In an exclusive interview, we caught up with Caleb S. Garner, the mastermind behind the captivating lighting design at Dock Street Theatre for our latest rendition of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Explore the intricacies of his artistic approach as he illuminates the magic of this timeless holiday classic!
1) What attracted you to work on the lighting design for A CHRISTMAS CAROL, and how do you personally connect with the themes and atmosphere of this classic story?
A CHRISTMAS CAROL has been a part of my life for as long as I remember. It was a Christmas tradition for my family, like it is for so many others. My favorite movie adaptation is actually the 1984 version George C. Scott as Scrooge. I love how that adaptation uses light to swap from the natural and supernatural and past, present, and future. Christmas Past had a hazy, dreamlike quality. Christmas Present was at times bright and cheerful, and at times stark and serious. Christmas Future was dark and smoky. I am still enthralled with the ability of that adaptation to tell a great story through light, and I’m very excited to put my own spin on that great storytelling.
As a church musician, I have spent a lot of time with texts about the Advent and Christmas season. A lesson that always stood out to me is that this season is not only about birth, but also redemption. It’s easy to forget that A CHRISTMAS CAROL isn’t just “cranky old man is frightened by ghosts and now loves Christmas.” Scrooge is a complex character. I think our production does a great job showing how he adapted through the course of his life, and how reconnecting with his past allows him to reclaim his future. The story reminds me of a poem by American theologian and civil rights leader, Howard Thurman, called “The Work of Christmas.” His idea of the “work” of Christmas are the lessons that Scrooge re-learns in order to open his heart and love again.
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among the people,
To make music in the heart.
That’s this production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL: making music in the heart. I am very excited to share this Christmas gift with you all.
2) Lighting plays a crucial role in setting the mood for a production. How did you approach creating a lighting design that complements the narrative and enhances the emotional impact of a CHRISTMAS CAROL?
When we first met in 2022 to discuss this major reimagining of the production, playwright Julian Wiles talked about the need for vibrancy, color, and fun. We didn’t want to have a production that said, “this is Scrooge’s world, and everything is sad, dark, and empty.” We wanted a production that showed the audience all of the joy, compassion, and love that Scrooge was missing.
It’s very easy to focus on Scrooge and the Ghosts and make a production that is dark and scary. And I do use dark lighting with heavy blues and deep shadows to make the ghosts intense and impactful, but I also try to keep the colorful spirit of the production by using turquoises, deep magentas, and lavenders to give the ghosts a sense of mystery without it being bleak and depressing. I really loved this painting called “Purple Energies” by Swiss painter Fabien Bruttin as an inspiration for the ghosts – particularly Marley and Christmas Future.
It was also important to keep the feeling of celebration throughout the play. I didn’t want every scene to feel like “London at night.” I wanted some variety and some more vibrant colors, so I chose pink-lavenders, light blues, oranges, and greens to make the world feel festive and new. It was important to Julian, Sam, and I that we avoided making the production look like a Victorian Christmas card. While they do have lots of colors, they were often faded, red-heavy, and a little too old-fashioned. We wanted whimsy and a wide array of color. I took inspiration from this picture of Covent Garden. See if you can spot some of these colors coming from the lights while watching!
3) Collaboration is key in the production process. Can you share insights into how you collaborated with the director and other members of the creative team to ensure that the lighting design aligns with the overall vision for the production?
The entire design team meets months in advance to establish and refine our world of the play so the audience gets a unified final product. We spend lots of time talking, researching, drawing, and sharing so we’re all on the same page about the vision for the production. We did do A Christmas Carol last season, but it was not as simple as unpacking it out of a box and putting it back onstage. Season 45’s production was fantastic, but each design area had several things we could improve. This included things like the placement of the backdrops, new furniture and props, new costume elements, and new magic tricks.
A new season also gives Charleston Stage new actors, which means that people with different body types, builds, and skin tones needed alterations for the existing costumes and new lighting colors that best enhanced their skin. While many things are similar this year, many things are also quite different. My lighting mentor, Craig Dettman, would say “same song, different verse.”
This production has lots of “tricks” that are associated with the Ghosts and their magic, and they all require careful coordination with the other design elements and direction to be done correctly. Scrooge’s tombstone in the graveyard sequence is one of my favorite examples. When scrooge first arrives in the graveyard, he does not realize that he is standing on his own grave; the tombstone before him is blank. Careful coordination between direction, scenery, and lights was able for us to magically reveal the word “SCROOGE” on the stone. Added sounds, fog, and gorgeous costume color-coordination help to create the incredibly powerful image of Scrooge realizing his fate.
Now that I’ve been at Charleston Stage for several years, I’ve developed a great rapport and a kind of shorthand language with the the other staff. We’re regularly on the same page, and I really enjoy our discussions and collaborations.
4) A CHRISTMAS CAROL has moments of both darkness and light. How did you balance the use of light and shadow to convey the various moods and themes throughout the production?
I always make sure that the lighting is fulfilling several different factors in each scene: Visibility, Mood, Revelation of Form, Punctuation, and Storytelling.
