11 Painting with Light

ASSUMING a layout exists to provide illumination, as in the
previous chapter, it is now necessary to consider what to
superimpose upon it to paint a particular lighting picture.
To do this, it will be both necessary to add something to
suggest a reason or motivation for the dominant effect and
also to mould the sources already existing for illumination,
mainly by the use of dimmers and/or colour filters to back
up this effect.
 To keep the whole exercise within simple terms, the basic
illumination layout of Fig. 134 on page 235 is used throughout
to illustrate a series of naturalistic examples. This does not
signify a preference on my part for naturalism or that this
layout is suitable only for, or is the only one suitable for, that
kind of work. The variables are so great as to size and type
of stage and amount of equipment, to say nothing of the show
and style of production that only generalizations can be used
with safety. This means a vagueness which is not helpful to
the beginner, and to avoid this the specific layout is shown
producing a number of naturalistic effects while the text
ranges somewhat wider afield. This is lighting at the five-
finger-exercise stage, and no one should be content to remain
there. I remain nervous, however, because it is a fact that,
when I queried on one occasion some years ago why an entire
theatre project had been drawn to 1/16--in. scale, the answer
was that the scale was the one I had used for the theatre plans
in my own book. It simply had not been realized that my
scale was enforced by the size of the book page and not by
choice!
 The whole basis of using light to convey a dominant idea
or to provide motivation, call it what you will, is observation.
Once one tries to go beyond mere illumination, the lighting
for perception or deception, the position is analogous to the
process of memory drawing. In that case, instead of sitting
down before the actual scene with pencil and paper, the image
is first committed consciously or unconsciously to the brain.
So too with lighting there must be a picture stored somewhere
in the head as to what sunlight itself looks like and what it
does to its surroundings before one can set about producing
sunlight on the stage. The whole time it is a matter of obser-
vation, keeping the eyes open and storing for future use.
What does a night sky really look like? One thing is certain:
it seldom looks like the conventional No. 19 or 20 dark or
deep blue often used in the theatre. In the suburbs of a big
town, a night sky may often look brown or grey-pink, not
blue at all. Likewise a fine day sky may present difficulties
unless it is realized that the particular grey-blue often seen
looks summer-like only so long as some building, some scenery,
is brightly lit in the same picture.

Observation and the Painter
A short cut to this eye-training is to do some of it second-hand
by visiting art galleries to see things through an artist's eyes.
The Dutch painters, for example, knew all about light. One
among many, the Pieter de Hooch interior (Fig.129) shows
how stage lighting could have been used in the fifteenth
century had there been any. Rembrandt's "The Woman Taken
in Adultery" (Fig. 130) is a perfect piece of dramatic lighting--
spotlighting from the left side, with full value made of contrast
and of the scarcely seen. Of course, if the producer were to
make the characters play out that big scene down-stage left,
or on some infernal apron, instead of on the altar steps, then
it could not be lit that way. But then, if he knows how to use
lighting effectively, he will realize the much better result of
playing it up-stage. The notion that principals must be
brought down-stage with the crowd in the background seems
to arise from the lack of realization that down-stage can be the
least important area if it is not lit--provided always the various
levels are arranged to avoid masking. Many crowd scenes of
this kind would gain if no front of house lighting were used
at all. We should then get the dark foreground figures sil-
houetted against the others. Georges De la Tour, the painter of
Louis XIV's time, often uses this effect in his obsession with
artificial light in the latter years of his life (Fig. 131). Stage
lighting from the front of house is vital, but try leaving it off
sometimes. Hogarth is a painter whose pictures seem to be
the very embodiment of stage scenes. Constable can be com-
pared with Canaletto to find the distinction between English
and Italian light. The latter's habit of putting half the scene
in shade to stress the sunlight is particularly instructive
(Fig. 132).
 All through this chapter, light and shade to give contrast
is going to come up time and time again. Without it the
lighting is going to be mediocre-just illumination, and not
very good illumination at that. As we saw in the previous
chapter, flat lighting does not assist perception. To use lighting
dramatically is to position the characters to suit the light, not the
other way round. Only the producer can do this--which
brings us back once again to the fact that he must see the
lighting in his mind's eye when working out any moves at even
the earliest rehearsals. "He, elated, goes over to lean against
the pillar (mid-stage left) in the shaft of sunlight, while she,
depressed, moves over to the shade (down-stage right)." The
alternative will be: "He and she leave pool of` light centre to
arrive at their respective pools mid-stage left and down-stage
right." This will light them right enough, but without a
message for anyone because the producer himself had none to
convey--he was just "doing the lighting."
 Some of the commoner forms of lighting found in real life
must now be examined in relation to the means open to us to
reproduce them on the stage. This assumes a proscenium stage,
there being too great a limitation on angle and distribution in
audience-encompassed forms. However, adaptation may be
possible in some cases, admittedly with some compromise.
  The first thing that will be noticed is the large diffused
 component in all lighting, and particularly daylight. Outdoors
 the source is obviously the sky. The light from this enormous
 surface is soft and absolutely shadow-free. This does not mean
 that there is no variation in intensity, no light pattern over
 the earth. There is less light under the spreading chestnut
 tree, for example, but the boundary is not defined at all. To
 take an extreme case, there is of course less light in a room the
 amount depending not only on the size of the window but on
 the amount of sky by which the window is backed when seen
 from the various parts of the room. Diffusion not only involves
 the original source; but everywhere the light strikes there is
 further diffusion to a greater or lesser degree depending on
 the nature and colour of the surface. This kind of light does,
 in fact, turn corners; not nearly as well as sound, but in much
 the same way. Even the most defined and parallel ray of light
 --sunlight shining through a chink in the shutters-still
 introduces diffusion for the odds are that the ray will strike a
 diffusing surface and scatter back into the room. Even if by
 chance it impinged on a mirror, the diverted beam would land
 up on a diffuser eventually.
  Nor does this diffusion apply only to daylight. The chan-
 delier hanging over the table is supplemented by its own light
 returned from the tablecloth, and shadows in the eye-sockets
 and under the chin of the diners are softened thereby.

 Softlight
 A serious problem is posed by all this diffusion in the world
 we are to imitate for we have to keep light in its place and
 cannot permit it to reveal everything. What, therefore, is
 the answer? Before giving this, some methods of providing
 diffused or softlight might be examined. The first and com-
 monest in the theatre is the compartment batten. Some forty
 or so lamps of 100 or 150 watts hang in a line as close together
 as their reflectors allow. Subdivided for colour, one is reduced
 to using, say, every third lamp and this puts up the centres.
 However, using diffusers or frosts the apparent area of each
 light source can be increased somewhat and the result becomes
 tolerable. What, however, cannot be tolerated is the way this
 light behaves if used as the principal source of illumination.
 The trouble can be summed up as going all over the place
and lighting the top of the scenery to a brighter level than the
acting area itself. This latter can be overcome to some extent
by suitable reflectors or even by using sealed-beam PAR lamps.
These latter do, however, involve extra weight and expense
which seriously limits their field of use. Nor is a narrow angle
beam reflector or the concentrated beam of the PAR, which
is necessary to get the light down on the acting area, really
equivalent to diffuse light; rather it equates to a series of close
centred spots. Instead of every character receiving some light
from all the compartments, from, if not one large surface at
least a number of small surfaces, in fact only some are actively
concerned. On the whole, while these PAR battens have some
special applications, I think they had better be disregarded in
the present context and battens should be taken to mean a
wide-angle light as soft as possible (Fig.133).
 In these, it will be the object of the reflector to prevent waste
of light which otherwise would not be used, and thereby to
back up this effect. To prevent the top of the wing scenery
receiving a splash of direct light from one or two close-range
compartments, these can either be killed or never put there
in the first place by keeping the batten shorter; all the rest
receives an amalgam of everything. Such a system has the
advantage that although there is some drop-off with distance
the drastic inverse square law does not apply.(1) These battens
should never be hung close to and in front of the borders except
for special effects, as in some light entertainment where these
are featured as part of the decor. In other applications one
would hope that borders, if necessary, would be few and
retiring. A batten may be required immediately behind the
proscenium to make softlight available and on really compre-
hensive adaptable installations not only would this be essential
but it should be supplemented by the traditional rows at
intervals up and down stage though these are found only in
opera houses nowadays.
  (1)The inverse square law and the effect of multiple sources
     was described in Chapter 4.

 Before the reader rushes off to buy a complete set of these
things or accuses me of`going back on the doctrine of spotlights
I have preached for years, I shall remark that, while this is the
inevitable logic of trying to imitate the principal light in nature,
it is a paradox that this kind of light is only of secondary
importance in stage lighting, being used for accompaniment
and seldom for solo work. Another piece of accompaniment
equipment which should never get a solo role is the footlight.

Footlights
This source of lighting has got itself a bad name in the past
through being too bright. Thus, more lighting was ruined by
its use than was in fact aided. On small stages all the money
was squandered on battens and footlights first and one was
lucky if any spots were included at all. To counter this, the
conversation was kept on the other essential equipment and
any reference to the floats was omitted. It was to redress the
balance that the Junior footlight, a simple open trough of one
circuit of silica-sprayed lamps, was introduced. It just clips
on the front of the stage without any special trough, has no
great power and occupies only one dimmer, but a touch from
this can make all the difference to those shadows in the eye
sockets, under the chin and the hat brim. Where do these
shadows come from? Why, from the spots described in the
previous chapter.

Impressionism and Naturalism
How does one justify the use of these sources so different from
the diffuse light of nature? Simply by the fact that this is
Theatre and to use the words imitate and reproduce a few pages
ago was quite wrong. It is our job, even in the most natural-
istic play and setting, to give an impression of the light of
nature.
This involves discrimination to select what is important and
discard what is not. It also puts our lighting in an interpretive
role for it is our own impression that is put over.
 It is possible to argue the philosophy of naturalism versus all
the other "isms" in the scenic side of the production, for real
rooms can be built and, even if real live trees are not used (and
they have been), then passable imitation ones with fabulous
individual plastic leaves and all the rest can be made. With
stage lighting the situation is different: we cannot even
remotely approach nature. Intensity and distribution is
completely wrong, so it is Hobson's choice-impressionism or
nothing. Just take intensity real daylight is 100 times as
bright as the most optimistic level we might achieve; real
moonlight is 100 times lower than the level we can put up with
in order to sit through a scene.
So it is that the question which has to be added to the needs
of illumination is: "What impression do we wish to convey ?"
The answer should be capable of being written down and may
consist of a long or short sentence, or even a single word. It is
interesting that this dominant idea is not necessarily tied to
naturalist phenomena. The answer may be "hopelessness,"
even though it is a fine sunny day in a garden like that of A
Month in the Country. On the other hand, the reverse could
easily apply. Some farces have depended on bad and gloomy
weather for their comic situations. "Is the sunlight kind or
hurtful?" is likely to be a far more important question than:
"Does sunlight really behave like that?" So one is launched
on a deep sea of psychological lighting without a single violet
or green spot or other expressionist aid -merely the afternoon
light gently caressing the curtains at the open french window.

