Dragons Love Tacos

February 2024

Lighting Designer

Dragons Love Tacos was my first Theatre for Young Audiences production. This was about as close to a musical as it could without actually being a musical, with there being over 5 dance numbers. This show is relatively short and very compact, involving lots of dance numbers and effects throughout. One main concept from this show was the use of color. With this being a kids show, it must be visually intriguing to all ages. My inspiration went to a crayons box. Besides front light, the colors would be very saturated, like the colors you find in a box of crayons or markers. I used this with the gobo “Almost Paisley” combined with a deep purple gel. One research point that was shared between lighting and scenic was childs psychology with colors. Purple is the most associated color with magic for a child, and its combination with the gobo created a very magical feel whenever the dragons were on stage. The story beats had to use lighting in a lot of ways. With the limited dialogue, lighting had to be a strong source of conveying emotion for the silent characters. This show was also essentially a live-action comic book, which required lots of color changes, effects, and heavy shifts of focus within the lighting.

University of Minnesota Duluth

Lighting Paperwork