Lighting Design 101

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 History of
Lighting

● First
form of theatrical
lighting was the Sun.
● Greek, and Elizabethan
theatres were outdoors
● Changes in time or light
were indicated by the
dialogue
● “But look, the morn in
russet mantle clad
Walks o’er the dew of
yon high eastward hill.”
– Hamlet Act I, Scene i

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 17th and 18th century: indoor theatres with candles and
oil lamps

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 Pre Gas Indoor theatres

• 17th and 18th century: indoor theatres with candles

and oil
• Pros:
• Reflectors attempted to magnify the intensity
• Some level of control with regard to the direction
of the light
• Cons:
• Problems with candles and oil lamps included:
• Heat, Smoke, and no control of intensity.

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 19th Century: Gas
Lighting

• Drury lane is the first

theatre to fully
employ Gas Lighting
http://www.overthefootlights.co.uk/18
17-18.pdf

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 19th century: gas lighting

• Pros:
• smokeless performances.
• Variation in intensity

• Cons:
• Intense heat
• Expensive initial purchase and installation
• Deadly explosions
• Chance of asphyxiation

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 20th century: Electric lighting

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 20th century brought electric light to the stage.

• Pros:
• Much safer and more effective than the gas.
• Can control intensity, direction, color, and form from
a central location
• Cons
• The early dimmers were not safe
• Still an occasional fire or electrocution

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 Gels

• Lighting Gels were initially made

of gelatin, hence the spelling.
• Up to the 1940s theatres were
still boiling their own gelatin and
imbuing it with their own dyes.
• Problems with early gels
included:
• Quick burn out, Hard to match,
and dripped scarred the actors.
• Now gels are made of plastic

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 Objectives of Lighting
Design
● Visibility
● Establish time and place
● Create mood
● Reinforce style
● Focus and composition
● Rhythm of visual movement

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 Functions of Lighting Design

1.VISIBILITY- Can the audience see the important action

on stage clearly? Is the action we don’t want to see not
lit?
2.MOOD- What is the overall look/feel/atmosphere of the
scene? How do I communicate that with light?
3.REINFORCEMENT- What information in the text do I
want the audience to understand more fully through
light?
4.PUNCTUATION- How do I want scenes to
end/transition?
5.SCULPTURAL AESTHETIC- what do I want to evoke
in the audience? How do I create depth/detail in
lighting?
Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 Qualities of Stage Light

● Intensity
● controlled by dimmers
● Color
● provided by gels
● Direction
● key, fill, back and down lights
● Form
● controlled by shutters and gobos
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 Instruments and Controls

● Floods, scoops, strips, and border lights

● for a soft “wash”
● Fresnel
● a soft-edged spotlight for area lighting
● Ellipsoidal reflector spotlight
● the “workhorse” for a concentrated beam
● Robotic or “wiggle” lights
● for example, the Vari-Lite
Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 Instruments and
Controls

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 More Electric lighting
• Instrumentation has changed a great deal over the
years.
• In the past lightning was dependent on the size of the
lamp and the reflectors surrounding the source.
• Modern lighting is comprised of lamps hung on the
battens, patched into dimmers and programmed into a
light board.

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 Floods, scoops, strips, and border lights

• for a soft “wash”

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 Fresnel

• a soft-edged spotlight for area lighting

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 Par Cans

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 Ellipsoidal
reflector
spotlight

• the “workhorse” for

a concentrated
beam

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 Robotic or “wiggle” lights
for example, the Vari-Lite

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 LIGHTING TERMS TO KNOW
1.Dimmer- How electricity enters the building and how it flows
through the wires. “Neighborhood”
2.Circuit- The physical plug for the light. “House”
3.Channel- The name of the circuit in the board. “Address”
4.Instrument- The name of the light (Ellipsoidal, PARCan, LED,
Mover, etc)
5.Lamp- the thing that creates light.
6.LED- Light Emitting Diode (lights that vibrate and can change
color at low wattage)
7.Incandescent- Lamps that vibrate a coiled filament to emit light.
Higher wattage.

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future
 Other Terms
● Light board
● Cues
● Light plot
● Hang and focus

Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent | Georgia Department of Education | Educating Georgia’s Future