Scale in Lighting
In composing lighting, a scale has to be determined first of all
and then all work is tied to this. It is just as likely that the
lighting will be ruined by an overbright unit as by something
too dim. The designer who builds his layout from zero can
keep everything in scale, whereas the majority who take over
a stage for a night, or a week if they are lucky, are faced with
what already exists. Additions to this should be made with
care. Import some super units and the rest of the lighting is
dwarfed. I often think the most important step that can be
taken towards brighter stage lighting is to dim auditorium
lighting. Even with the most vicious fluorescent installation,
the lights can be taken out early and the eyes of the audience
rested by something gentle on the curtain. We need an over-
true and an entr'acte just as much for our eyes as our ears.
It is most important to have a specific curtain effect available
on one dimmer, to be brought in when necessary. The footlight
used to be able to do this hut it is not often available and the
spots set for the show make such ugly patches that they are
left off. The consequence is that the audience are either left
sitting in the dark or pitchforked with a jerk into the act.
Even on an open stage there can be some interval and entr'acte
effect; quite mad things go on in these anti-curtain days. For
example, I saw a production- of Arms and the Man on a thrust
stage with the scenery set on the main stage at the back. The
curtain was closed to change the scene there but opened once
this was done to reveal the new set in the house lights. These
dimmed later to darkness in order that Louka and Nicola
could take up their opening positions. The stage lighting was
then raised to reveal the complete scene: the impact of the
change of set had been completely lost. A rather similar misuse
of the house tabs occurred in The Devils at the Aldwych.
Although these had been used during the show they were
not allowed to open it or close it.
 In setting a scale of lighting, it is just as well to begin some-
where. Stanley McCandless said in 1947 that "a little as ten
foot-candles of general illumination on the stage conveys the
impression (of daylight) adequately."(1) It could still pass,
provided the audience had time to get dark-adapted, but I
think today this should at least double--20 foot-candles. The
professional West End theatre probably uses at least 50 foot-
candles. What does 20 foot-candles look like? Well, a 500-watt
6-in. Fresnel spot flooded to cover 12 ft at 20 ft range gives
about 20 foot-candles at the centre of the beam. This falls
off to one half. over the centre 8 ft and then diminishes to one-
tenth at the edges. Taking Fig. 120 on page 211 and 134 above,
bearing in mind that each area has two spots on it and that
the spots lap over each other considerably, we are not too
wide of our target. The front of house spots would be throwing
farther but their beam spread should be adapted to suit by
choosing the right lens. Thus, a 500-watt Profile spot covering
10 ft at 30 ft gives 20 foot-candles.
 The next matter that arises is what wattage to use for high-
lighting effects, such as sunlight. This, of course, may be light
put on top of light, but on the other hand such light is often
directed at scenery only and this could be dark painted; accord-
ingly, double wattage will be more appropriate--thus, 500-watt
Fresnels for acting area illumination, 1000-watt for direct sun-
light. In a larger theatre, the wattages are doubled: 1000 watts
for acting area, 2000 watts for sunlight. Personally, I consider
that in most cases the extra wattage for highlighting will be
better
obtained by using a larger lantern rather than two smaller ones.

Basic Layout
For the purposes of the discussion on lighting that follows, a
basic layout (as Fig. 134) is assumed. It consists of six acting
 (1)A Method of Lighting the Stage (Theatre Arts, N.Y.), 1958
     reprint repeats this.

areas with spots paired to each and a change of colour is not
provided to these. When essential, specials will be added as
they are also for any special effect, dominant or otherwise. Of
course, if the stage were deeper or there was a forestage, then
extra areas and spots to correspond will be needed. All spots
are fitted with No. 52 Pale Gold and the areas lap well over
into each other so that at head height of a standing actor there
is no sense of division. The squares are diagrammatic only.
The spots would be in the order required to get the correct
angle and are shown in numerical sequence only for the sake
of clarity.
 The softlight is shown as compartment batten immediately
in the centre of the No. 1 bar just upstage of the proscenium

(Fig.134). It points vertically downwards and there are two
circuits: Noú 51 Gold Tint and No. 40 Pale Blue, all with
heavy diffusers. Twelve feet of this is imagined for a 24-ft
opening, making eight compartments warm in colour and eight
cold. On very small shallow stages with little overhead height,
the softlight circuits might have to be made up of a lesser
number of baby floods interleaved among the spots. This
would negative the softlight effect to some extent but would
allow individual angling and masking with hoods when
essential to correct bad shadows. It might be argued that
extra spots would be better in these circumstances, but these
simply do not have a wide enough spread, nor does the lens
have sufficiently large a surface area to serve the same purpose
on a small scale. When compartment batten is used, the two
lengths may be separated at the centre to allow spots for special
effects to be introduced at that point. A useful extra spot
position is that known as the perch, at one time actually a
platform, nowadays often only consisting of brackets high at
the side of the proscenium or even just a boom as far
down-stage
as possible. On much larger stages, the spots and the batten
can hang on separate lines and a lot more of the former can
be accommodated and a greater length of the latter (Fig. 133).
  There has been a great tendency to say one can do without
 softlight, particularly -when discussing open stages, but it is
 of interest that Donald Mullin, who has a lot of practical
 experience with theatre-in-the-round at Tufts University,
 Massachusetts, even uses two batten lengths pointing vertically
 down (side by side) over the centre of the acting area, and this
 in spite of a layout which uses some 56 spots of various sorts.
 He explains that these in the context of the proscenium theatre
 "serve to wash the acting areas and the setting, removing
 unwanted hard edges and neutralizing spill. They also add a
 colour tone to the entire stage, as opposed to specific colour
 requirements for individual areas."(1)
    (1)"Lighting the Arena Stage," Tabs, Volume 23, Number 2.

 No lighting is shown upstage on the standard layout as this
will be special to the type of scene.

Interiors: Natural Light
Assuming it is the direct rays of the sun, stage left, that are
doing
"the caressing" of the french window curtains referred to
earlier, the stage picture can be shaped accordingly. Spots
Nos. 2 and 3 and 8 and 9 in the basic layout become
accented by dimming the others slightly (Fig. 135)ú Spots
1 and 7 cannot be accented as this side of the stage would
receive less light from the window with the sun in that direction.
If the window were assumed to be in the fourth wall, then
they could be so used or, of course, if there were a window in
the wall stage left. Since this is daylight, some softlight from
the warm circuit, perhaps both, is required. In this minimal
working it will probably provide sufficient light for the walls
of the room and help to blend in the beams of the acting area
spots where they strike them. If, as the diagram suggests, there
is only one window upstage, then two things must show there:
the diffused light of the sky and the direct rays of the sun.
Any sky, backcloth or cyclorama, may require softlight from
an overhead batten but it is unlikely that the blue needed will
suit the upstage acting area beyond the window; in conse-
quence, this sky light must be kept off that area. This would
also apply to any Linnebach (see Chapter 12) or other effect
used to give a broken sky. Once it is admitted that the light
for the sky is not going to be used on the acting area and be
allowed to throw multi-coloured shadows there, then the way
is open to discard a batten for this purpose and use a few
individual floods of, for example, 500 Watts each, hanging well
clear and throwing as flat on to the cloth as possible to minimize
wrinkles.
 The acting area upstage of the window is likely to be a
problem to light, because of the lack of space on the kind of
stage
we are talking about. Though softlight would be more correct,
the only things that can be kept under tight control are Profile
spots hanging at the sides, possibly on the same bar as carries
the backcloth softlight. If this brings the latter too close, then
a boom would have to be used. Provided these side spots are
high, actors will walk on facing them, turning out of them only
to enter by the French window. These spots are for illumination
but may need to be accented by dimming one of them slightly.
Whether this will be necessary will depend on the decisiveness
of the sunlight. This must register on something, otherwise it
will be useless, so it is a matter of working back from the
objects
which one wants to be gilded by the sunlight and thence to
the position outside the window which will allow this to be
done. It may well be that two lanterns will do this better than
one, since they can then be pinned down and not only directed
to tell at the points required but at one and the same time be
kept from straying out of bounds. In any case, the nearer the
beam approaches parallel the better it resembles sunlight.
With two sun sources, one must avoid too obviously conflicting
shadows. If, however, one is regarded as the actor's sun and
the other as belonging to the scenery, the risk is lessened.
 A boom pipe off-stage at the correct angle is the approved
mounting, but this can be used only if the lanterns can be
placed high off-stage and yet enter the window to some
extent. In extremely cramped conditions, it may be necessary
to treat this sunlight purely as a local decorative effect, smaller
Fresnels being put close to the off-stage edge of the window
frame.
 The wall of the room, actor's right opposite the sun, should
be brighter than the others and it may be necessary to provide
supplementary lighting for it from the spot bar or left perch
position, if there is one. Other additions would be specials if
one wanted to draw particular attention to a centre of action
or lift an important entrance. It is going to be a nuisance if
either of these has to take place stage left as this should be
less brightly lit than the right. It must be if there is to be any
sense of motivation at all. A second window in that wall would
provide the excuse to put extra light that side, by accenting
spots Nos. I and 7 in addition to 2, 3, 8, and 9. This is, in
any case, an interesting exercise for it raises the question of
matching the backings of two separate windows. The first
piece of advice is try to prevent the audience seeing directly
out of this second window as matching is seldom possible under
ideal conditions. Where, as is all too likely at the side, the
backing is cramped close to the window frame, because of lack
of wing space, the result is stagey in extreme. Whenever
possible, lace curtains or muslin or something of that sort
should intervene. Even when the window concerns an office
or factory, the actual opening can be filled with gauze, linen,
or even just Cyanamid that can prevent the sense of open frame
with a view beyond. Other backings to watch will concern
doors, and unless something splendid is going on off-stage,
like a ball, then ii is just a matter of providing some light and
it will be a better fault to have too little rather than too much.
In this context, a baby flood with diffuse over the door should
suffice. Never use a flood on a stand directly downstage of
the doorway so that one sees the actor's shadow on the backing.
This is bad enough as he makes his entrance, but may betray
his presence while waiting for it.

