West Linn High School Performing Arts Program

Amadeus

Set and Lighting Design by Jon Ares.

Winter 2000.

Directed by Karen Mitchell, assisted by Cheryl Cantwell. Costume Design by Cheryl Cantwell.

In the early design meetings with the three of us, the words “Fragments of Salieri’s mind” kept coming up, and thus the set became as old and musty as the corners of Salieri’s head….  The walls were covered with wrinkly craft paper, and toned with layers of grays and browns.  The shards of walls, with remnants of moulding underneath, were almost like they had been packed up in wrapping paper and stored.

The costumes were designed by Cheryl Cantwell, and my lighting design utilized steep lighting angles, to create a sense of creepy mood, as Salieri and his Venticelli moved from pool to pool of cool light.  The colors in the lights were basically all Lee 202 fronts, with Rosco 67 as backs.  This color correction on the lights created a virtually ‘white’ light, which played on Cheryl’s blues.  The palace had garish golds splashing around, thus keeping Salieri’s lighting rather cold.