LIGHTS!

VISIBILITY - first priority is being able to actually see what's going on

• time and place
• mood/atmosphere/verisimilitude - lifelikeness
• style
• ex: Robert Wilson

FOCUS - where do you want the eyes of the audience to be looking at

• visual composition
• rhythm of visual
• movement

ELEMENTS OF STAGE LIGHTING

• Intensity - Dimmer
• Color - gels/color mixing - warm mixed with cool to produce depth/texture/naturalness
• Direction - angle/45 degree angles from above/downlighting-overhead/backlighting-behind
• Form - shape/shaft or beam/patterns/sharp/diffused-shutters
• Movement - where are we going to move the lights, where/when/why
• ex: Jungle Book
• "To me, lighting is the audience's guide to the story, and to what the production is doing. Light can clarify or confuse the issue/" -Jennifer Tipton

CREATING MOOD

• if you can imagine the two-hour show as a canvas, you then work with very broad strokes to rough out the pace and the direction of the show in a way that allows you to build on it and give it different plateaus, and, finally a really good ending." -Patrick Woodroffe

TYPES OF STAGE LIGHTS

• Fresnel soft-edge spotlights - 
• used for are lighting top and backlighting general wash
• ellipsoidal reflector zoom spotlight - 
• sharp defined shape/intense
• Automated lights - 
• computer programmed-change direction, beam, gobo image, color Floodlight-general stage illumination

LIGHTING CONTROLS

• cues
• blackout
• fade
• fade-in
• cross-fade
• pan - going from left to right
• tilt - top to bottom

SPECIAL LIGHTING EFFECTS

• scrim - gauze drop
• opaque when lit from front/transparent when lit from behind
• gobos - lighting designs
• gels - colors
• cyclorama - curved scenic backdrop at rear of stage
• Battens
• Theatricalist - use of lighting: Brechtian "didactic" theatre

THE LIGHTING DESIGNER AT WORK

• synthesis of elements:
• actions/ideas of play
• discussion with directors/designers about vision/concept
• theatre building
• scenery and costumes
• movement/behavior of actors
• available lighting
• creation of light plot-plan or series of plans showing placement and angle of each lighting instrument
• type, wattage, size, wiring connection to dimmer, color movement
• Cue sheet-list of the occasions, by number, and keyed to the script, when lights change in intensity, color or movement
• Mounting of lights - (hung) and attached to wiring system, "Patched" to dimmers, focused, colored, setting of intensities of lights for each cue, programming into light board