Overhead Masking
The set as so far assumed has been vagueness itself, but it is
necessary before going any further to become specific in respect
of one thing and that is overhead masking.
 At one time it was possible to say with conviction that every
interior should have a ceiling rigged over it. I think I still
believe this if full height scenery is used and there is any
pretence of naturalism at anything resembling domestic level.
A complete series of flats terminating at borders which cut
across their tops looks terrible. On the other hand, cut-down
scenery is open to no such objection. This principle has been
much advocated by Perch Carry with amateurs in mind, but
it has been commonplace to see sets of this type on the West
End stage. For example, those of Abd'Elkader Farrah for the
Royal Shakespeare Company's Cherry Orchard at the Aldwych.
This type of scenery is low and set in front of dark, preferably
black, drapes. Light is concentrated at acting area height and
the rest is ignored. The line of the top of the scenery can be
broken by profiling or by the extra height of a window or
chimney-piece. The important thing is that there is never
any suggestion that the overhead masking borders belong in
any way to the set; they must keep their distance and be
forgotten.
  Another form of masking consists of floating ceiling pieces
which do not belong at all to the drapes or scenery. They are
quite frankly there as masking. The object is not to mask by
filling completely the space overhead and blocking all lines of
sight but to mask by blinding. If the off-stage space overhead
is black and the floating ceilings are grey, then it will be
impossible to see past their edges.(1) It is not necessary to light
the ceilings; they will pick up sufficient scatter from the stage
lighting to provide enough contrast to suggest a black abyss
beyond. The fact that these ceiling pieces can be made to
leave gaps all around and break back to form slots to take
intermediate curtain tracks and lighting bars greatly increases
lighting angles available for special effects. On no account
should the ceiling be permanent. An item over or on the stage
which cannot readily be removed, however worthy, is an
obstruction.
  Ceiling masking problems are greatly lessened when the
stage floor is low and the audience tend to look down on it.
Whatever is used up there must be retiring and certainly
should not be lit. Many stages have a light set of "silver grey"
borders and this, plus a high stage floor and a low flat one in the
auditorium, makes them draw the eye. Borders and overhead
masking are there, with few exceptions, to prevent the audience
seeing something even less desirable. Thus the overhead
regions,
as they are, have to be weighed in the balance and the decision
  (1) This kind of ceiling has its points when used over the
auditorium as well.
     The floating architectural shapes are often referred to as
"clouds" and may also
     function as part of the acoustic design.

taken to mask or not and if so how much, will depend on the
amount of height available and other such factors.
 In practical terms, lighting becomes much easier once the
proscenium position can be used without the need for another
batten behind a border at mid-stage, and so forth. If there
are a number of borders fixed in position, then try to keep
direct light off them. Certainly never be tempted to use the
edge of a border as a cut-off upstage for unwanted light from
a batten, a kind of curtain barndoor, for this means the border
itself will be lit. The proper thing to use is a hood to each
compartment or to make a metal flipper to attach to one edge
of the batten so that the up and downstage spread can be
restricted. This is where the individual baby floods may be
better than a continuous batten since then they can be angled
and masked more readily. Unfortunately, for reasons discussed
earlier, these do not constitute true softlight.

Evening
It would seem inevitable in our drama for the sun to set and
thereafter night must fall in the room already discussed. The
simplest and most effective way of conveying this would be
to cross-fade the sun spots for a sunset glow lower down and
preferably, but not essentially, at a different angle in the
horizontal plane as well. The sunset spot should be less
powerful than the sun it replaces. The sky darkens, of course,
and it is here the value of a Linnebach comes in because apart
from the opportunity it gives to make a sunset it lessens the
risk of its being marred by stray light. Associated with evening
there may have to be a sense of the coolness, but, as all the
illumination spots are No. 52 Pale Gold and will get warmer
and warmer as they dim down, this is where the cold circuit
of softlight can be made to dominate to cool the shadows.

Artificial Light
As the sunset proceeds, it will be necessary to switch on the
wall bracket stage left, then the table lamp right, and finally
the chandelier centre. Each of these artificial sources must
have its own field of influence so that they can be used
separately
or combined in any order. Artificial light cues are very
common and are worth consideration in detail.
 In J. B. Priestley"s play, The Glass Cage, it seemed to me that
the characters spent most of their time going from one fitting
to another and turning them up or down. An artificial light
source must give an impression of local distribution otherwise
little distinction can be made without a change of colour and
that cannot be permitted in elementary exercises like this.
The bracket on the wall primarily demands spot No. 7 as the
one giving least conflict to the direction of the light. On the
grounds of modelling and visibility, we must add spot No. 10
but No. 7 is the accented one. In point of fact, unless the room
is supposed to be enormous, the light from the bracket would
have struck all the walls including the fourth one, so some
return light from that direction is legitimate albeit at low
intensity. This would certainly allow spot No. 1 to be added.
Thus, the wall bracket consists of No. 7 accented plus 1 and
10 on check (Fig. 138). Of course, to get the right level for
feel and not to spill on the sky, all may be on check; the
accenting being relative to the others of the group.
 The actual level of light from the bracket will have to be
sufficient to register it as alight but not to draw the eye. A
particular thing to avoid is that sense of bloom on the lamp
shades which comes when they are overpowered by the spot
that has to represent their illumination. There is also some-
times a tell-tale shadow under the bracket. The solution is to
allow the bracket to give off quite an amount of light but not
in the direction of the audience. This is best considered in the
case of the next source--the table lamp.
 A table lamp, being of necessity low down, is going to suffer
most if the illumination it is supposed to be giving comes
entirely from high up. Whenever possible, therefore, it should
be permitted to act as a source of light but not in the direction
of the audience. The interior of the shade in that direction
can be lined with neutral filters, like Nos. 55, 56, and 60, or
that side of the shade covered with darker material. The light
will then escape from the far side and on to the table top and
thence to correct eye-socket shadows which might appear from
overhead spots.
 All this may seem finicky and likely to lead to disaster,
especially in those cases when the action requires the lamp to
be brought in and stood on the table, but, if the fitting is given
the right feel to the hand, then one is asking no more than

that the actress shall pour the tea from the pot out of the spout
and not the handle. It is particularly important, especially
on a low stage, that light from these prop fittings shall be
prevented from going upwards and throwing a patch on the
ceiling or borders A disc of card or metal set in the open
top of shades will prevent this. On the subject of prop. fittings,
it should be remarked that Strand Electric publish a catalogue
which enables these to be selected by post for hire. In London,
not only their large collection. but the even larger collection
of J.M.B. Limited, another member of the same group, can
be seen together in Shepherds Bush.
 The table lamp, unless it is situated right downstage, will,
like the wall bracket, require an accented spot plus two others,
in this case Nos. 12, 9, and 6 respectively. I referred earlier
to De la Tour's use of light with darkness downstage so to speak,
and one cannot help feeling that it would be nice to be able
to leave out FOH spots Nos. 1 and 6 for this effect. Nowadays,
it is possible to go even further in local light for a miniature
100-watt Fresnel spot is available which is only 4 3/4X4 3/4x3
inú
in size. This represents a reasonable source which can be
concealed in furniture and other props, and thereby opens the
way to lighting that grows locally from within the actor's
world rather than being projected upon it.
 The chandelier is an obvious case for spots Nos. 8 and 11,
but, as it hangs in the centre, both would be equally accented
and 2 and 5, if added from the FOH, well checked down.
It is now possible to set out a plot for these three distinct effects
and it could be imagined as something like this-

   Wall bracket: No. 7 Full, Nos. 1 and 10 at 1/2.
   Table lamp: No. 12 Full, Nos. 6 and 9 at 1/2.
   Chandelier: Nos. 8 and 11 Full, Nos. 2 and 5 at 1/2.

When added together, the twelve spots (Fig. 139) would be as
follows: No. I at 1/2; 2 at 1/2ú 3 at 0; 4 at 0; 5 at 1/2; 6 at 1/2;
7 at Full; 8 at Full; 9 at 1/2; 10 at 1/2; 11 at Full; 12 at Full.
Quite
apart from the fact that two spots are not used at all, the
distribution will appear very different from the day scene
described earlier, which would probably turn out more like
this: No. 1 at 3/4; 2 at Full; 3 at Full; 4 at 0; 5 at 3/4; 6 at 3/4;
7 at 3/4; 8 at Full; 9 at Full; 10 at 3/4 11 at 3/4; 12 at 3/4.
  The daylight also included some softlight at full, whereas
for the artificial there would be none, or only a touch, so it
can be seen that the spots which are there for illumination of
the acting area can be blended to provide considerable motiva-
tion as well. For clarity, I have used the same check levels for
unaccented spots. Unless the room curtains are drawn or there
was an interval in which something darker was put as backing
behind the windows then it would not be possible to use the
same levels. Light would scatter from the acting area on to the
night sky. Under these circumstances, the accented spots are
not likely to be at more than 1/2 check and the others at 1/4
check.
Once again, this is a simplification, there being no reason
whatever why check levels should be all alike; they will each
take the level at which the eye tells us the correct balance has
been achieved and which lessens the more objectionable
shadows in the sky.
 Where a lower lighting level such as this would be inappro-
priate to hold for long, a production detail like closing the
curtains after the table lamp has established itself is obviously
a great help to the further lightening of the stage, particularly
with the centre chandelier. Whether or not the closing of the
window curtains is permitted, there must be something across
the window frames. This has already been alluded to under
daylight, but at night this is essential for under most conditions
of artificial lighting we do not in reality see out very well even
through uncurtained glass. Thus, any attempt by adding light
on backings to overcome scatter and shapes of window frames
being projected thereon is doomed. Too much light is added
to light. If the french windows have to remain open, then the
conditions resemble open air and this comes up later. In the
present context, grey gauze stretched across any window that
has to remain uncurtained will prevent us seeing too well into
the night beyond.
 The introduction of` lighting fittings as a supposed source
of illumination opens the way to positioning of special spots
to light, for example, corners other than from the spot bar
behind the proscenium, and thus gives a chance for some
interesting back lighting. If the stage represents a large
ballroom lit by a series of wall brackets across the back and
down the sides, it would be legitimate to assume that at least
some of these brackets hang on the fourth wall so great freedom
in choice of lighting angle becomes possible. It is a matter of
lighting for glitter and excitement and, as in real life, this is
achieved by patchy contrasty light. On the stage this means
lighting from the sides, as described later under Ballet.
 An extreme case of making the lighting fittings actually
work is given by the use of 2-kW Fresnels hanging vertically
to represent them in John Dexter's production of Arnold
Wesker's play The Kitchen at the Royal Court Theatre in
London (Fig. 140). These sources had also to serve the purpose
of making the actors really sweat as they mimed the frenzied
activity of the lunch service.

