraits of "Iron Stream Entering Eastward"(Photo: Tasu)

There is a scene in which the recollection paragraph is expressed with the body language of the dance. Lee Anben went home to recuperate after being injured. He recalled his painful experience in the war. The stage schedule changed a lot of time and space. Sometimes it was the scene of conscription, sometimes it was the battlefield where the Guangde Battle was full of artillery fire, sometimes it was the moment of farewell to life and death, and sometimes it was Lee Anben's family life after his injury. Due to the large-scale transformation of time and space, the lighting requires different projection methods and different combinations to match the actors 'physical performances and render the stage atmosphere. At the same time, this is also a portrayal of Lee Anben's inner heart, showing the emotional impact of anger on an ordinary person and the progressive changes in his psychological feelings. Lighting changes must consider not only the lighting effect itself, but also the position and composition relationship of the characters on the stage, as well as the purpose of the characters 'emotional expression and stage scheduling. The characters use light as much as possible to make the light and dark levels natural and highlight the theme of each performance, as well as the emotional logic that runs through the main character. They cannot use too strong lighting to render, which will make the performance lose its sense of atmosphere, nor should they be overly oppressive and dull. See Figure 2 and Figure 3. Integrate the characteristics of the radio wave rhythm into the switching rhythm, and pay attention to the balance and strengthening of the main and auxiliary lights. It visually conforms to the unique rhythm of the radio wave, with moderate relaxation and cadence, in order to match Lee Anben's deep and strong emotional monologue, and use The vision of lighting leads the audience into that cruel and dusty history.

Figure 2 Example 1 of human light (Photography: Tasu)

Figure 3 Example 2 of human light (Photography: Tasu)

In the opening dance, lights were specially used to enhance the tick, a visual auditory symbol that runs through the play. The actor's body movements cooperate with music, sound, and light and electricity to form a performance rhythm of electric waves, externalizing from the ticking of the electric keys in the actor's hands to the color atmosphere and the flashing frequency of lights in the entire performance space. The lighting design integrates the rhythm of the radio wave into specific plots, closely follows the changes in scene scheduling, and highlights the character charm of the characters in various emotional tones such as suspense, tragic, and lyrical. At the same time, as the plot process changes, symbolic lights in different color forms are used to render the stage space to enhance expression. See Figure 4.

Figure 4 The frequency of flashing lights echoes the rhythm of the actors 'movements and rhythm of the radio waves (Photo: Tasu)

2 Lamp configuration using props as fulcrum

During the creation of the play, the director, stage design, lighting design and other main creators communicated repeatedly, and finally determined that the stage shape would use the dot signal and the tick of long signal as the visual image seeds, and an image platform composed of tick of Platforms of varying sizes and heights are not only the winding mountains of Baima Mountain, but also the trenches of the battlefield. As the plot progresses, the stage time and space may enter the realistic space, and the actors on the stage use the ticking platform as the fulcrum to perform combat life and various realistic space performances; or the plot enters freehand expression. These platforms are beating radio signals. It is a monument to the sculpted hero. As the lights under the platform light up and change, different stage rhythms are formed. See Figure 5.

Figure 5 Multiple expressions of the imagery platform (Photo: Tasu)

The lighting design must reflect the nature of the stage space set in the play and the inherent fighting spirit of the New Fourth Army soldiers, and it is necessary to think of some ways in the lighting configuration. When arranging the light positions on the stage, we did not choose to completely hide the lights, but half-hidden some of the lights between the scenery and the layers of curtains. Six trusses are hung above the stage, which can be lifted and lowered according to the plot. These six trusses are also part of the rhythm of the electric wave, which are combined with music to form different styling rhythms. The truss is equipped with strobe lights and cutting lights. During the lifting process, the color, beam, rhythm and other changes of the light are all in the form of radio waves. As the plot moves, different images are formed.

The reason why we chose to use trusses to lower and hang the lamps is because there are multiple layers of projection screens hanging above the stage scenery, and their forms are also radio signals of different lengths. It is difficult for normal hanging lamps to form a strong large angle beam on the stage. effect. When rendering war scenes, large-angle beams and strong colors are very helpful. If the projection blocks the light from the normally hanging lamps and the overall visual focus is high, how to use a stronger effect to draw the vision into the scheduling changes of the actors on the stage is the focus and original intention of consideration. Reducing the position of hanging lights solves this problem well. See Figure 6.

Fig. 6