Stage Lighting – Painting with Light

“Lighting is not really important. It is the acting which really counts” !

Well maybe but unless you want to stage all your plays in an outdoor theatre during the hours of daylight you really do need lights. Of course stage lighting does much more than just make the actors and set visible. It has been described as ‘painting with light’ – watch any TV or stage show to see this put to good effect.

In the old days stage lanterns were little more than simple but more powerful bulbs fitted with a reflector and controlled by a rheostat or resistance dimmer. Now we have many different types of lantern each with their own special uses. All those special effects and subtle cross fades are now controlled by computerised memory desks and banks of associated dimmers.

Preparation for lighting a production begins several weeks before the event. Is it a musical or a straight play, in the round or on a proscenium arch stage? The lighting designer have an ongoing dialogue with the director to decide how the various scenes in the show will look. For example do we have is the setting indoors or outdoors, what is the time of day, does sunlight come through windows, what are the main acting areas, do we want strong colours to suggest particular themes e.g. green ghostly light, blood red for the murder and so on. MDG has the choice of a good range of lanterns and uses a Sirius 24 channel memory desk. All this has been put to good use with the group winning awards for technical ability.

The next stage is to plan what lights will be used, where they will be placed and what colour filters (gels) will be used. All this has to be done within the constraints of the equipment, which is available, and even how much electrical power can be used before the fuses blow! Once all the lights have been hung, fitted with safety chains and connected to the dimmers we can begin the process of plotting out each cue. This can be a very lengthy process involving the lighting designer, director and various other helpers to carry out minor adjustments and act as models in the acting area. Getting all these preparatory bits right might seem a bit of a chore but it can save a lot of time once rehearsals begin.

	Suddenly it is dress rehearsal time and opening night. It is now that all those hours of preparation and the long rehearsals come together to entertain an appreciative audience. It is now just a matter of pressing the ‘GO’ button to select the next cue or at least it is until something goes wrong – an actor misses that important lighting cue, a lamp burns out or you lose your place in the script.
What the audience see		What the actors see

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