Establishing Dramatic Space on Non-proscenium Stages through Lighting

The volume of space which contains an individual actor's psychological environment is defined, for the purpose of this thesis, as the dramatic space inhabited by that actor. These spaces are considered to be the volumes within which a measurement of the internal and externals forces remains constant. Dramatic spaces vary in quality with the actions of the occupants of the spaces and with varying conditions existing in the surrounding universe.

The lighting of a volume of space on an open stage represents a major proportion of the force exerted by the external universe. Because the lighting is under the control of a designer it can be made to represent any form of synthetic universe surrounding a production. The referent for the synthetic universe must always be the real universe.

A design for The Serpent is used to demonstrate the use of lighting to determine the dramatic spaces for one production on the open stage.