Drama: Stage Lighting

The Stage Lighting Handbook is well established as the classic practical lighting guide. The book explains the process of designing lighting for all forms of stage production and describes the equipment used. This new edition includes up-to-date information on new equipment and discusses its impact on working methods.

If one does not know who a snuff-boy was or how his job related to stage lighting, or needs to understand the difference between motivated light and motivating light, the answers can be found in the more than 1500 detailed entries of this encyclopedia, which is ideal for students, teachers, lighting technicians, lighting designers and all others who have an interest in stage lighting. Some of the numerous topics covered are equipment, methods, concepts, design process, electricity, characteristics of light, and lightboard operations. Where applicable, entries present both the historical and current day significance of the apparatus or concept being introduced. In addition, the many areas of stage lighting that elicit debate are viewed from all angles and the various options presented. This approach will allow the reader to make a personal evaluation of the most appropriate method. Entries are extensively cross-referenced. Computer-generated line drawings and samples of lighting paperwork are included with the entries to which they relate.

In "Lighting the Shakespearean Stage, 1567-1642," ""R. B. Graves examines the lighting of early modern English drama from both historical and aesthetic perspectives. He traces the contrasting traditions of sunlit amphitheaters and candlelit hall playhouses, describes the different lighting techniques, and estimates the effect of these techniques both indoors and outdoors.Graves discusses the importance of stage lighting in determining the dramatic effect, even in cases where the manipulation of light was not under the direct control of the theater artists. He devotes a chapter to the early modern lighting equipment available to English Renaissance actors and surveys theatrical lighting before the construction of permanent playhouses in London. Elizabethan stage lighting, he argues, drew on both classical and medieval precedents.