Prize(s) Winners in Stage Lighting / Theater Performance Lighting
Lighting Design/Product Company Creative Lighting
Lead Designers Christina Thanasoula
Client Athens and Epidaurus Festival
Photo Credits Elina Giounanli
Other Credits Lighting Programmers: Makis Anastasakis, Giannis Karabelias, Krisilia Emmanouela
Completion Date July 2025
Project Location Athens, Greece
Entry Description“Blindness”, based on the novel by José Saramago, adapted for stage by Simon Stephens, tells the story of a blindness epidemic. The main design concept was recreating on stage an abandoned hospital ward. Lighting was used as a main feature of the performance’s visual identity, playing a key role in defining location and mood: as key lighting, was used fluorescent-type lighting – characteristic of institutionalised spaces-, which was replicated by 21 x Astera Titan Tubes, achieving excellent light dispersion and smooth, realistic and very accurate colour shifting, lighting elements needed for the theatre lighting narrative. As the Titan Tube fixture has a very contemporary look, the set and lighting designer were challenged to "hide" them in battered scenic housings to give them a site-specific look, in order to resemble institutionalised hospital fluorescents. The tubes were rigged in seven rows that accentuated the 30-metre depth of the space, highlighting perspective, while allowing movement effects between the linear rows of lights syncing to the soundscape, with flickering effects to give additional layers of lighting texture. Light, thanks to the versatility of the Astera LED fixtures, was used as a dominant dramaturgical element, creating dystopian light-scapes in space and time, shaping the performance's meaning, atmosphere and emotional impact for the audience.
Sustainability ApproachThe linear lighting fixtures used as key lights in this production, were the main lighting element of the production, supported by other LED sources and the minimum number of tungsten lighting sources, in an effort to reduce power consumption for the Festival, where a number of approximately 60 productions have been staged in two months. This was a conscious effort to go as green as possible and use less energy while making it obvious that LED fixtures can be used in many creative ways in theatre lighting.