Moonlight
From the Point of view of lighting, the drawing-room box set
is more confining than ever castle or dungeon. Lighting
phenomena there are familiar--the audience are on home
ground. In lighting for another age, problems are eased but
even then so long as there is some suggestion of naturalism in
the sets then rules like one moon only or, at any event, from
one side only must prevail. Which side ? Well, if the sun has
just set stage right, a full moon is not going to rise shortly after
on the same side just to allow us to use the same lantern and
merely change the colour. The departing sun is the source of
light for the moon which means it must be positioned on the
opposite side of the stage.
 We are now settled in the room by the fireside, with the
moonlight streaming through the windows in much the same
way as the sun did but from the opposite side and using a tint
such as No. 40 or No. 18). It is a romantic scene and at least
part, if not all, the room lighting is extinguished so the problem
arises of sufficient light to hold the interest. The excuse for
this is the moon itself coming in from the right, but even
assuming the only windows for this to stream through are
upstage, some faking would be permissible by adding a spot
in the same colour from perch or extreme right-hand end of
No. 1 spot bar. Such a change of angle, if diffused and carefully
set, need not strain credulity. Remembering that where the
moonlight strikes there is some diffusion, this can even permit
a slight token light in the reverse direction if absolutely neces-
sary. These moon spots would be additional to the twelve
acting area spots unless as might be the case out front there is
some means of changing colour. Even so this might not work
well, because a switch cue in or out of the moonlight effect
might need to employ the self-same spot to represent artificial
light and a colour-filter change would catch us on the hop.
The safe method is to regard the twelve acting area spots as
sacrosanct, both as to colour and positioning, and regard the
rest as specials. Sure enough, if we are tempted to move one
a little now it will spoil its use for another scene to come or
possibly one already lit. The agents for expression in respect
of these spots are the dimmers and they should have one each.

Firelight
Firelight is useful both to aid the moonlit scene and to add
interest to a scene with the lamps lit. Anyway, some plays
specifically mention the fire and direct some business therewith.
Generally speaking, what sits in the grate is of little importance
--hardly anyone sees it anyway; it is the light from the fire
that must be our first charge.
 There are two important things to remember about firelight.
Firstly, its light is not red and, secondly, when active it is a
sheet of flame and this is a large source. A good ready-made
colour for a fire is No. 34 Golden Amber, but if the fire really
blazes it gets yellower. As a good fire is a sheet of flame, a
floodlight is a better representation than the usual baby spot.
One would expect firelight to go over everything including the
ceiling of the room. Where more control is needed and we
simply dare not allow light upwards, a Fresnel flooded wide
will be a good compromise. An arrangement of two or three
100-watt miniature Fresnels might be more convenient than
a single larger one.

Morning
There remains the morning after. It is reasonable to assume
the early light is cold and, as the softlight has the only cold
circuit, this will have to be used. This is by no means a bad
thing for early light is diffused light anyway. As early light
increases it is going to become necessary to introduce the acting
area spots and it is here that a colour change out front could
be very helpful. The loss of spots in a cold colour will be more
serious out front as the softlight is only effective upstage of the
proscenium. It is easy to see that on a really flexible installa-
tion, each acting area spot should be duplicated by a cold spot,
making twenty-four in all. In this way one could put down
warm or cold light or a mixture of the two from each direction
and position.
 In present circumstances, I can only allow myself two well-
diffused cold spots on check out front positioned to cover the
whole stage to fortify the cold softlight (Fig.141). As soon as
the sun rises, the warm spots can be brought in. As the sun
sets behind the upstage window, we had better leave that
alone for dawn and give an effect up there of a brightly lit
exterior as the day advances. The sun is assumed to be out
beyond the fourth wall among the audience. This does not,
however, permit all spots to be put on full. They should be
accented; in this case Nos. 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, and 12 would be the
ones in question. While talking of upstage windows, it should
be remarked that for a part of the year the sun travels more
than 180 degrees in azimuth and, in consequence, it would be
perfectly possible for the sun to enter the window at dawn,
travel right round past the fourth wall and make a sunset
appearance through the same window but in the opposite
direction. This is precisely what happens with my kitchen
window at home in Ealing.

Operating the Changes
Before passing on to an exterior scene, do any of the lighting
changes during the twenty-four hours to noon described above
present any difficulty at the switchboard? A slow sunset can
be "played" by moving first this dimmer a little, then that,
on any board. Even if there is a preset it would be better to
keep it for the more complicated things later on. As it falls
out the artificial-lighting cues require three groups in addition
to the natural lighting represented by the approaching night.
Two groups are usual on good controls and, if there were a
preset in addition, these facilities could make these changes
easy. However, in the context of our installation, there may not
only be no preset but no kind of interlocking either. Analysis
shows that each switch cue consists of three spots, plus the
light source itself. If the spots could be cut in on switches the
dimmers already having been set to levels, to work four
switches
at once would not seem to be difficult if they are reasonably
close together and push buttons rather than the usual
lever type. However, it is more likely for artistic reasons that

these spots cannot go right out before the switch cue; that
all acting area spots have been worked down to levels to give
an impression of twilight and that these have now to be cut in
to a new set of levels imposed by each artificial light source
they now have to represent. It is here that a preset control
can help and it is easy to see that the layout and the cues
expected of it should not be planned to outrun the potentialities
of the control; unless one is prepared to call in extra operators.
An effect just possible to operate by hand with only three spots,
might, in the case of a more lavish setup, require six or sixteen
spots. Then better control facilities become essential.
  The answer in the present instance, however, is to patch
 spots and lighting fitting to occupy a not unmanageable
 number of dimmers and this means two in the case of slider
 dimmers and four where there are fingertip controls. A control
 with slider dimmers implies a few only; therefore, two to each
 of the three lighting fitting effects is probably all that can be
 spared--seeing that there are outside window effects and other
 backings to look after as well. The quick running of dimmers
 from one set of levels to another set is an acceptable method
 of obtaining switching cues when needs must. Where some
 grouping facilities exist but not sufficient for all parts of a
 follow-on cue, keep them in reserve for the later parts. One
 can get poised for digital dexterity to begin but it is comforting
 to have something easy like a master fader or switch to
complete
 the follow-on.
  Where one is working on an absolute minimumú of dimmers,
 not only can spots be paralleled to the same dimmer and if
necessary repatched to be grouped differently during the
interval for the next act, but also the lighting fitting is con-
nected to the same circuit as the spot representing it. For
example, the wall bracket requires No. 7, plus 1 and 10 on
check. If needs must, the wall bracket is paralleled with
No. 7, its accenting spotlight and the 1 and 10 spots go on
another. It is not inconceivable that necessity would insist on
a dimmer being avoided altogether for the first Pair and they
could be switched on directly, but the wattage of the wall
bracket would have to be watched and neutral filters pressed
into service to keep its brightness down. This done, severe
limits would be set on what led up to this. No dimmer would
mean No. 7 spot could not be used in the sunset--not serious
because owing to the position of the window, this is one of
the darker areas. Alternatively if there is a dimmer it has,
unlike the rest of the lighting, to travel right out, then have
the wall bracket joined to it before coming back in on cue.
This is all very elementary to anyone who has worked a lighting
control; but I put it in so that any producer who has not
will appreciate that there can lurk very real problems in a cue
which seems on the surface to be simplicity itself. Indeed, it
is often the case that a spectacular lighting change is much
easier to operate than subtle changes only requiring quick
alteration of lighting balance.
 It must be stressed that the switchboard has control of the
lighting fittings, not the actor. He simply puts his hand on the
appropriate switch and keeps it there until the lights change.
In the case of an imitation oil lamp which has to be carried
on and subsequently lit, there is no escaping the independent
battery source. A rheostat rather than a switch should be
fitted. The gradual turning up of this will not only give a
better imitation of lighting a lamp but also enable the switch-
board to follow up the light reasonably well. There remains
the problem of lights carried across the stage. With a complete
traverse, our three groups would have to be raised and taken
down in a lap arrangement. The first thing that would be
discovered is that actors can move very quickly about the
stage--something some designers of automated switchboards
are inclined to overlook. By the time the lights came up in
each locale he could have passed on. Such cues have to be
anticipated. After all, if our stage represents part of the castle
hall, the coming event would have cast its light before. Thus,
the light is on the way up before the entrance is made to the
acting area itself. This will be much better than a risk of the
light's suddenly appearing on the place just vacated.
 Another case for anticipation is when a character alludes
to a lighting change. Dawn must have begun to tell before
Horatio's line, "But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad"--
always provided it is the kind of production of Hamlet which
allows us a dawn and somewhere to display it discreetly.
 In changing effects, such as are implicit in dawn or sunset,
it is very important to keep the cycle of change smooth. A
1000- or 2000-watt lamp for a sunrise will need very careful
dimmer operation. The thick filament takes some appreciable
time to warm up; when creeping the dimmer in, one is likely
to overdo it and the light will come either with a rush as too
much light or so slowly as to miss the cue. Lighting changes
must always flow, and any suggestion of bringing up the sun
in a couple of minutes at the behest of a cue must be avoided.

Exteriors
An exterior, when compared to an interior, demands a much
greater softlight component by day but much less by night.
The first state is accounted for by the sky over all and the
second by the fact that at night when artificial light is used
not only is the reflection factor of grass, outside walls, and so
forth, much poorer but these surfaces are less in number and
much farther away, and there is no equivalent at all to the
ceiling. Point a torch vertically upwards and indoors some
light, perhaps a great deal, will appear over the floor, whereas
outdoors the ground will remain as dark as before.
 Although by day so much light descends from heaven in
nature, we do in real life spend little time looking up there and
where the sun is concerned, in fact, automatically dodge
looking at it. The eye sees in detail and in colour a very narrow
angle indeed. Beyond this vision is a matter of being aware of
rather than seeing. If we want to take a good look we have
to turn our eyes and perhaps our head to do so. Thus the eyes
scan the centre of interest and one could walk for a considerable
distance without consciously taking in the sky overhead. It
follows that as with interiors so too with exteriors the borders,
or whatever the overhead masking is, should not be directly
lit.
 The angels and cupids of an Edwardian theatre interior do
not vanish: they merely retire when the house lights are
lowered and no difficulty is experienced in forgetting them.
If, however, some of them were picked out by lighting, then
they would obtrude. So it is on the stage: masking, if reticent,
is easily accepted. Masking problems in exteriors very often
extend to the sides of the stage as well as to the borders
overhead,
for it is not convenient always to have houses, tree trunks, or
icebergs lining the wings!

