Pei-Yu Lai
Lighting Designer — THE SEAGULL
Pei-Yu is a lighting designer creating atmospheres to support the interactions between light and space, dedicated to visualizing the invisible: time, sentiments and history. Her work includes the augmented reality installation Islands/Soem (SIGGRAPH Asia, Japan), Anatomy of Struggle, directed by Anthony Nikolchev and Antigone directed by Natalia Lassalle- Morillo. She has assisted on international productions such as Fantomas: Revenge of the Image (Wuzhen Theatre Festival, China) and Witkacy/Two-Headed Calf (Divine Comedy Festival, Poland). She also explores the forms of lighting and human culture through architectural lighting.
Pei-Yu is originally from Taipei, Taiwan, is currently completing her MFA in Lighting Design from California Institute for the Arts (CalArts), and is based in Los Angeles, CA.
THE SEAGULL was directed by Michael Alvarez for CalArts, in 2017.
In the world of The Seagull, lighting is something “in between”: between performers and the performing space, between bodies and the play they embody. Rather than emphasizing the actions on stage, the lighting in The Seagull creates the environment around the performers where the stream of feelings from the inner-world of can naturally flow. The aesthetic of the design is minimalist. It distills the essence of this play from any specific time and space. Lighting design is also highly integrated with scenic: instead of theatrical lights, a lot of decorative lights were installed inside the scenic elements, speaking to the idea of “art installation” in an exhibition space.
