purple-- maq muses about theater
So, the Hamilton bootleg found its way to YouTube. I felt too guilty to torrent it, so today is my first time seeing the show all the way through! Being a theater rat, I *noticed* things. Also I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING.
One of those things was the color purple. Guys, there is so.much.purple. in this show. There was enough purple for me to be like, "That's a shit ton of purple." Each character was essentially color-coded via costumes and lights. A Ham got white light (sometimes amber), Eliza is green/teal, Angelica is a darker amber/almost orange, G-Wash is white, Jefferson is red (!) though his costume is purple, King George decides his color with a stomp of his foot thank you very much, and Burr... Burr is blue in Act I and purple, purple, purple in Act II. His costume is a deep plum color, and he's the only one who doesn't have a significant costume change.
Why purple? Red, white, and blue motif blends together to make purple, yes, but why *only* do it in Act II? I even re-watched Act I. The purple isn't there. Not by more than half. There's not as much red, either, but that's easily explainable. I'm just left wondering what purple is supposed to do to the viewer. It isn't aggressive, but neither is it calming. It suggests twilight as opposed to blue's night or pink's morning. The theme of the entire show is time, specifically the *progress* of time, so I don't think the color is meant to suggest a perpetual twilight. Dreams, perhaps. The American dream? Purple doesn't make an audience hopeful, though. Ambiguity? Not red, not blue? But with lights, red and blue aren't opposites. Of course, most people don't know how light works, and they especially don't know how picky theater rats are with light.
This is driving me nuts. I am a WHORE for lighting and it's my technical jam. This show won the Tony for light design and I CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT.
In the meantime, I'm going to play Act II again and I'm not crying it's just raining on my face.
One of those things was the color purple. Guys, there is so.much.purple. in this show. There was enough purple for me to be like, "That's a shit ton of purple." Each character was essentially color-coded via costumes and lights. A Ham got white light (sometimes amber), Eliza is green/teal, Angelica is a darker amber/almost orange, G-Wash is white, Jefferson is red (!) though his costume is purple, King George decides his color with a stomp of his foot thank you very much, and Burr... Burr is blue in Act I and purple, purple, purple in Act II. His costume is a deep plum color, and he's the only one who doesn't have a significant costume change.
Why purple? Red, white, and blue motif blends together to make purple, yes, but why *only* do it in Act II? I even re-watched Act I. The purple isn't there. Not by more than half. There's not as much red, either, but that's easily explainable. I'm just left wondering what purple is supposed to do to the viewer. It isn't aggressive, but neither is it calming. It suggests twilight as opposed to blue's night or pink's morning. The theme of the entire show is time, specifically the *progress* of time, so I don't think the color is meant to suggest a perpetual twilight. Dreams, perhaps. The American dream? Purple doesn't make an audience hopeful, though. Ambiguity? Not red, not blue? But with lights, red and blue aren't opposites. Of course, most people don't know how light works, and they especially don't know how picky theater rats are with light.
This is driving me nuts. I am a WHORE for lighting and it's my technical jam. This show won the Tony for light design and I CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT.
In the meantime, I'm going to play Act II again and I'm not crying it's just raining on my face.