Shakespeare in lights

Something called photoaccurate lighting simulation would make the Bard of Avon's face light up

By Rose McIlveen

Generations of theater goers saw William Shakespeare's plays under sunlight or candlelight. There was not much else artistically to the illumination of the stage. That's all changed in the modern theater, and an Indiana University professor with the same last name as the English bard is shedding some state-of-the-art light upon the once dreary proscenium.

IUB theater professor Rob Shakespeare produces his magic with a mix of imagination and computer technology. He just completed work on the lighting for the T-300 Studio Theater production of The Peer Panel.

Shakespeare was actually born in the same English county as William Shakespeare--Warwickshire--but immigrated to Canada with his family and grew up there. But he has served as lighting designer at the Bristol (England) Old Vic Theatre Company. He joined the IU faculty in 1985 and has more than 170 stage lighting design credits in drama, opera and dance.

"I use computer visualization in my professional design practice and in my research and teaching of lighting design...even in the intro to lighting design course. It's a great tool for confirming the impact of an effect which you have conjured up in your imagination," Shakespeare said. "The added bonus is that the rest of the production team can scrutinize your concept idea as well."

Traditionally, the effect of lighting design has been conveyed through words and sketches during the early planning stages of a production, but capturing the accurate interaction of light within a stage environment in a sketch is well, sketchy.

It's akin (and as unlikely) as two people having an identical image in their mind's eye after reading the same poem.

But enter, center stage, something called "photoaccurate lighting simulation."

"With photoaccurate lighting simulation, what you see on a monitor can be extraordinarily close to what you might see on the stage," Shakespeare said. "This enables more time to be spent on fine tuning the aesthetic impact of a scene, because we have already agreed on the details of its visual impact. No longer should the words 'I didn't think it would look like THAT' ever be uttered by directors when they see the actual lighted production for the first time."

Shakespeare is the director of the Theatre Computer Visualization Center, a lab that develops computer-based collaborative and design tools to enhance live performance and the theater arts.Shakespeare's imaginative lighting ideas have not been confined to the stage. He has also been heavily involved with consulting in lighting design. His credits in that area include new buildings in Hong Kong and Shanghai. He designed lighting for the spire and facade of Nations Bank for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. His lighting techniques can also be found in houses of worship, restaurants, retail stores, art galleries, corporate environments and residential projects ranging from single homes to large developments.

With Gregory Ward Larsen, Shakespeare is co-author of Rendering with Radiance, a 680-page celebration of the marriage of lighting with computer graphics. The book includes a CD-ROM.

Shakespeare has presented lectures, workshops and courses on applied lighting simulation in Asia, Europe and North America. He's scheduled to give a presentation at a National Science Foundation meeting at Cornell University this month and will be spending next year based in Helsinki, Finland, as a Senior Fulbright Scholar.

All of Shakespeare's students benefit from his expertise.

"The graphical computer interface which I designed enables students in all of my lighting design classes to access some of the most powerful lighting simulation resources ever developed. These resources greatly enhance the teaching and learning of lighting design," he explained.

Is Shakespeare ever asked about his famous name? Of course, but he takes it in stride.

"A family member followed the family tree back to the end of the 1600s, but had gotten no further. There are no known 'legitimate' direct heirs to William Shakespeare to our knowledge (his daughter Susanna would not have carried the name into marriage), but you know, Shakespeare did spend a significant time away from Anne Hathaway...hmmm," said the professor, a light on his face.