The Curtain Set
This seems as good a place as any to consider the curtain set
and roundly condemn the use of "silver grey" for this. I think
this colour arises from the misguided notion that it will take
coloured light well. What is wanted is something that will
hang well but take light badly, that is, absorb a very great deal.
A dark charcoal grey or black is my recommendation. Ideally
a velour or velvet hangs and looks well but cost often rules it
out.
I am always hoping to find a less expensive good-looking
material;
but this needs weight, and this kind of weight cannot be
provided by a chain along the bottom, necessary though these
may be. Cheap materials might be given a feeling of weight
by making them up to include a grey gauze in front as a kind
of front lining, thereby giving them the surface texture that is
otherwise missing.
 It is sometimes argued that a dark or black set of drapes is
too funereal for some shows. To avoid this, curtains, particu-
larly legs, are made reversible and hang on a short length of
track which one pulls down slightly to unlock and pivot.
The curtain leg can thus be made to present either silver
gayness or sombre obfuscation at will. But at whose will?
The tendency is for the wretched curtain to twist at the edges
at the slightest provocation, thereby revealing that every
curtain has its silver lining. Gaiety can be achieved in other
ways, and these are dealt with under Ballet, later on, while
for gay plays it is the job for such scenery as there is to provide
this.
 I dislike the mounting of drapes in such a way as to form a
box set. To be fair, a good case has been argued, especially
at amateur level, for the boxing of the stage by strips of curtain
which are rolled up and put on top of the inserted doors and
windows.(1) I much prefer that the curtain set be treated solely
as masking and hung so as to do this and impede neither
lighting nor actors entering anywhere up or downstage. This
is perfectly satisfactory with cut-down or token scenery. This
latter goes the rest of the way, following the notion that, if we
do not need the top half of the scenery to get over an idea, we
may not need all the actors' surroundings at ground level
either. This principle is extremely useful in exteriors, great
chunks of scenery being omitted and those areas left to take
their chance with the curtain set or some other form of per-
manent masking. This is quite accepted in the professional
theatre and if it is good enough for the Royal Shakespeare
company on the one hand and glossy Broadway musicals from
Oklahoma! onwards, why not for us? The photographs (Fig.
142) give two examples of the combination of permanent
masking (in this case, curtains) and partial setting on a very
small stage. The difference between the two is simply a matter
of black or silver-grey drapes Another version of the same set
but with a cyclorama or plain backcloth appears in Fig. 143,
opposite.
 (1) The Curtain Set, byú Frank Napier (Muller),

Lighting Exterior Scenes
This set will make a useful one on which to base an examination
of the principles of exterior lighting. In fact, the stage in the
photograph (Fig 143) has only a 13-ft opening between the
front curtains, which means lighting can only be divided into
left and right. I have accordingly, in making a diagram for
analysis (Fig. 144), enlarged the width to allow the same
standard three area side-by-side layout to be used as was the
case in the interior discussed earlier in this chapter.
 To aid the direct comparison, the sequence is assumed to
be the same with the sun coming from stage left and running
into evening and night. To begin, acting area spots Nos. 1,
2, 3, 7, 8, and 9 are accented by being at full, while a slight
check is taken on Nos. 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, and 12. To this the
softlight is added. It is possible that on an open set like this
all twelve spots could be full up and the accent come from side
lighting high up on the stage left in each opening. This would
give a sense of direction to the sunlight, which should on no
account be spoilt by falling into the temptation of duplicating
it on stage left, to make things look brighter or enable the
audience to see better. It is the job of the twelve acting area
spots to provide illumination so that the audience can see, and
if they do not do this well enough then the wattages should
be increased by using larger spots or by doubling them up by
twin spots close side by side at each position.
 The sunlight from actors' left is purely there for motivation
and this relies absolutely on light from one direction, making
one side of each object on the stage brighter than the other
and even, perhaps, one side of the stage brighter than the other.
This would all depend on whether it is assumed that the black
curtain masking the non-picture area is supposed to be occupied
by open landscape or by trees or a building, which would cause
stage left to have a shadowed area. The impression given
would simply depend on whether the sunlight spots are kept
high only or whether some lower power sources, notably floods,
are added lower down.
 Mounting and general principles of side lighting are dealt
with later on, so for the moment let us assume we are still
working with minimal equipment and return to the twelve
acting area spots, six of which ( 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, and 9) are
accented.
As was the case with the interior, the effectiveness of the
dominant idea--the sunlight--is going to depend on what it
is going to display. In halls where the bulk of the audience
sits low in relation to the stage this amounts to the scenery
and actors, since the floor is unlikely to be seen. Of these two,
it is likely that the scenery is a safer bet to get the message over
as it is there all the time and does not move anyway!
 In the present instance, there is not much scenery and one
can only be grateful that the sun is permitted to shine from
stage left. It is a very obvious example of the interdependence
of light and scenery. The lighting of the building is important
because it is this rather than the colour of the sky which is
going to convey the impression of what kind of day it is. Once
the building is brightly lit as sunlight a wide latitude of colour
is permissible on the backcloth. In the present scale, two
Fresnels, one for the part of the wall which backs the actor
and therefore to light him also, and one purely for the top of
the house and pinned down as bright as possible, will do the
job. No question of conflicting rays of sunlight comes in as
they do not overlap and the rays of the two beams will not be
seen against the light sky anyway.
 The sky itself will require some floodlighting at the top and
this could come from a batten or a few wide-angle floods, as
described earlier. The most important item is some kind of
break-up in the shape of clouds. Various methods, elaborate
and simple, are considered in Chapter 12. An archway, as in
Fig. 144 Stage right might seem to suggest that this does not
lead
directly into the house but rather into a patio. Now, although
the sunlight would not reach this, the shady side of the house,
and although the masking overhead is black, it is supposed to
be open to the sky and would receive diffused light from that
source. A backing flood over the top of the arch is therefore
essential to give an impression of this. On the other hand, if
the arch leads directly into the house then the backing will
not be lit as an interior is by contrast dark against the exterior.

Unwanted Shadows
The archway can be troublesome because it may well display
conflicting shadows from the various acting area spots. Just
as the best way to ensure a positive shadow where one is
essential is to paint it on, so the best way to avoid an unwanted
shadow is not to have anything to throw it. We cannot do
without the many spotlights though sometimes a particularly
offending one can be taken down a point or two on the dimmer.
What can be dispensed with is the setback that interrupts the
light and causes the shadow. Thus, if the backing is hard up
against the vertical of the arch, that particular shadow is
reduced to a thin line. The alternative is to take the backing a
long distance away. Of course, the curve of the arch will spring
away from the backing, but this top shadow is not so serious
as the backing flood can be introduced on check to soften it.
 The point can be taken a little further in respect of the
cyclorama. Should a profile ground row be required to show
a middle distance city with a church spire, there are two
methods of treating it. Either the ground row is sufficiently
distant that separate lighting is used for cyclorama and the
profile piece and no shadow can be thrown or where, as is
all too likely, there is little space, then the profile is put as
hard against the cyclorama as possible, even to the extent of
putting any stiffening on the front and disguising it in the
painting instead of, as is usual, on the back. Under these
circumstances any shadow is at most a thin line.
 In complaining of the other type of shadows on backcloths
or backings, those thrown by window frames and the like, it is
not the shadow that is the trouble; it is the line between what
is shadow and what is not that is the nuisance. A complete
shadow right across would be excellent and this is what is
achieved when one changes the position of`an offending acting
area spotlight. The bright patch is still there but is out of
picture in the wings or beyond the window frame. This
repositioning of the spotlight casting the offending beam is
often not possible or desirable. For example, it may owe its
position to the needs of an earlier scene. Assuming a substitute
spot is not available then the solution is to put something in
the foreground to intercept this light. Beyond the french
windows a garden trellis, pile of dustbins, dumped motor cars
or whatever is appropriate, has to be placed just the size to
intercept the light hellbent on spoiling our backcloth only a
couple of feet or so beyond. Under all conditions, even with
a pitch black night outside, it would be quite proper for that
trellis or whatever to pick up light emanating from the room.
The scene designer can anticipate some of these difficulties and
arrange his set so as not to ask the impossible. Where an
unsuspected trouble of this kind arises then some extra dressing
of the set in this way may be an easier solution than moving
the offending light.
 While reinforcement of light under a balcony is possible
with auxiliary sources, such as 100-watt mini-Fresnels for
example, it can never become the principal source. Quite
apart from the unnaturalness of this by day, there is the room
neither to house nor to spread major sources. Thus a deep
balcony, such as that which was featured in the original
permanent set at Chichester, ensures that an actor makes his
entrance feet first from under it. The majority of the lighting
resources being placed high, as they must, create a deep
shadow. If a large second acting area is required up aloft,
keep its actual overhang of the main acting area to a minimum.
Incidentally, do not forget that light may be in trouble on the
top deck, too--not in its incident path but in the return journey
to the audience. Looking up at deep balcony from the wide
range angles of an encircled audience may lead to an unwel-
come amount of no view for some; the balcony itself getting
in the way of action on the far side.

Sunless Daylight
To return to lighting proper, it by no means follows that the
stage directions will insist on a sunny day but it may simply
be added as suiting the mood we wish to obtain. There are
bright days without direct sunlight but it is far more difficult
then to show what one is at. Lacking the dominant idea, the
conflict of the various acting area beams could become more
apparent. On the other hand, a grey or overcast day or an
early morning has to be faced and these, in nature, would be
the result of the sky only. There is nothing for it in such cases;
the acting area spots must play second fiddle to the softlight,
both circuits of which will be at full giving a cold white light.
The problem of colour of the spots has already been dealt with
under Interiors. A suggestion of cold light could be added by
a Fresnel spot flooded on the building from No. 1 bar or from
the perch position and set high to avoid actor's shadows.
 Whether the day is grey or overcast is a matter of the effect
put on the cyclorama, and in case a feeling of guilt should creep
in when using effects there, it is important to remember that in
the context an even sky may be more eye-riveting, especially as
it usually has to be much brighter to drown the results of stray
light, whereas these get lost in an uneven background.

Dawn and Sunset
It is necessary to be very clear where the actual sunrise or
sunset is supposed to take place before starting to paint the
stage with light. If the sun is behind the cyclorama ground
row, then objects in the foreground of this do not pick up the
pink light except in the case of water. Thus, a mountain range
remains stark and contrasted--dark blue to violet. To get
the effect of pink mountains, the sun would have to be going
down in the audience somewhere. In mountain areas, other
mountains can cause a cut-off effect, whilst the pink, especially
on snow, is very pronounced as to colour and location. The
acting area could not be pink; on the other hand, in open
country all will be bathed in a diffused pink glow. However,
I do not need to stress in a book published in Britain that not
all sunsets and dawns glitter or are in the pink. A cold grey
light crawling up the cyclorama can be the very embodiment
of dawn. A lavish three-colour ground row is not necessary
to represent the sun when down low; a single flood lying on
its back with strips laid across the top or soldered up to make
a giant gobo will make a good sunburst with a suggestion of
radiating rays. Where much more light or a stylized effect is
required, the same thing can be done with three or more spots
set radially.


