The Power of ColorColor How color influences characters in a play – Design concepts The power of color – How color influences characters in a play – design concepts

DEFINITIONS DEALING WITH COLOR HUE: the qualities that differentiate one color from another (ex. Yellow, red, blue, etc.) VALUE: the relative lightness or darkness of an object (ex. Light blue vs. dark blue). INTENSITY: the relative loudness of a color (ex. Pure, bright yellow has strong intensity while dull yellow has low intensity) There are variuos definitions that you must know when dealing with color. Hue is the quality that differnciates one color from another. They are what we normally call each color. Red, yellow, green, orange…. The value of a color is the relative lightness or darkness that a color possesses. The hue of a color may be blue but the value will be light blue or dark blue. Intensity is how strong a color exisits. A color may be blue - but a faded blue has a lower intesity than a royal blue. Each definition is important to use when a show – because it helps others understand the details in color that you are looking for.

Use of Color in Design Color helps to influence the emotional and psychological effects that a character can have upon an audience member All color used within a play should support the overall theme or feeling of the play – not just the individual character Complimentary Hues: orange and blue, yellow and violet, green and red Neutral Hues: black and white Contrasting Hues (Triad): yellow-orange, red-violet, and blue-green – one hue is dominant while the other hue remains as an accent Color can be very useful when designing a show. It helps influence the emotional and psychological effect that a character has on an audience. All colors involved in the show need to help support the overall feelings of a play – therefore all design concepts from clothing to set design to lighting need to support one another; there are various types of designs that you can create in a show. You may use complimentary colors or hues, nuetral hues, and contrasting hues. Each indiviudal choice will help influene the overall design concept and emotional qualtiy of the show.

Blue Associated with depth and stability. Symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. When dealing with Royalty- it symbolizes piety and sincerity Beneficial to the mind and body- slows metabolism and produces calming effect- also depresses the appetite Dark blue: associated with knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness; preferred color for Corporate America Light blue: associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness Blue is a very calm color and is often associated with depth and stabiltiy. It often symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, and positive religious icons such as heaven; When dealing with royality – it symbolizes piety and sincereity. Blue is extremely beneficial to the human mind – it slows metabolism and produces a calming effect – it can also depress the appeitite. Dark blue is often associates w/knowledge, power, integrity and seroiusness. It is the prefered color of corporate america – symbolizing purity and honesty in business. Light blue is associates w/health, healing, and tranquitly. Characters who appear to be understanding and kind will often wear light blue.

GREEN The color of nature – symbolizing growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility Strong emotional correspondence with safety Dark green is associated with money, the financial world, banking, and Wall Street Green has healing power and is the most restful color to the human eye- it can improve vision Sometimes denotes the lack of experience Opposite of red- therefore- the color of free traffic Dark Green: associated with ambition, greed and jealousy Yellow-Green: associated with sickness, cowardice, discord and jealousy Aqua: associated with emotional healing and protection Olive Green: traditional color of peace Green is a color of nature often symbolizing growht and fertily – It also has strong emotional connections to safe situations such as green lights and traffic free paths – dark green is associated w/money and the financial world – green also has healing powers and psychologically is the most restful color to the human eye. It is said to be able to improve vision. With some characters or designs – it can indicate a lack of experience or a sense of newness. Dark green is associated with amition, greed and jealousy – often called the “little green monster” Yellow green is often associates with sickness and phlegmatic characters/situations – it also shows a bit of cowardice and discord; aqua has emotional healing powers while olive green is the traditonal color of peace

RED The color of fire and blood – associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love A very emotionally intense color – enhances human metabolism, increase respiration rate and raises blood pressure. Very visible – example stop signs In nobility – indicates courage Stimulates people to make quick decisions – widely used to indicate danger and energy Light red: represents joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love Pink: signifies romance, love, and friendship: denotes feminine qualities and passiveness Dark red: associated with vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath Red is one of the most passionate firey colors in the spectrum. It is often associates with war, blood and danger. Many times this emotional color is associated with passion, love and desire buy enhancing human metaboloism, increasing respiration rate and raises blood pressure. Red is a very visible color oftern standing out as warning signs such as stop signs, stop lights, and warning lights on police cars, ambulances and fire trucks. Red often stimulates people into making quick descisions and often leads to a person’s downfall because of the lack of intellecutal thought and the over taking of passion and impulse. Light red represents joy, sexualtiy, passion and sensitivity, and love; pink often represents young love or friendship and most often prespresents a feminine quality or passiveness in a character. Dark red exibits rage, anger, extreme leadership or wrath. These characters often let their passions overule their intellect – causing major changes within the course of a play

YELLOW YELLOW: associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy- it produces a warming effect and arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity and generates muscle energy. Overuse of yellow creates a disturbing effect- babies cry more in yellow rooms It is seen before other colors when placed against a black background. In royalty – yellow indicates honor and loyalty Use yellow to highlight the most important elements of your design Dull (dingy) yellow: represents caution, decay, sickness, and jealousy Light yellow: associated with intellect, freshness, and joy Yellow is often shown as a bright color and is assoc w/ joy and happienss. Intellect and energy are also associated w/this color. It often produces a warming effect and arouse cheerfulness and stimulates menal activity as well as kinetic enery. The overuse of this color can create an extremelyh disturbing effect – often overstimulating babies causeing them to cry. When used against a black background – yellow is often seen before other colors. In royal situations yellow can indicate honor and royalty often being associated with gold. When desinging you should use yellow to hightlight the most important elements of your designs. A dull yellow can respresent caution, decay or sickness; a light yellow is ofen associated with intellect, freshness and joy

PURPLE Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red Conveys wealth and extravagance – It is often associated with Royalty Symbolizes power, nobility, luxury and ambition It is also associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery and magic Light purple: evokes romantic and nostalgic feelings Dark purple: evokes gloom and sad feelings – can cause frustration Purple is a combination of red and blue – therefore gaining elements from both colors. Purple often conveys wealth and extravegance and is often associated with royalyt. This color is very difficult to create therefore purple cloth was often extremely expensive and often only bought by those with a great deal of money and power. This history often aids to the psychological effect that puple has on varoius characters and designs. Purple is also associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery and magic. Light purple can evoke romantic feelings while dark purple can cause the opposite effect of gloom and sadensse or even frustration

BLACK AND WHITE White: Associated with light, goodness, innocence, cleanliness, purity and perfection Black: Associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery Finally, black and white are considered our two neutral hues. White is often associatesd with light and goodness, innocence, cleanliness, purity and perfection. Black on the other hand is often associated with formality, death, elegance, evil and mystery. These two colors can used in various designs as background colors to which you add on primary colors or as trim color.

Assignment Think about all of the plays and musicals that you have seen this year. Identify a character for each color trait and give 3 reasons why that character should be associated with that color. Now that you understand so much about diffeernt colors and their psychological effects on design – think about all of the plays and muscials that you have seen in class this year. Identify a cdharacter for each color and give 3 reasons why that character should be associated with that color. Turn this assignment into your teacher as soon as possbile.