Visibility is simply putting light where you want it, and removing light where you don’t need it. Mood is how light uses colors, angle, and textures to display emotions or atmosphere. There is always a fine balancing act of Mood and visibility, because often too much of one can harm the other. If the light is too dark, the audience struggles to understand the action onstage, but if the audience can see every single thing onstage, the atmosphere of the scene is compromised.
Revelation of form is how we light figures and objects onstage, giving us dimensionality. The way we reveal figures onstage also helps us to establish visibility and mood. For example, I light the ensemble singing “Joy To The World” in a totally different way than I light the Ghost of Christmas Future.
Every sentence has some form of punctuation. The way that we light the end of a phrase onstage is just as important as the way the sentence ends on paper. When Marley is leaving Scrooge, the last line of the scene ends with an exclamation point – the lighting should absolutely do the same thing. We don’t want a slow fade to black here; we want a zero-count blackout to end the scene with a bang!
Storytelling is advancing the narrative, through use of the properties of light that we can control. These properties are intensity, distribution, angle, color, change, and movement.
Careful consideration and combinations of these elements help us to create individual “looks” to give distinction to the various moments in the show. A lot of the balancing comes from experience and intuition. And a great relationship with the production team!
5) Were there specific scenes or moments in A CHRISTMAS CAROL where you intentionally used lighting to highlight key elements or emotions? Can you share examples of how lighting enhances the storytelling?
One of my favorite moments in the show is when we visit the song “A New Day Dawns.” This happens twice within the show, and each one is a major point in Scrooge’s life.
The first time we experience the song, a young Scrooge is seeing his future fiancée, Belle, for the first time. I wanted the rest of the world to melt away so we can see Scrooge instantly fall in love. The lights pull down to young Scrooge and Belle as she sings the song. The presence of the other party guests is still felt because they are in a darker colored light, with a strong highlight around their silhouettes. This shows the general figures, but limits visibility on faces so the audience can focus on the love at first sight moment happening downstage. Old Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past are still dimly lit, so the audience can also see Scrooge being re-acquainted with his humanity.
This happens a second time in the last portion of the second act. Scrooge goes to his nephew Fred’s house to make amends, and meets Fred’s wife, Caroline. Caroline is singing “A New Day Dawns,” and is in the same position as Belle. Scrooge and Caroline recreate the moment when young Scrooge and Belle first meet. The lighting has a lovely pull-down in the same manner as before. It’s a really touching moment that shows Scrooge letting himself love again.
I hope that the lighting shows the deeply personal moments with young Scrooge and Belle, and then Caroline and Scrooge with the tight pulldowns. The lights then open up to reveal the other characters, showing that they were there to see Scrooge’s character arc.
6) The story of A CHRISTMAS CAROL spans different settings, from Scrooge’s office to the Cratchit household. How did you adapt the lighting design to create distinct atmospheres for each location?
Each set of characters have their own special color palettes. Scenic designer Susan Crabtree and I worked closely with costume designer Janine McCabe to make sure that each location had their own special color identity in the costumes, scenery, and lighting design.
A great example can be seen in the Cratchit family and their home. We chose a purple/lavender color scheme to give the Cratchit’s their own identifiable traits as a family unit. The scenery has elements of the colors in the backdrop, and every character has their colors in the costumes. I light the scene with blues and lavenders so I can help to make the colors in the costumes and scenery really pop.
Be on the lookout for the different color schemes in the show! Each location and family has their own special collection of colors!
7) Do you have any favorite lighting effects or techniques used in A CHRISTMAS CAROL that you are particularly proud of or that stand out as memorable?
Each year I try and incorporate a few new elements into the production to make it even more interesting. This year makes the debut of two brand new fog machines. You will never see them, but you will absolutely see the fog! These are called Ultrasonic Mist foggers, and they get the same effect as dry ice fog without the need for dry ice and 350 pounds of water. These foggers use an ultrasonic membrane that vibrates rapidly at high speeds in a tank of water. The water is agitated apart into individual droplets with the size of approximately 3 – 5 microns, vaporizing into the air to form a thick fog. It’s very scientific, and it’s very cool. Chances are you already have this technology in your house. If you have a “cool mist humidifier,” you have the same ultrasonic technology in a smaller scale!
Get your tickets to see A CHRISTMAS CAROL, running December 7th – December 22nd, at CharlestonStage.com.
Caleb S. Garner is a lighting and sound designer based in Charleston, SC. A North Carolina native, Caleb received his B.A. and B.F.A. from Catawba College in Salisbury NC, and his M.F.A. from the University of Southern Mississippi. Garner’s designs, ranging from concerts to ballets to musicals to plays have earned him eight regional and national design awards. Caleb has been a featured designer from New York to Mississippi, designing in the Northeast, Midwest, East Coast and Deep South. Caleb enjoys turning large pieces of wood into smaller pieces of wood (sometimes mistakenly called furniture), screaming with students (often recognized as teaching), and playing with things that spark and smoke. Caleb currently serves as the Resident Lighting Designer at the Charleston Stage Company and serves as an adjunct lecturer at the College of Charleston.