PROCEDURE

THE fundamental lighting of a production is outlined by the
playwright's manuscript. The indications of place and the time of
day, demanding specific details such as lamp-light, sunlight,
moonlight, etc. (which are called motivating sources), are
unconsciously or consciously dictated by the playwright. The
producer may adhere to these details or change them. He gives the
designer and technician the necessary information with which to
set to work, and the lighting plan is then further determined by
the setting and the structural characteristics of the stage.
Unfortunately up to this point in the procedure, the problems and
limitations of lighting are usually very little considered. Each
playwright and producer considers lighting in terms of what he
has seen in the past, or what he would like it to be, to satisfy
his own expression. This attitude tends either to conventionalize
stage lighting, or to present problems which are impossible to
solve. The result is invariably a compromise.
 The floor plan of the setting, including the arrangement of the
furniture, the position of the walls, openings, background,
platforms, etc., establish the possible acting areas. These areas
should be specially lighted to give emphasis and visibility to
the actor. Theoretically
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   18 PROCEDURE

the whole acting area might be lighted with one powerful
instrument directing its beams to the stage from a distance, at
an angle which would light up the face of the actor somewhat as
the rays from the sun make objects visible on a sunny day.
 But we have neither such an instrument nor the physical position
from which it can direct its rays to the rather restricted acting
area within the setting. It is more practical to use several
soft-edge spots in available positions. By dividing the general
acting area into a number of sections (generally six), the normal
spread of light from each instrument can be expected to cover the
actor in each of these sections or acting areas. Under such
conditions the director can be sure that visibility will be
provided for the actor in every available acting area and that
there is additional flexibility for heightening some areas and
suppressing others--obviously difficult where a single
high-powered instrument is used to light the whole acting area.
 Having satisfied the director that it is possible to obtain
degrees of visibility over different parts of the entire acting
area so that he is not limited in working out the business of
movement (except for the sake of using the motivating light and
thereby suppressing the arbitrary nature of the acting area
lighting), the designer or technician can consider creating a
definite effect of time of day and locality, or the opposite--an
indefinite time and place. Another set of instruments must be
used to create the motivating light (a degree of naturalism)

         PROCEDURE 19 
and still another to provide the light distribution on the
scenery which gives the proper compositional quality to the
picture, and creates that intangible dramatic essence called
mood.
Instruments which give specific distributions of light over
different parts of the scenery and acting area must then be
selected. Inasmuch as the scenery and the acting areas have a
general relation to each other, the mounting position for the
various types of instruments used to light each part is more or
less determined. In this respect the fixed structural
arrangements of the stage and auditorium are usually inflexible.
The setting therefore should be so designed, in an arrangement of
forms, as to permit suitable mounting positions for the lighting
instruments. Allowance should be made for the use of instruments
around the stage side of the proscenium. Openings in the setting
should be designed with respect to the possible position of floor
instruments. The back drop or cyclorama should be arranged to
permit the placing of lighting instruments to give the best
distribution of light over its surface.
 With present equipment it is possible (primarily through
intensity variation from the switchboard) to control color
tonality and the composition of light distribution over the
various parts of the stage. Each group of instruments is selected
to give a reasonable range of intensity, color, and distribution.
Special instruments must be added to the layout to provide
motivating light and to create special effects, so that in
addition to the

20 PROCEDURE

control for the normal set-up, an indefinite flexibility is
provided for special lighting. Where there are insufficient
control units --dimmers, switches, etc.--the flexibility of
lighting is correspondingly limited and the lighting plans of
each production should take this limitation into account.
 Unless switchboards are carefully designed and equipped with
every means to simplify the problem of operation, they are apt to
be expensive and clumsy pieces of apparatus which limit the
possibility of creating subtle lighting. They serve two purposes:
to balance the intensity of each unit or group of units, and to
permit subtle changes of lighting during the progress of a
performance. Due to its size, the position of the "board" (on the
stage) usually is such that the operator cannot see the effects
he is producing, and since he works blindly he is reduced to
making changes mechanically. It is unwise under such conditions
to attempt complicated lighting effects or distributions no
matter how well they have been conceived. The plans for lighting
a production should in all cases be checked against the available
means of control.
 If it were possible, in advance of rehearsals, to visualize the
fitting together of all the elements of a production, no doubt a
great deal of time and expense could be saved trying to make them
co-ordinate, but this is relatively impossible. A certain amount
of latitude must be left in all the elements that receive
expression in the production. The color of the light may be right
for the

              PROCEDURE 21 
setting and the motivating light and yet be wrong for the
costumes. An instrument because of its position may make its rays
cast a shadow in the wrong place. The balance of intensity from
each source cannot be determined until all the properties,
setting, etc., are on the stage. However, a general plan which
allows for all variables provides the only sound method for
lighting the production.
 The ultimate control of light must be centered in the
switchboard, and this instrument must be so equipped that it can
give a control over changes of color and distribution as well as
intensity. The perfect switchboard will be compact and as easily
operated as an organ console. It will be located, as is already
the case in a few instances, in a place where the operator can
see what he is doing just as the organist can hear what he plays.
Certainly the number of lighting instruments will have to be
limited, and this may mean that new stage conventions will
replace the old. Probably by that time this whole method of
lighting, conceived to give the best results with equipment and
practice as they are today, will be superseded by a simpler and
better formula.


LAYOUT FOR A MEDIUM-SIZE STAGE



Figure 1: PLAN OF THE STAGE
Position of the instruments, acting areas and various parts of
the stage and auditorium
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Figure 2: AN ISOMETRIC DRAWING OF THE STAGE
Parts of the proscenium wall and ceiling, and the auditorium are
cut away to show positions of instruments and parts of the stage.


Figure 3: LONGITUDINAL SECTION
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