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The Lighting is an integral part of any production and much more than merely the fact that without it the actors would not be seen. By altering the colour and intensity of the lights the mood of the play is established scene by scene. Blue, for example, will convey the illusion of a cold setting.
One person or a team, depending on the complexity of the production, can undertake this.
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| Design |
| The initial step is the design stage. This entails designing a lighting plot and cue list. The lighting plot is obviously dependent on the area being lit and the equipment available but should detail: what types of lanterns are being used, where they are being placed, what colour gels are being used and what acting areas they will be focused upon.
As part of this it is important to understand where the apparent source of light is meant to be. Are the windows open and the sun streaming in? Will any shadows cast by your lighting appear on the opposite side to the window? Which acting areas are important? When the stage is dimly lit, will it still be essential for the actors’ face to be seen so that the audience can observe how the actors feel? Where will the actor be at these times? It is also important to be aware of what colour the set and costumes will be as a dark coloured set or costumes could absorb the general lighting chosen?
The cue list will summarise each necessary lighting change as prescribed after discussions with the director. A simple box set play may have no more complexities than to put the lights up and down at the start and end of each act. A musical in contrast will usually have many scenes, with changing scenery and staging. The traditional musical will usually use spotlights as well, which will need to be incorporated within the design.
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| Rigging |
| This is the placing of the design plot into practice and it is best if there is a team of people to help. This can entail attaching lanterns, re-gelling, holding ladders, patching or just standing around in appropriate areas where light is being focussed. At the Hazlitt theatre they now have motorised lighting bars over the stage, which eases the process of changing and gelling lanterns. The focusing still needs to be done from a ladder though. Those lights over the auditorium, which cannot be reached from the flies, can be adjusted from a Genie.
For our touring productions the rigging is tantamount to an episode of ‘Challenge Anneka’. Village Halls do not usually have their own lighting rig. Consequently from our arrival at the said hall the lighting equipment has to be moved off a trailer, into to hall, unpacked, erected, rigged, patched and focussed in just an hour and a half.
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| Operation |
| At the Medway Little Theatre and for our touring productions there is no computer based operating system so everything has to be done as you go along. At the Hazlitt, where they currently have a Congo JR software package, the Cue List can literally be programmed into the computer so that anyone could run the lights during the performance.
A lighting board (similar to the sound desk) consists of a number of faders that correspond to the lanterns previously rigged. To set up each cue, you use the faders to choose which lanterns you want to use and set the intensity by how high you position the fader. Once you are happy with the set up you can record it as a cue. Once you have set up all your cues in the appropriate order, complete with transition times for fading between each one, there is nothing further for you to do on the night than press Go at the appropriate points and watch your design in action.
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| Interview with a 'Techie' |
| Of course I should have said there is nothing further you have to do. There are always things you could ‘tweak’. Or where appropriate effects you can add. Most musicals are rife with opportunities to flash lights in a variety of sequences. One of our favourite techies (as they’re endearingly known) is a great ‘tweaker’. |
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"It was about the time that I started forgetting my lines on stage that I realised that life behind scenes was less complicated ….er, what was I thinking! Just because they have a script doesn’t mean its any easier, perhaps three times as complicated I would suggest.. just get a sound effect 0.000000001 of a second out of time and see what I mean! |
Anyway, I started backstage with sound while Mary was doing lights. At least I understood sound, lighting was a mystic art as far as I was concerned. We had some terrific times in the box, things stopping working 30secs before required, pressing the wrong cue,…. did you know that the door bell in Cider with Rosie sounds just like a dog barking? No, neither did I. |
Well, Mary moved abroad and that left me as the only one who knew where the lighting desk was let alone how to switch it on. So I got the job! The first show was Hello Dolly. Simple, about 30 different lighting effects and so many different colours you would be amazed…well I was anyway! Having struggled through that, and then later having some good reviews at the KDA Drama festival I began to like lighting, it was a challenge anyway. I went on a couple of courses, found out what the lights were called (lanterns or instruments) and that you put a lamp inside (not a bulb), the coloured plastic bits on the front were Gels (not film), the bars to hang them from were Electrics or Barrels (not bars), the diagrams were plots and you used LXQs instead of SFXs. Goooood Stufff. |
Since those days, I have thoroughly enjoyed my learning experience, and am now brave enough to try different things when working out lighting plots. I have also invested in a lot of my own kit and hire these out to people interested in am dram (little advert there you will notice). Computerisation has helped a lot as well. I now have a little programme that helps me visualise the stage in 3D and another to show how the mixed colours will look when lighting a teapot! |
Technical is great fun, you can have a real larf, especially in the rehearsals so even if you don’t want to act just yet, come and have a look backstage, you won’t be disappointed. I’m the white haired old XXX who just pressed the GO button and plunged the stage into blackout just as the principle came on …… Oh what power we have!” Nigel Pye |
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