ABSTRACT
Stage lighting operators have an ambivalent relationship to audiences during performance. Unlike other stage crew, they do not work, literally or figuratively, ‘behind the scenes’ or ‘backstage.’ Rather, they occupy a physical position out in the auditorium, sharing the audience’s perspective and subjecting the onstage action to their own particular form of spectatorial scrutiny. And yet, like other stage crew, they encounter the performance as a job, a routinely repeated activity without the affective experience the paying audience has. This work, whether pleasurable or tedious, offers a revealing point of reflection for understanding the relationship between leisure and labour.
