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November 15, 2002
Making light of darkness
Israeli sees a bright future in local theatre and film.
PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
When the average person attends a play, they generally form opinions
about the performance, they may critique the costumes and the set,
but few give much thought to how the lighting affects the overall
impression of theatre. That subliminal influence is the canvas on
which Itai Erdal practises his art.
Erdal, a recent newcomer from Israel, was the lighting designer
for The Laramie Project, a documentary play recently staged
by Studio 58, and a very difficult play to light. He is an emerging
name in the local theatre and film industry.
Erdal's migration to Vancouver resulted from a Web search. At home
in Jerusalem a few years ago, Erdal found information on the Vancouver
Film School and made his way here to study. The quality of the school
was part of the attraction, as was the West Coast location, with
this city's extensive film industry and strong theatre scene. The
mild climate also factored in.
"I was really afraid of the cold," he said. Going from
40 degrees in Jerusalem to 40 below in, say, Winnipeg, was not a
migration Erdal was prepared to make.
Since arriving here in 1999 and completing his education, Erdal
has been involved in a range of work on film sets and theatre houses.
He has worked on Vancouver Fringe Festival offerings and professional
troupe productions and he is philosophical about paycheques. Working
for free has been a ticket to making a living, said Erdal. The industry
people he has met and the experience he derived from non-professional
engagements have made all the difference in his young career, he
said. An example was The Birth of Freedom, a Virtual Stage
co-operative company production at Performance Works, which subsequently
opened paying doors for him.
"Even though it was no money at all, it was the best investment
I ever made," he said.
A large cast of ever-changing characters (every actor plays at least
two roles) made the lighting for The Laramie Project particularly
complex. The near absence of a set emphasized the importance of
light in telling the story.
Lighting has a huge effect on how we perceive the overall mood of
a theatrical offering, but most people observe lighting so intuitively,
Erdal said, that they don't even realize the impact it has on their
perceptions.
"I'm amazed how nobody knows anything about lighting,"
he said. "It's like magic."
In addition to his theatre work, Erdal has been on the sets of many
locally produced TV series, including Dark Angel and Stargate
as well as the feature film Halloween 8. He downplays his
role in those programs, though, emphasizing the difference between
the technical work he has so far been limited to in film and TV
and the creative design work he does in theatre.
Something most people may not know is that the lighting designer
does his work before the play is ever staged and, if the job is
done well, does not need to be in the house when the performance
is staged.
"Opening night is my last day," he explained.
As an Israeli in Vancouver, Erdal is still feeling his way around
the cultural differences that extend beyond the weather. Though
he has felt immediately at home in the West Coast geography, he
has not always felt as comforted by the people. Where Israelis tend
to be gregarious and verbal, Canadians, Erdal has found, tend to
be quieter and less willing to get close to strangers. Most of his
friends here, he said, are fellow newcomers.
Erdal's next project is Dragonfly Drinking, which opens Nov.
26 at the Roundhouse Community Centre. In addition to being the
lighting designer for this play, Erdal is also production manager.
After Dragonfly, he begins lighting work for Carousel Theatre's
Christmas show, It's a Wonderful Life, which will be an entirely
new type of experience for him.
"I've never been to a Christmas party," he said. "I've
never seen a Christmas tree. The whole notion of Christmas is foreign
to me."
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