Introduction

Seeing and drawing in terms of light and dark helps us to remember what is most important about the theatrical event. The most significant thing onstage is not the moulding over the door nor the trim on the cloak, it's the action of the performer. In most contemporary theatre, lighting greatly affects how we will see that action, and in many ways is the most important design tool for a stage director. This exercise provides practice in representing the effects of lighting.

The exercise:

Use a model or sketch model of a simple setting, and light it with clamp lamps, or stage lights in a light lab, or even one or two flashlights. With this lit model as a guide, make drawings of the set as it might appear under several different states of stage lighting. Include at least one person "performing an action" (you may need to invent an action). Use light and darkness to focus attention on the performer and the action. Use simple light sources and strongly directional light, as in the examples below.

It isn't absolutely necessary to use an actual physical model and lights, but it can be very helpful in thinking about the location of shadows and the direction of light. It's important to keep the light sources simple and minimal.

RGardiner

RGardiner

Lorenzo Savoini

Jenny Hsiang

Ron Fedoruk

Ron Fedoruk

Ron Fedoruk

Lighting as a compositional tool in the Theatre is a recent development. 500 years ago, an indoor show was going to be lit by fire. Although stage designers invented elaborate techniques to boost the candlepower of the candles, and although people used as many candles as they could possibly afford, indoor performance was very different in Moliere's time than it is now, and many shows were just plain written for outdoor daytime performance (Shakespeare's plays being a classic example). Whether indoors or out, illumination was "broad." There was no "isolation" of the performer in light, and little or no control over the quality, colour, and direction of the light. All that has changed: for most of our theatre events light and darkness are primary tools for compositional focus and storytelling. An evenly lit drawing of a stage space or a set may represent a picture that will never be seen by an audience. So scenery and lighting designers need to think about how the performers in the setting will appear when lit.

In professional practice, lighting designers don't normally use freehand drawing skills very much. The expected lighting design documents are technical drawings or lists: sketches or paintings of "what the lights might look like" are not required and often impractical to do. Computer modeling programs are making it increasingly practical for lighting designers and directors to see lighting "looks" before arriving in the theatre.