ABSTRACT
Painting with light is an art form that requires the ultimate
understanding of what is seen versus what should not
be seen-in characters, in text, in our complex world of
imagery, in our minds, and most importantly in our shared
human experience of the heart. It also requires that you
work in the eye of the hurricane where you know your
craft well enough to paint with audacity and vulnerability
despite the myriad of the moving parts of set, sound,
costume, projections, playwrights, and directors. Being a
lighting designer requires you to jump off the proverbial
cliff hundreds of times in a tech rehearsal knowing that you
will either land on your feet or learn how to fl y. Theatrical
design-any and all of it-requires a breed with courage
to take such daily leaps of faith, especially in the fi rst ten
out of 12 tech rehearsals with a stage manager looking
sideways with that look-that look of… “give me the
damn cue.” “Working…”
Pip Gordon, lighting designer
Lighting design as we know it today is the use of light
to shape and sculpt space, illuminate the actors on
stage, produce special effects, and to create mood and
atmosphere. The use of light in theatre may be as old as
the art of formalized theatre itself. The Greeks aligned
their large, outdoor theatres-such as those at Dionysus
and Epidaurus-with the sun in order to take advantage of
natural lighting. This preparation for the effects created by
natural lighting could be characterized as design. Over the
following centuries, lighting design developed extensively, fi rst
using natural and then artifi cial sources. Sunlight, moonlight,
candlelight, oil lamps, gas lamps, torches, limelight, and electric
arc light have all played a part in early lighting for theatre.
