Colored Lights

Just last night, I attempted to see a show at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. I unfortunately missed curtain call by 12 minutes, and found myself exploring the lobby, unwilling to go home just yet. A large white box-like bench was positioned against the staircase and was lit from the inside by light that changed colors (like fiberoptics on Christmas trees). I was awed for a moment and watched, but then decided that the light and color intensity would not be flattering to the people sitting on the bench. Blue cast a sickly calm onto skin, green was too yellow and thus made it feel too energetic, yellow was too red, red was too blood-like and I'm pretty sure they used some kind of halogen lamps, making it overall just too bright and frankly, flat, stark and distracting. I thought it was simply there to look "cool" and wouldn't use this kind of lighting for a show, unless I was lighting Chromolume #7 in Sunday in the Park with George. No offense to the designer of the building, of course.