On stage: Essentials of good light design

From using different lights for different scenes to telling stories with shadows, the challenges are aplenty

A theatre performance comes alive with actors, the stories they breathe life into. But a lot goes behind the scenes to deliver a memorable show. Lighting design is one of those aspects as it is key to building or reinforcing the mood of a scene or the entire play.

Manju Narayan, who has six years of experience in the field, gave DH on Saturday a lowdown on stage lighting design.

Basics

A good power supply at the venue is a given. But a dark room, which does not let the outdoor light leak into the stage, is critical. Different lights and light bars to rig the lights in different angles are important equipment.

In terms of a defining principle, he says there is none. There are no strict schools of thought about the stage light design. It varies from one script to another and the vision of the team, says Manju.

Types of lights

This entirely depends on the play, he says. The various lights used include Parcan (a sealed beam unit that is available in narrow, wide and mini formats), Fresnal (a type of focusable spotlight), profile lights, and LED lights. “We play around with these to create varied effects. There are no strict rules about which light should be used for which scene,” he says.

Spotlights help achieve circles and can help in highlighting a character/object. Profile lights help with experimentation (you can achieve a very soft to very hard edge lighting effect, that is). Fresnal lights are used to brush up general lighting or backlight/tint. The Parcan lights are sharper in nature. Pink spotlights use minimal energy and its rays can go up to nine metres. There are smoke, bubble, fire, and water effect lights too, which are used according to the context.

Intelligent lighting like moving head and follow spots are also used.

Different scenes vs lights

In some plays, different scenes require different lights. Some scenes depict outdoors, and some indoors. Some scenes are set in the evening, night or daytime. “These different effects are achieved with Cyclorama lights (similar to border lights). When they are opened, they depict the outdoors. When closed, they depict indoors,” says Manju.

Amber lights depict late evening or early mornings.

It is possible to illuminate a whole area or parts of it, for mid shots, close shots, focussing on an artistes’ face or hand, depending on what the script and director demands.

Challenges

If the stage is small, depicting different settings like a bathroom, balcony, a room, outdoors and others can be challenging.

Limited light equipment can be another obstacle to exercising one’s skill. Unclear directions from directors and unachievable expectations can make things difficult, Manju adds. Showing characters purely as shadows, like in the Kannada play ‘Mouna’, is quite tough, he says.

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