Notes from the Lighting Designer, Hartley T A Kemp (written late September 2002)

Most of the work of lighting the production happens in the lighting session and the technical rehearsal, when the lighting cues are programmed into the lighting console, a specialised computer. The basic ‘looks’ for each scene are created between the director and the lighting designer at the lighting session, and then all of the cues in the play are made at the technical rehearsal, as the actors work through the play onstage. But prior to that the lighting plan must be decided on and drawn by the lighting designer: what types of lantern to use, where to put them, and what colour each one will be.

There are many different sorts of lanterns, or lighting instruments. Profile spots produce a precise beam which can be hard or soft edged, shaped with shutters (such as a square), textured with gobos (such as a leaf break-up to give the effect of light through trees), or even turned into projectors with glass gobos (like slides). Fresnel and pebble convex spots produce a soft-edged beam of light that blends into the beams of other lanterns well, and can be varied in size from a tight spot to a wide flood. Parcans produce a near-parallel very bright oval beam of light, very bright in the centre and soft around the edges, but the size of the beam cannot be changed except by changing the lamp (bulb) type. Floodlights produce a wide flood of light and are mostly used for lighting cycloramas, sky cloths and other large expanses of set. We are using all of these types of instrument on The Tempest, as well as some ‘intelligent lights’ – lights with motorised position, focus, bema size and colour mixing, controlled from the lighting console.

The intelligent lights will be used to augment the standard equipment – their great flexibility is that not only their levels (brightness) but the position on the stage, shape and size of the beam and the colour can be set at the lighting session and technical rehearsal. This means that if things change from the final runs in the rehearsal room once the show is in the theatre, the lighting can be easily adjusted without having to refocus all the lights by hand. Also the colour and even the beam size and position can be changed ‘live’ while the light is on and the time and manner of this change recorded into the lighting desk. This is most used in musicals and music shows, but can also be used subtlety to great effect in theatre. Intelligent lights are relatively new technology for theatre, but they are now starting to become affordable and useful for theatres up and down the country.

Even with intelligent lights, a great number of conventional lanterns are needed to light a large open stage of the size of the Crucible. Because the audience are on three sides, the lighting must enable anyone on any side of the stage to be able to see the action taking place. This does not mean that everyone gets the same picture – the sun comes from one direction and casts only one shadow, something that every lighting designer has to remember. If the ‘key light’. for example the sun in an outdoor scene, comes from one side, then the audience on that side of the auditorium will see a brighter, more front-lit picture then the audience on the opposite side of the auditorium. When lighting open stages I try to give each segment of the audience an even amount of front-lit and side-lit scenes where possible. The same is often true with the direction and acting on open stages, as different sides of the audience see different pictures: some moments in the play will have to be ‘blocked’ to be more visible to one or other sides of the auditorium.

Creating the feeling of the outdoors, and natural daylight or sunlight is a challenge. We are using very large fresnels called 5k’s (they use 5kW, or 5,000 watts of power, compared to a domestic light bulb at 60 or 100 watts) to set the sun key light, and also banks of Parcans to give the impression of parallel rays of sunlight. We will be using a haze machine which puts a fine mist in the air which shows up the beams from the lights. The 5k’s will wash the whole stage from a backlight position high above the stage – only one will be used at a high level at a time, to throw the single shadow of the sun, but different positions and colours will be used for morning, high noon, afternoon and evening. So that everyone in the audience can see, ‘fill’ lights, from different angles, are used to complement the key – these will be smaller fresnels – 1kW and 2kW, positioned around the edge of the stage. For The Tempest the whole stage is also covered by a ‘system’ of profile spots focused into 15 areas, so that any one area can be made slightly brighter or dimmer as necessary, Because the Crucible has an open stage, the system needs to come from three sides, plus a toplight, so, 60 lanterns are focused into the system cover alone.

The lighting designer first talks about the project with the director and set/costume designer months before the set is build and rehearsals start, and in a theatre like the Crucible, the lighting plan is finalised towards the end of the 4-week rehearsal period. This means the lighting designer can see some of the staging in the rehearsal room before finalising the plan. On the plan the exact position of each lantern and type of lantern is decided on – the lighting designer must bear in mind the list of available equipment belonging to the theatre, and the budget for hiring any equipment that the theatre does not have. Each lantern or group of lanterns has its own channel number to control it, and this may be specified on the plan.

The lighting designer also needs to choose the colour for each light. Theatre lights are coloured using transparent medium called ‘gel.’ It used to be made from gelatine, but this would not stand the high temperatures of modern lamps, so the material used is now usually polycarbonate, often triple sealed so that the colour does not fade. Despite this strong colours ‘burn out’ and will have to be changed by the electricians throughout the run. There are several different ranges from different manufacturers giving nearly 1,000 colours to choose from, but lighting designers will often have a favourite palette of colours that they use regularly, the lighting designer chooses colours that complement the set and costume, enhance skin tone, combine well with each other and suit the mood and atmosphere of the piece. The colour is specified on the plan.

For The Tempest we are using a lot of the colours of sun, sea and sky – yellows ranging from pale sunlight to rich golden sunset, ambers and even reds for deep sunset, blues from steel-grey to deep sky evening blue, and the pale green sea-green. We are also using some lavenders and pinks for more magical moments. For Scene 6 we will use yellows in the 5K key lights for the sun, and paler yellows in the fill light, mist and steel blues for the system light and some sky blue overall toplight. The cyc will be lit in pale blue, with a sea-green tinge at its base.

Once the plan has been finalised by the lighting designer and given to the theatre electricians to rig, the lighting designer continues to see rehearsals and starts to decide where lighting cues will go in the action (scene changes, specific lines, specific moves), what each cue will do (moving many or just a few lights), and in what time (anything from 0 seconds to 10 minutes). In this the lighting designer will be working from original discussions with the director. As the show moves from rehearsal room to theatre, the lighting designer gives the final list of cues positions to the DSM (deputy stage manager) who will ‘call’ the cues (tell the operators when to do the cues) at the technical rehearsal, dress rehearsal and performances.

After the lighting session and technical rehearsal are the dress rehearsals, the lighting designer’s chance to look at all the cues happening at once, in theory with no interruptions, and adjust as necessary. The first performances are previews, during which the lighting designer watches the piece from different angles and makes notes of any further adjustments or finessing needed. Many small adjustments in level and timing are made after the first few previews and blocking and stage action may be changed during the day between previews, or sequences re-rehearsed and perfected. But the week after previews the production will finally be ready for press night.

After press night the lighting design will not be changed: the lighting designer moves on to their next show, while the DSM will call the cues and the electricians operate the console for each performance. The electricians will also look after the rig, check the focus, change any blown lamps or burnt-out colour, and start talking to the next show’s lighting designer about their needs.

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