DigitalCommons@Linfield

The Creation of a Lighting Design for Dead Man’s Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl

Jereld R. Nicholson Library

Sarah Ruhl’s Dead Man’s Cell Phone is a contemporary comedy that explores human connections in an age dominated by technology. The play consists of many scenes occurring in places as different as a café, a dining room, a stationary store, the Johannesburg airport, and hell. The transitions to the various scenes involved an ensemble of robot dancers who were constantly on smartphones. As a lighting designer, my goal was to make the audience believe the characters were in all of these different locations and to emphasize the digital nature of the play. Working with the directors and other designers, I used color and bold lines to create a digital feeling. My poster illustrates my creative process, from research photos, to a draft of the light plot, to photographs of the finished product.