Night Effects
Outdoor night effects are very troublesome as the usual lack
of depth makes it impossible to keep the cyclorama as dark as
one would like. To drown the scatter from the acting area
too much blue has to be brought up. One solution for a really
dark night is to draw black drapes immediately in front of
the eye and leave them unlit. This works equally well for
interiors. Another solution is to remember that it is a feature
of a dark night outdoors that it is really dark. On top of this,
diffusion in the shape of returned light is negligible. It is
likely that concessions as to actors' movements will have to
be won from the producer. This enables areas supposed to be
lit by a local source, be it street lamp or camp fire, to be more
starkly defined. In a scene of fairground gaiety, the sky can
be made to appear darker by using the blinder effect of fairy
lamps strategically placed. Usually a sky can be made to
appear blacker by adding just a touch of blue, Nos. 19 or 20,
checked right down. Another form of blinder that can be used
to make the sky appear darker than it really is, is a star slide
tinted with No. 17.
 The whole point about giving an impression of darkness on
the stage is that we shall, as pointed out earlier, be working
to levels much higher than those in nature and the only way
open is to locate darkness to certain areas and make it tell by
contrast with lit areas.

Moonbeams
Outdoor moonlight effects are best conveyed by directional
rays superimposed on the setting in much the same way as
in the case of sunlight, except that the appearance should be
hard and contrasting, little or no blending softlight being used.

For large theatres, a 2000-watt Fresnel spot can be used,
sometimes hung in pairs in special frames from the flys. Smaller
stages will find a 1000-watt or 500-watt Fresnel spot very
suitable. A flood cannot be used, nor can a spot be wide-
focused as the shadows will then radiate from this source. The
only true solution, where large coverage are required, is several
lanterns each set to give narrow beams. For example: if our
setting has a series of wings stage left, each wing will have its
moonray lantern instead of a single 5-kW Fresnel flooded well
off-stage which would throw the shadows of the wings in widely
conflicting directions (Fig. 145). At one time the parallel-beam
lantern known as a Pageant would have been used for moonlight
and sunlight, but in these rationalized days they are difficult
to come by. The Cerman Nedervolt lamp is another suitable
unit. In all these cases it is a matter of a number of units
throwing parallel rays to different positions on the stage. In a
television studio, the technique under these circumstances
would be to have a high-power open arc in a distant corner
 of the studio putting a dominant hard key over all else. There
 is still a case for something of the sort in a theatre provided a
really distant throw is possible. Or course, an arc would not
be used as it could not be dimmed, but a single Fresnel could
be made to work provided too high a level of light was not
demanded and the set was suitably open. Take out the lens,
and the hard shadow effect is so evocative that the audience
will overlook the radiating shadows from the single source.
The multiple parallel source method outlined previously
 suits a glade, ruined castle or even a cloudy night. All in all,
 people are not dead set on finding inaccuracies and some very
 strange levels of light and colours have been used. In Peter
 Brook's production of Lear with Paul Scofield, about sixty
 foot-candles of white light represented moonlight and it passed.
 However, I personally drew the line in Uncle Vanya at
Chichester
 when to suggest an interior on the open three-sided stage a
 moonlight-coloured pattern of windows was projected from the
 direction of the audience as well as from the two windows
 actually present as scenery upstage left and right. Seeing that
 this kind of theatre is designed to abolish the fourth wall
 convention, it seemed somewhat irrational to invoke by the
 conflicting directions four moons to suggest three walls that
 were not there !
   The colour of moonlight needs some thought and it can be
stated here and now that the No. 16 Blue-green, at one time
labelled "Moonlight Blue" in some colour charts, does not in
the slightest degree resemble moonlight. Direct moonlight is,
under normal conditions, a very low-intensity cold white, and
its characteristics are the hard shadows giving stark black and
white lighting. This white would be best imitated by one, or
at the most two, Steels (No. 17) were it not for the fact that we
can scarcely perceive colour at these low intensities in nature.
From this it can be seen that the best moonlight effects will
be obtained from black and white scenery, costumes and
make-up, lighted through double No. 17 Steel-blue filters. If
this is not done, then reds and colours show up in such a way
under this light that the brain automatically says this is not
moonlight but cold daylight.
 Such a complete change of pigments for one act or scene will
seldom be possible, and we are faced with the job of spoiling
colour with our filters as fill. as possible without conveying the
effect of a riotously blue stage. The thing to avoid is any
contrast that will emphasize the blue. A No. 40 or 45 Blue,
or better still 40-50, will be effective enough to suppress most
colour and at the same time will not look particularly blue,
unless deliberately contrasted with amber to red lighting.
Thus, if the scene is the moonlit village with the glowing lights
behind the windows, the temptation to make these orange must
be restrained; they must be steel-blue, or at the most natural,
white. The camp fire must err on the cold side for similar
reasons; fires are always too red on stage, anyway. The
problem of showing the image of the moon on the sky is treated
in the following chapter.

Non-representational Lighting
In the early part of this chapter, I suggested that stage lighting
when it was trying to give an impression of sunlight should be
more concerned with the mood of the sunlight rather than the
actual behaviour of the stuff in nature. Yet page upon page
of lighting technique has followed in which a pedantic concern
has been expressed not to offend against the laws of nature as
if it mattered twopence to a good play how the sun goes down.
The preceding pages were exercises---the piano scales of the
business--and only simple ones at that. A dawn or a moon-
beam is universal, a datum from which we can all work. A
mood is too personal to build an exercise on. To some people,
green light means the terror of a plague or of a ghost; the only
mood it inspires in me is one of laughter. Terror is a subtle
affair in which one is conscious of something unnatural but
cannot put one's finger to it. In cinema, this can be done
with a slightly "off" choice of camera angle. To take a par-
ticular play would be to pick a very strange one, if it is going
to have all these lighting exercises in it. Will the play endure,
and what about the style of staging and the kind of theatre?
Dramatic lighting may be so much a part of a production
that, as in Fig. 146, it is impossible to conceive of one with-
out the other. Little of what has been said in this chapter can
apply to theatre-in-the-round where stage lighting is mainly
concerned with illumination. No, for a wide range of painting
exercises it is back to naturalism and the proscenium stage.
 For a glimpse of emotional or psychological powers inherent
in stage lighting, the reader is advised not to be put off by the
title of Appendix 3-Colour Music. The pursuit of that art,
even if one disagrees violently with the aims of providing a
visual accompaniment to music, is deeply involved with the
emotional powers of light when used in the abstract, completely
detached from the representational. There is another form
of non-representational lighting which must be divorced, as
far as I understand it, from emotion as well. Brecht's Life of
Galileo is a good example. The faithful do not always apply
 the alienist rules as strictly as they should. One set of rules
 must apply, however, whatever the play and its style of staging
 and those belong to Chapter 10 on Illumination, for the
 players must still be seen.
  If the lighting has other jobs than the representational, so
 too have the lighting changes. These can be used either to
 suggest a change of emphasis or to act as a kind of punctuation.
 The most elementary example of this is the lowering of lights
 to denote the passing of time, but a change from one lighting
 effect to another can be used to convey the distinction between
 the imagined and actual. Good examples of this occurred in
 the plays, The Minute Alibi and the seven year itch. This is a
case
 where one cannot afford to be subtle and a change of colour
 over the acting area spots to, say, No 18 instead of the No. 52
 or to No. 42 if the effect is supposed to be light-hearted rather
 than serious, can call attention to what is going on just as
 effectively as a change of typeface on the printed page.

 Musicals
 Nowadays the distinction between the musical and the straight
 play has become less and less marked. The staging and lighting
 for West Side Story or Oliver! to take but two examples, have
 little in common with the Desert Song or even Oklahoma! Yet
 in amateur theatre, the latter are both very much current and,
 indeed, musicals and operettas of a much earlier period are
 still around.(1) For NODA members, a popular musical never
 dies. It is, however, likely that a change of staging will be
 forced upon societies for the simple reason that the kind of
 full stage sets that went with such productions are becoming
 increasingly difficult to hire. Scenery will use the techniques
 implied in the earlier pages of this chapter and this will mean
 the same lighting principles. No longer will it be a question
 of flooding the stage with light depending mainly on battens,
 footlights, and wing floods, with spots reduced only to the role
 of fortifying the light on the acting area. I am not saying all
 amateur musicals are staged in this way, but a great deal of
 it still goes on. Probably the fact that so many have to perform
 on stages, such as those of cinemas, in which the staple lighting
 is three or four colour battens, is responsible.
 It would not be logical for the lighting of musicals to lag
behind for they have always been in the vanguard of any
development. It was the musical that first made popular the
massed batteries of lighting units now common in straight plays.
As was pointed out in Chapter 3, Waltzes from Vienna was the
  (1)The top ten musicals in 1971-73 were according to NODA:
Fiddler on the Roof,
The Merry Widow, The Mikado, My Fair Lady, The
Gondoliers, The Sound of Music,
Iolanthe, Oklahoma!, Carousel and H.M.S. Pinafore. The Desert
Song was in fact
number eleven on the list while West Side Story was very near
the bottom--Oliver! was
moderately popular with 45 productions to Fiddler's 118.

landmark as far as Britain was concerned. As time has passed,
the individual lighting units have become more powerful but,
in turn, their numbers have multiplied. Spotlights in this
quantity partake of some of the quality of softlights and, for
example, the twenty-six spots on the circle front at Drury Lane
have largely moved as one and remained as flat-on front
lighting. At the time of My Fair Lady, the number was increased
to thirty-six and two vertical booms of spots were added up
the audience side of the proscenium. This idea was carried
even further for Blitz! at the Adelphi when these spots were
carried along the top of the proscenium also. Another common
auditorium position now, but not originally, is the 45 degrees
or so one represented by the point where upper circle runs into
the top tier boxes.
  On stage, the power of overhead lighting was first increased
by adding rows of acting area floods pointing straight down
or later by Fresnel spots mainly directed at the area of the
stage opposite to which they hang. The American musical
introduced backlighting in a big way, often with several flood
battens and spot battens directed from upstage to down--the
former for lighting backcloths as transparencies from the back
and the spots to throw the cast into relief, which was all the
more necessary in view of the strength of the light from the
front. Along with this goes side lighting, on booms and ladders,
of corresponding power. These methods I call lighting by
chorus. Two hundred spots are not unusual and constitute
a great choir sometimes all shining together in unison and, at
other times, in lesser combinations as altos, basses or whatever
(Fig. 148)ú To call up a particular resource, direction or
colour is to bring in a multiplicity of sources, and a solo spot,
when it is used, must be very powerful to make itself heard at
all.
  All this is very different from the chamber-music type of
lighting we have been practising. Even if there is an apron
or a very deep stage the acting area spots for the nine areas
would only number eighteen. Allowing the luxury of two
colours to each makes thirty-six and doubling that for all
other contingencies-softlight, motivating lights and specials
--works out at seventy-two controlled circuits. Even in this
lavish (for us) version, we still do not approach the chorus
either in numbers or method. The inevitable conclusion has
to be that whatever Broadway or the West End may do, in
the present context it is as out-of-reach as the stars they employ.

