POV and Inspiration

Our rendition of Trista Baldwin’s A Tale of Peter Rabbit is guided by the goal of creating a world where young audiences are presented with a story highlighting the power of imagination in reshaping narratives. We want audiences to be able to translate their own experiences onto that of Peter’s, hopefully leaving feeling empowered to themselves change their own narrative. This story is told from the perspective of the rabbits, thus, I want to have the tonality of the light in the world largely dictated by their emotional journey; while I want to, largely, remain grounded in a garden aesthetic, the world should feel dangerous when they feel endangered, vibrant when they’re excited, etc. In this production, the lighting will shy away from traditional color connotations, leaning more towards blues and purples as tension mounts as opposed to reds.

I also want to highlight the magic of the book throughout the play: when it opens at the start, I want to lead with an orange backlight that will disappear when it first closes. When it reopens upon Peter being trapped in the fence, that orange will develop into a deeper red. The goal is for it to seem almost as if emanating from the book. When Mopsy, Flopsy and Cottontail jump into the book, I want it to feel as if they are jumping into the magic themselves.

To achieve the heightened feeling, I hope to shift from the warm front light of the garden to more golden hues once in the book, accompanied with lavender accents to tone the green floor. When Peter steps out of the book on p.54, incorporating feinter reddish tones will hopefully make the book seem even more foreboding. Finally, when Flopsy closes the book at the very end, I’d want for some of the magic to remain, likely leaving us with the lavender sidelights and warm front lights. 

Lastly, we want audiences to feel as though they are part of the story from the beginning. Thus, as they enter, I hope to stretch the aesthetics of the garden into the audience to meld the two worlds. I also want to bring light up on audiences when Flopsy and Mopsy interact with them, so there is less of a feeling of gap between audience and stage. As audiences exit, I’d love to have the theatre’s vibes match that of where the play ends, so that they can feel as though the world they are leaving has grown with the characters.

Drafting