When Vinay Chandra sits through a script reading session, “colours and lines appear in front of his eyes and occupy the contours of his mind,” he says. A lighting designer, Vinay, has been in the business and art of communicating words, scenes, emotions and ideologies entrenched in plays through the language of light.
Like most light designers in theatre, Vinay too stumbled into the field when he attended a theatre workshop and thereafter, began setting up lights and even designing it for theatre productions at National College in Bangalore, where he was a student. “I failed in my 12th standard and I did not know what to do. Then, I attended a theatre workshop and was immediately drawn towards it. I joined National College which has a history of histrionics and encouraged theatre a lot,” recalls Vinay. At college, he attended a number of workshops, spent hours at plays and gradually learnt the art of light design. His accidental tryst with the field then blossomed into love for the art of designing lights and soon, a couple of jobs later, he decided that he would take it up as a profession.
The story is not so different for Vinay’s teacher, Muddanna, a veteran lighting designer, who came to Bangalore in the 1970s in search of a livelihood. He joined Prabhath Kalavidaru, a theatre group and worked with them for a year. Then, he travelled with individual theatre troupes doing back stage work, lights, costumes etc. Gradually, his interest centred on light design and there was no looking back. Muddanna has designed lights for over 250 plays and around 3000 productions as of today.
Vinay and Muddanna are part of what we can now call a ‘lighting industry’ that largely comprises informal and unskilled workers. Despite the burgeoning count of theatre schools across the State, light design, say designers, is still not a part of the curriculum in these schools. In other words, there are not light design specialists emerging out of theatre schools. So, most light designers in the field are self-taught or have learnt on the job, with a little help from seniors. A graduate of Ninasam, Jagadeesh Nanjundappa’s knowledge in light design, for instance, is born out of his own interest in the field and his initiative to attend workshops, productions and to talk to other designers, architects etc. “When I graduated out of Ninasam in 2001, there were very few professional lighting designers in Kannada theatre. There were those who would multitask- sing, direct and along with that do some lighting too. Once, when I was performing in Ninasam, ‘Make-up’ Nani had told me that while in Marathi theatre, there were ample specialists- in costume, make-up, and lighting, the number of specialists in Kannada were far less. He had said that at least in the near future, if there are specialists in every field, it would be nice,” he recounts.
“Unfortunately, lighting is something that is usually taken for granted. That it is an art form is barely acknowledged. I agree that the actor is imperative for theatre but you have to see and hear him, right?” he asks.
He adds further that lighting, like music and dance, is a knowledge system whose learning is a continuous process. “The reason why it is not considered at par with other knowledge systems is partly because we hardly have any trainers or institutions that deem it important to focus, even partly on light design,” explains Jagadeesh.
What does the art of light design entail? Most designers say that ideally, light designers should be part of the script reading sessions either during the first or the second reading. The idea is to transform the verbal into the visual. “For this, the lighting designer, after hearing the director’s vision of the play and watching a few run-throughs, draws up sketches replete with line drawings and a colour scheme that captures the essence of the play. His design is then discussed, threshed out and finally, implemented. There are changes that take place even during the production. Especially then, the experience and training of the designer come into focus,” describes Vinay, who took a course at National School of Drama.
Academic grounding in both Vinay and Jagadeesh’s opinion, therefore, will root this art and practice of light design in theory and will couch it within a discipline, they say. Muddanna, on the other hand, doesn’t actually believe it is imperative to learn lighting in schools. “I have learnt on the job. And I’ve made a living in theatre. I may not have made money but I’ve not had a problem with life. What you really need in order to learn lighting is patience and interest,” he explains.
Kannada theatre director, Joseph, feels that the problem is not with theatre schools but what happens after. “Students learn light design in schools but many times, they barely get enough opportunities or avail of an infrastructure that helps them practice aspects of light design. There are so many people who claim to know lighting but they know nothing about light design,” he says.
In the wake of a dearth of light designers in Kannada theatre and the lack of curriculum support for the same, what has happened is that the field is saturated with ‘unprofessional’ people who take light design for granted, says Vinay. “Amateurs are fine. Especially in the 70s and 80s, amateur theatre rose to its peak. But today, amateurs have a lackadaisical approach to theatre. They feel they know lighting and it need not be learnt,” he says. Muddanna too agrees that most youngsters who come into theatre come in with a desire to make money and not actually learn the art form.
Veteran theatre director Pramod Shiggaon says that many theatre students come to theatre schools like Ninasam with the intention of entering the film industry eventually. “They may be in Ninasam but their face is turned towards Gandhinagar. Back stage work, during our time, was far more selfless. We wanted to be a part of the process. We weren’t there for money or fame,” he explains.
Poor remuneration is another factor, say artists. “Kannada theatre especially can only afford Rs.1000 to lighting designers. It is difficult to make a living just through light design,” says Vinay.
The issue then goes back to formalising and cultivating a lighting designer through the education system. “There is a fundamental difference in learning on the job and in a school. On the job, there is always a deadline and learning may not always be comprehensive. But in a school, there is an eco-system created that fosters imagination and creativity. We need that. We need to generate lighting designers with a visual vocabulary that will transform theatre,” adds Vinay.
Pramod Shiggaon agrees. “Theatre is a complete art form. While it may be difficult to dedicate a year-long course to lighting design, because that’s how long it should take ideally to learn it, we need to create a breeding ground for more lighting artists just as we have done for actors and directors. Then, they will begin to be taken seriously in the field, they will be trained and can also command a remuneration that will help them grow. With new graduates coming out of theatre schools, things are already beginning to change in a few places,” he adds.