Ballet Lighting
Lighting for the dance shows interesting differences from
lighting for drama which will help when trying to design a
lighting layout for an intermediate form such as the musical
which uses both. The first thing to bear in mind is that there
is an orchestra and no lighting should be undertaken without
this switched on so that due allowance is made for the scatter
therefrom. The relationship of conductor to stage is important
and, whatever the lighting, he has to be seen by performers,
though I wish they would not make this so obvious sometimes.
Another point dancers like to be aware of in the darker scenes
is where the front edge of the stage is and, in the absence of a
footlight, some small blue marker lights spaced out there are
essential. The notion of a possible fall into the orchestra pit,
which I have seen happen, does not help relaxed performance.
With some of today's lofty scenic structures, it seems that a
head for heights is another essential for the actor.
 While opera and many musicals have lighting which is
essentially dramatic and therefore little if at all removed from
that for drama it is quite otherwise with Ballet which is stylized
within a rigid framework as its means for expression. Of course
the boundaries are ill defined; there is stylized opera or drama
and a musical incorporates a large element of ballet or at any
rate dance, but it is ballet with its decor of wing scenery and
back or front cloths which operates to the most rigid discipline.
As a result it is possible to make a lighting layout for ballet as
such rather than for a particular ballet with a hope that all will
work out reasonably well whatever is put on. At least there
will be nothing that cannot be remedied with a special unit
here and there plus a change of colours. The basic intent
behind a lighting layout for ballet is shown in Fig. 149ú The
stress on lighting from the side is apparent and this subject is
treated under its own heading later on. Suffice it to point out
that the main drift of lighting is as shown by the arrows. On
the overhead bars Fresnels for the acting area tend to be
gathered at each end and may even as is shown in the diagram
be directed exactly sideways across to the opposite side of the
stage. This is also the case with the lighting actually in the
wings. Indeed the one can be regarded as an extension of the
other and it may be appropriate to angle those hanging over-
head somewhat upstage. This is certainly so with number 1
bar to prevent light wandering outside the stage frame. The
nature of and positioning of the side masking and borders also
exercises critical influence.
 Direct side lighting has some of the advantage of back lighting
in respect of those downstage of it. Backlighting is so important
that it rates its own units for the purpose as shown upstage.
Colour change is also important and the notion of grouping for
colour is shown in this case for two colours, a pink and a light
blue--not too blue or it will not be suitable for moonlight.
Three colours allowing the addition of a gold would increase
the range of effect. Ballet is one case where contrasting colours
or at any rate deeper shades of colour from one side than the
other come into their own. The unattached lanterns in the
centre of the hanging bars and out in the front of house can be
used for special lighting particularly of the scenery. Some
FOH units can be set to lift the centre of the large cloths which
are so characteristic of ballet decor. These can be used not only
on the special act drops that some ballets employ, for example
Petrushka, but on the cloth upstage. Even though a batten
(softlight) is usual in that position it may not get right down
and does not give the essential emphasis to the centre of the
cloth. The correct insistence on FOH spots high and to the
side for lighting artistes and three-dimensional scenery should
not blind one to the fact that spots on the centre of the lower
tiers can be very useful when a drop-cloth type of scene turns
up. This is certainly so at the London Palladium, for example.
It is usual to employ a footlight for ballet but the effect is much
nicer from the stalls when there is no sense of obstruction. The
Royal Opera House has a footlight specially made which does
not come above stage-floor level and at Drury Lane it has been
the practice to lower the footlight out of sight and dispense with
it during ballet sequences in some American musicals,
 Coloured shadows produced from low down can be used to
great effect. Fig. 150 shows the basic method. The sources
required to throw the shadows must be few in number and wide
spaced if they are to tell. On a shallow stage the effect will have
to be done from the footlight position. As low-powered coloured
sources are insipid, a bright and therefore larger source than
the usual float spot will have to be used. If necessary, rigged
in the orchestra pit for just that number and struck immediately
after. No one who has not tried the shadow effect for himself
can realize the wonderfully rich variety of multiple colours
which results, given a suitably intense source.
 The use of spots thrown directly on a plain backcloth as
decor is worth considering. A few clear-cut circles of light in
different sizes, for example the Patt 23 Profile spot with its
three lens angles, makes real composition. Add other shapes
or gobos and a range of bright decor is possible without the
expense of painting scenery or slides. These spots are used
direct front on, perhaps from the No. 1 bar position with the
borders kept high. Where this is impossible, other methods
can use the effects of the spot beams at close range from below
or above along the cloth. This can also be done from the sides
if the cyclorama is a rigid one without folds; not that folds
are to be despised--the most splendid effects are possible on
a curtain lit from the sides in contrasting colours. These are
at their gayest and most colourful on light or white curtains
but at their richest on blacks--especially on black velvets,
which officially do not take light at all!
 Among all the talk of colour and the dance, those whose sole
opportunity to practise this art is the local dancing school
annual display should remember that obscurity, however
colourful, is not the way to popularity with mothers. No
matter who Sylvia is, where she is can be a matter of great
moment: beware the artistic shadow in these circumstances.

Stage Floor
What colour should the stage floor be for dancing? The whole
subject of finish for floors is left decidedly on the vague side.
To begin at the beginning, should the stage floor be flat or
raked? The immediate answer nowadays is flat; the rake
should be in the auditorium not on the stage, and dancers do
not like much of a rake anyway. Yet in opera a very steep
rake is very frequently used and greatly aids both dramatic
and perspective effects. The Royal Shakespeare Company uses
a pronounced rake on the apron half of the acting area but
allows the rest to remain flat. This has point since the original
Stratford-upon-Avon forestage was lower by three steps than the
main stage and the slope covers the awkwardness of having to
have these steps across every scene. The flat area allows for
use of wagons, periaktoi and other legitimate scenery machines.
John Bury, the designer responsible, gives it as his opinion
that the stage should be flat but adds that this is because it
makes a better sub-floor for him to base his different built-up
and raked levels on.
 A raked floor, and indeed any stage floor in any theatre
where the bulk of the audience look down, plays an important
part--maybe the only part in the composition of the scene.
A lot of trouble is taken over the floor in the Royal Shakespeare
productions. Sections are taken up and exchanged for others.
Sometimes to get the right sound from that particular place--
the grating of swords, for example--expanded metal is let in.
At others, to get the feel of marble paving in a way that painted
floor cloths could not achieve, large plastic treated sheets or
black formica are used.
 While Stratford has been busy on its floors, the dancers of
the Royal Ballet prefer to forsake stage cloths and dance on
the wood floor whenever possible. This floor is medium in
tone and is a nice compromise and I think it is the one I would
commend to architects. Heavy brown line resembling the
Corkoid flooring of television studios is often used over old
floors. Black line has its advocates, but I was once told very
firmly by Lydia Sokolova that the feet should not be too
prominent in ballet and my black floor had to be covered with
a stage cloth. Whatever the floor colour, it should not be given
a specular polished finish as light will have an unhappy way
of turning up where it is not wanted. A light-coloured floor
is essential in theatre-in-the-round in order to obtain some
corrective diffusion from the lighting overhead which tends
to be mounted at too high an angle in order to avoid glare.

Side Lighting
Side lighting conjures up for many people a telescopic stand
in the wings with some unit, probably a flood, mounted on top.
Easy to Position and feed from the dip plugs and easy to get
at to change the colour. It dispenses a rich variety of lighting
with little trouble. Here lies the trap, for the easiest way to
use side lighting is the worst way to apply it. It is scarcely
an exaggeration to say that, if any lantern is on a telescopic
stand, nine times out of ten its light is being misapplied. The
trouble is that such a stand in its common form neither goes
high enough on the one hand nor low enough on the other.
What it does best is to position the lantern at head height, a
level from which lighting is never advisable and seldom
required. It is not the lighting effect that needs it there but
the convenient stand that insists on it.
 The vast majority of side-lighting effects demand really high
positions so that the light can get across the stage without being
intercepted on the way. This is a practical reason but it is
also valid for any evocation of natural light. Sometimes the
main stream of light directed from aloft at the other side of
the stage can be supplemented by a flood lower down to suggest
a continuously lit area offstage, in the wings, but this will
rarely need to be a shaft of light. This is because the illumina-
tion of what is supposed to be off-stage a passage, a room or
another part of the wood--is almost certain to be diffused
light. Even if the time is sunset and our woodland glade
happens to be situated on top of a hill, the light that filters
through the trees, implied by most forms of wing masking,
would be fitful indeed. The condition is even less likely as seen
through the window of a house for there are almost always
obstructions to the low-lying sun in the shape of other houses,
trees, and bushes. This is all to the good for when sunlight
approaches the horizontal it is very much on the move and to
hold that effect for a whole scene is out of the question.
 This will seem like more pedantry, for all sorts of natural
laws besides this one will be broken to dramatic effect. This
is true, but one must know them in order that when broken
they shall be effective. It so happens that, as well as being
correct in what we are trying to give an impression of, it is a
great aid to lighting to mount units high. Rude flares from
artistes standing near the wings and receiving on their posteriors
a shaft of light at point-blank range are then easily avoided,
as is also the effect of standing in one another's light (Fig. 151)ú
Strange effects, like an actor exiting into the dawn and in-
creasing the intensity of light on himself twenty-fold as he does
so, are no longer a risk. This is of course the inverse square
law at work. The real sun being an infinite distance away
presents no such effects.
 The best way to use side lighting is in most cases from
vertical booms. This not only gives high mounting, but when
securely fixed allows access by climbing up a series of extra
clamps positioned to form a rudimentary ladder (Fig. 152)ú
Another form of mounting is known as a "ladder" but, although
there is a vague resemblance, it is a frame hanging high and
one would have to be an acrobat to use it as such. The
advantage
of these frames, on the other hand, is that when hanging and
fed from the flys they keep the stage entrances clear. The fly
rail itself is also an excellent position for side lighting but I
think it would be even better if a special lighting gallery were
provided just below it, as at Drury Lane for example, as this
would prevent the inevitable conflict between electrical and
flying requirements particularly on the working side.

