The Election

 This play by Don Zolidis is a fast-paced comedy that portrays what would happen if American news media and the political machine were to take over a high school student council election. 

There are a large number of scene transitions throughout the piece that cause rapid shifts in mood, so it was really fun to design lighting that communicated so many different emotions and plot points. One of my favorite things to design was the political ads. At key moments in the play, the action would stop and an exaggerated political ad would “play” with live actors. I used our moving lights to create a dramatic spotlight effect with down lighting to accentuate the shadows. This gave the ominous, negative ads an intense feeling that was undercut by the ridiculousness of what the actors were saying.