Stage Lighting has many purposes. Some of which include:

•Illumination: Ability to see what is occurring onstage.•Revelation of Form: Altering the perception of shapes onstage•Focus: Directing the audience's attention to an area of the stage or distracting them from another.•Mood: Setting the tone of a scene.•Location and Time of Day: Establishing time and space.•Projection/Stage Elements: Projecting scenery or acting as scenery on stage.•Plot: A lighting event may trigger or advance the action onstage.

Technical Theater: Stage Lighting Instruments

Sydney Little

Types of Lights

Lighting instruments are categorized into “flood lights” or “spot lights”

Flood lights illuminate a large area of space

Spot lights are narrow beams of light which illuminate a more specific spot

Flood Lights

Different kinds of flood lights include: Parabolic Aluminized Reflector lights (PAR

lights): very common because of their low cost, light weight, easy maintenance, high durability, and high output. Also used for top, back, and side stage lighting. Similar to car headlights.

Strip lights, aka cyclorama or cyc lights (named because they are effective for lighting the cyclorama, a curtain at the back of the stage.) Used to light back drop. Typically used with colored gels.

Scoop lights: no lenses, used to flood the stage with light from above, often used as worklights

LED lights: uses halogen lamps or high- intensity discharge lamps. Can created almost any color

Parabolic

Scoop

Strip

LED

Spot Lights

Different kinds of spot lights include: Fresnel lantern: The look of the light is wide and

soft-edged. It is commonly used to create dark shadows, back light, top light, and side light.

Ellipsoidal Reflector Spotlight: creates silhouette

Beam projector: lens less instrument with little beam spread. 2 reflectors. The primary reflector is parabolic and the secondary reflector is spherical

Moving lights: use arc lamps as a light source, Some have standard halogen lamp, stepper motors connected to various devices

Fresnel lantern Ellipsoidal

reflector

Beam projector

Moving Lights