Visions and Picture Effects
Reference must be made to the properties of theatrical gauze.
This gauze has the faculty of appearing solid when lighted
from the front and of vanishing altogether when scenery or
actors
are lighted behind it. The secret of success in these vision
effects
is that the fogging front lighting must be so placed that it does
not pass through the gauze to light the regions beyond;
similarly no light on the vision must be allowed to strike the
gauze. A common mistake is to use a magazine batten and
footlight to fog the gauze; naturally this light penetrates and
no end of difficulty is experienced in getting the vision to
disappear. Except on large stages it is essential to use
narrow-beam floods and spotlights for both the gauze and
vision.
 Properly done, the gauze and vision will, in their turn,
vanish absolutely. The best general-purpose colour for gauze
is grey, and this can always be painted with a design. Some-
times gauzes are used one behind the other, the second being
a few feet up stage of the other. The second should be white
to make up for transmission through the first; a different size
mesh is needed unless watermark effects are intended. Gauzes
may be hung in folds, though these will not vanish altogether.
Ethereal effects are obtained by side-lighting the folds of one
gauze behind the other with a blue-lit cyclorama at the back.
It is as well to remember that, though a vision may be perfectly
"disappeared" when still, an actor taking up his position may,
by his movement, betray his presence. To be absolutely safe,
a black velvet curtain should hang behind the gauze until the
revelation is to take place.
 By using a slightly fogged tight gauze down stage of the
actors a two-dimensional effect can be produced. The eye is
deceived into considering everything beyond the gauze as on
its plane. This tight gauze, whether framed by a picture frame
or by the entire proscenium frame, is used for tableaux vivants
or to bring a picture to life. Gauze used in this way can also
be an aid to pin spotting for head and shoulder scenes. A
single spot, for example, is sharply focused on someone using
a telephone. We see him clearly through the gauze but the light
itself is thrown back to diffuse over the rest of it, causing slight
fogging. This helps prevent the rest of the stage from being seen
and can increase the effect of isolating the character. Mention
of fogging is a reminder that this is one way of producing an
impression of mist on the stage.

Fluorescent Effects
Visions, ghosts, and the like can easily be produced with the
aid of the invisible ultra-violet rays on fluorescent paints and
make-up. However, such effects tend to become, by their
close resemblance to the accepted ghost, a burlesque rather
than a horror. The spectre with his head tucked underneath
his arm and a rapier through his chest (possible under UV) is
far less likely to terrify than a normal being, slightly abnormal
in a way that the mind can only feel but not recognize.
 When illusions are contemplated, the stage must not be
flooded with a high level of ultra-violet as this may bring into
prominence the natural, if low-intensity fluorescence of many
materials. The skeleton that dances, throwing away his bones,
one by one, until he vanishes will require a black-draped stage
and black tights to which the fluorescent bones are hooked.
One 125-watt lamp in the footlight for a small stage and two
for a large one may be sufficient. The skeleton's routine must
be arranged so that in no circumstances does a limb from
which the bones have been removed pass in front of those
that remain.
 Another illusion is the reverse of the preceding effect: in
this the scenery is treated but the actor is not. For The Golden
Toy
at the Coliseum before the war, the setting included a great
fluorescent archway flooded by lamps in the footlights and
overhead, and backed by a black velvet sky. In this instance,
Lupino Lane ran on stage in a pool of ordinary spotlighting,
climbed up a fluorescent rope, hanging from the arch, out of
the pool of light and thereupon vanished. The Indian Rope
Trick! When arranging these effects nowadays one has to be
very careful of the unwanted result of the "whiteness" added
to detergents. Almost everything fluoresces bright blue. The
impact of the ghost loses more than somewhat if the sheets of
the bed, nightclothes of its occupants, and even the bedroom
curtains also take on an unearthly glow. Beware the laundry!
 Fluorescence need not be restricted to the supernatural; as
a decorative effect it can be very striking. The treated surfaces,
appearing as actual coloured-light producers not reflectors,
give extraordinarily rich luminous colours. For these decora-
tive effects, the higher the ultra-violet intensity the better--
three or four lamps in the footlights and UV floods overhead.
Ice shows always feature at least one high intensity ultra-violet
sequence of this kind.
 Ultra-violet and fluorescence can have practical value as
well as stunt value. There are times when part of a scene or
a prop has to appear to be lit though in fact it is quite impossible
to get light there without spilling over something beyond,
thereby wiping out part of a projected scene, for example. At
the Adelphi, London, in the revue You'll be Lucky, the UV
was
used to light a built sailing boat standing immediately in front
of a screen on which moving optical waves were back projected.
The boat and sail were treated with fluorescent paints and
appeared to be sailing on the water by moonlight. Had any
normal spotlighting been used on it the inevitable spill on the
screen would have killed the wave effects. The artiste in the
boat was picked out by an accurately located Mirror Spot.
On a larger scale, in White Horse Inn at Empress Hall, Bernard
Bear projected wave effects on the ice by normal tungsten-lamp
optical effects lanterns while fluorescent boats activated by
ultra-violet sailed thereon.
 A subsequent production there used ultra-violet to light the
chorus while they skated over a splendidly colourful carpet
made of separately projected slides to join on the ice below.

The Samoiloff Effect
This relies on the use of complementary colours and is so
called after its inventor. As we discussed in Chapter 6, a
lantern fitted with a blue-green filter does not transmit any
light wavelengths that can be reflected from a red surface;
it therefore appears black. Under the red light there will be
little colour contrast, and so the reflected colour will be
interpreted as a reddish-white. Now, suppose an actor is made
up in red and wears a coat of black and blue-green stripes;
under the red light he will appear as a white man in a black
coat; under the blue-green as a black man in a striped coat.
 Any pair of complementary colours can be taken from the
colour triangle in Fig. 57, page 101, but the filters and pig-
ments must have perfect cut-offs. There are other factors to
consider. For example, at first sight, yellow and blue comple-
mentaries may seem to be more pleasing, the yellow being
more nearly white, but under the blue light the black effect
does not get a sufficiently strong contrast. Powdering on top
of make-up must be in the same colour.
 Of course, the colour change need not be sudden; the
changes from winter to spring or summer are easily performed
on dimmers. The backcloth must be painted with black tree
trunks, red flowers, green leaves, and so forth. Beginning
under blue-green light, the scene appears in black and white,
colours being spoiled either by absence of their colour in the
light or by absence of contrast. As red is gradually added to
the blue-green, these defects are remedied and spring arrives!

Solo Lighting
Time and time again in this book and elsewhere I find it
necessary to stress that lighting and lighting changes must not
be overdone--less is more likely to be effective than more. Yet
this is to put the lighting designer and the operator at his control
in, at times, an intolerable bondage. Any of us who have
attained some degree of mastery over this medium have
savoured and know something of its power of artistic and
emotional expression. Today, more than ever, I feel there is a
dire need to take account of "Light" as a solo medium; not as a
gimmick, nor as a safety valve to prevent lighting men going
berserk, but as imaginative capital for the artist to use to the
full--capital locked away in the instrument that a great modern
stage lighting installation represents and which can so seldom
be released in the service of theatre as we know it.
 Compared with lighting controls, those concerned with
sound are primitive but it is sound which has been able to
branch out--to break with tradition. What is more, as sales
of discs and tapes show, sound finds a large audience for its
advanced technological experiments. This is not service to
music, nor does it do anything but irritate me, but the imagina-
tive freedom it represents is something we in lighting can only
admire and envy.
 Have we got to sit around waiting for the occasional play,
opera or ballet with exceptional demands, or succumb to the
temptation of putting in too much lighting or too many changes
because subconsciously that is what we have to do? I can claim
to have come under this temptation much earlier than anyone
else, but I came up with a solution which has kept me satisfied
over the five decades of my active career. This solution was the
playing of light to interpret music in terms of form and colour--
lighting variations upon a three-dimensional setting as theme
(Fig. 167) Here were all the opportunities to tease the imagina-
tion at very low levels--normally denied by the need to light
actor, singer or dancer--followed by build-ups to a final climax.
Here was a chance to use light to create beauty or mood in a
language of its own.
 On April 24th 1936 Bernard Shaw, who was among the
audience for a recital on my brand new Strand Light Console,
said--amid much else--that my lighting would be distracting
to his plays; my retort that "his plays would be distracting to
my lighting" was not intended to be flippant. Although it
got a laugh, I meant exactly what I said. It is still my belief
that what I prefer to think of as Colour Music--rather than a
Light Show--not only provides an opportunity for the expert
to stretch his technique but is also a valuable exercise for the
student or trainee (see also Appendix 3, Colour Music).

Finish in Lighting
Although some productions make a feature of the lighting
equipment by hanging it in full view, the majority still prefer
concealment. On the stage this means exactly what it says,
but unless care is taken the lantern may be hidden but still
proclaim itself by scatter on to nearby scenery or even by being
seen through the canvas of a flat that has not been backed
properly. Out front in the auditorium it may not always be
possible to provide complete concealment but an unnecessary
give-away comes not from leaks from the lantern itself so much
but from catching the illuminated surface of the colour filter
in the corner of the eye (peripheral vision of the eye can be
very sensitive). It may be desirable to use a blue filter on a
lantern during a day scene in order to help bring out colour
somewhere in the set or costume, but the incongruity of the
blue lantern itself jars. Another reason for it being there could
be that the cross-fade into the night to follow insists on it
because the control has no preset. In certain critical side
positions, if the lantern really cannot be hidden then a barndoor
or lens hood should be fitted.
 Another common fault is that the crossing beams of light
intended to stress important areas may lap over each other
so that a great accent comes in between. As characters walk
across so they flare up into prominence for no obvious reason.
Much the same can happen when a character is wearing a
colour particularly sympathetic to the colour of the light at
that position. Thus, someone comparatively minor can take
on undue prominence. This could happen if a member of the
crowd wearing a blue dress found herself standing in the blue
spot referred to earlier.
 Another serious trouble arises from the amount of stage
lighting used in the auditorium. I am not joking when I say
that in a recent production at the Haymarket the level of light
in the auditorium was brighter when the house lights were out
than during the interval when they were on. This was mainly
the effect of scatter from the twenty-two spotlights mounted
on the upper circle front and is all the more worthy of comment
for the particular auditorium decoration is low in tone and
ought to be quite capable of self-effacement. Whatever one
may think of the picture frame, there can be no doubt that, if,
as in this case, the production is entirely behind the proscenium
and there is no apron or forestage, the auditorium should be
dark. To avoid scatter, smoking should never be permitted
in the auditorium and lenses and colours must be kept clean.
The beams of light should be angled well clear of their housings
for if part is intercepted not only does that mean less light on
the target but also extra scatter. Also, frosts and diffuse glasses
are great spreaders of ghost light. If there is one merit in my
bifocal spot it is that it has removed the diffuse hazard, as
instead the soft-edged shutters can be used.