The Van den Berghe theatrical decors were painted to be lit with electric light…but certainly not with today’s LED bulbs. I have no expertise in hanging or lighting sets, so I was very grateful that we could convince Chris van Goethem (who teaches historical theatre techniques at the RITCS-Erasmushogeschool in Brussels) to come to Leiden last Sunday to help us out. Chris (pictured above with a restored footlight bar, used to light the sets) knows the Van den Berghe style well, he has several drops from their hands in his own private collection. Supported by the hospitable and enthusiastic technical staff of the Leidse Schouwburg, Chris worked out a basic lighting plan which we could use in the coming days as we hung and photographed as many decors as possible (in the end we hung 15 ensembles and four backdrops…not too bad!).

It was important to have proper lighting in order to get a feeling for the collection…the light can really change the colours, the look and the atmosphere of the drops. I have photos of individual drops that were taken in the 1990s in daylight, but theatrical lighting gave us some wonderful surprises. For instance, here are photographs of two backdrops that looked completely different when lit from behind:

Chris achieved beautiful effects, but unfortunately the camera in my phone got no where near capturing the colours and quality of light I was seeing. Tamar Hestrin Grader, who was present on the same day that Chris was there, sent me two images taken in the same light, but looking quite different. The first was made using the standard camera settings of her phone, and the second, which comes much closer to what we were all actually seeing in the theatre, required her to change many of these settings:

So, please take my photos of the sets here on the blog with a grain of salt…for the full effect, one must see them in the theatre!