Theatre Stage Lighting Terms

Glossary of technical theatre terms beginners.

Theatre stage lighting terms.

The portion of the stage area visible to the audience usually defined by masking curtains scenery an orchestra shell or by lighting. Several different types of stage lighting instruments are used in this discipline. Stage lighting is the craft of lighting as it applies to the production of theater dance opera and other performance arts. In the theatre industry a piece of flush mounted power distribution equipment comprising a metal box with a hinged protective cover notches in the cover to allow for stage cable to enter the cover in the closed position and one or more female connectors mounted internally for the purpose of supplying electricity to luminaires.

The backstage heritage collection archive has a complete collection of tabs journals for you to read online. While some of these are terms for equipment knowledge of them will. An off stage cover for the lead or star of a show a standby is usually not in the show in any way and often doesn t need to be at the theater during the performance but must check in at. Technical theatre terms.

2 the act of turning off or fading out stage lighting e g. Lighting and sound cues are called for by the stage manager following along in the script with the events of the show. Coloured gels can be added to the front of some lanterns so that they throw coloured light onto the stage. Tabs was a journal published by strand electric between 1937 and 1986 about stage lighting and other equipment produced by the company.

Exit signs and other emergency lighting must remain on at all times. 1 complete absence of stage lighting. Three point stage lighting uses two lights out front about 45 off axis and 30 up. Then the third light is placed behind and about 30 40 up and 60 70 off axis.

Before delving into the different equipment and techniques let s look at a few basic terms used in stage lighting. In addition to basic lighting modern stage lighting can also include special effects such as lasers and fog machines people who work on stage lighting are commonly referred to as. The previous techniques can be problematic for video as they tend to have shadows. Blue working lights backstage should remain on and are not usually under the control of the board except during a dead blackout dbo when there is no onstage light.

In technical terms the trigger be it a line or an event for an action to be carried out at a specific time. Lighting is a very technical area and there are many types of lights or lanterns.