ABSTRACT
The process of designing lighting for a play starts, as it does for any type of performance, by establishing the contribution expected from light. The lighting style that will be appropriate for a particular production of a particular drama text is not at all easy to determine. However, most styles stem from some degree of realism, even if that realistic connection is rather distant. Most plays are about people. Their behaviour, to be credible, needs to relate to the behaviour of ourselves and the people around us. And we audience will probably relate more readily to the play if its environment has some connection, however tenuous, with the world that we live in. Consequently, many production styles come under a heading that might be called heightened realism. Acting and scenery become an exaggerated and/or simplified version of the reality of ‘normal’ life. Therefore, in seeking the lighting style for a play, a useful starting think-point is reality. To what extent, and in what ways, will the light depart from an attempt to copy the natural lighting sources in the sky and the artificial light sources developed by mankind's determination to overcome the daily cycle of darkness?
