LIGHTING - Cliff Dix

A short time ago one of the major national daily newspapers published an article praising British theatre set designers as the best in the world. The piece reminded readers of the backhanded compliment inflicted on a Broadway musical by an American critic many years ago ' the audience came out whistling the sets'. The phrase referred, of course, to one of those occasions when the efforts of technical departments of a production eclipsed those of the cast.

The tendency for stage lighting people to 'light the lights' rather than lighting the actors is ever more apparent, and has its origins in a couple of trends over the past few decades.

Twenty or thirty years ago most amateur stages boasted such limited equipment that the desire to make lighting conspicuous was tempered by practicalities. Control equipment was generally so basic that complex cues were dreaded by the average amateur operator, rather than welcomed, and lighting special effect hire was so comparatively expensive that for most small companies it represented the sort of outlay that needed to be justified through several committees. Furthermore the most 'exciting' lighting that the general public saw from one year's end to the next was probably limited to some flashing Par cans on Top of the Pops.

All that has changed.

Lighting designers and operators willingness to be wallpaper, decorative possibly, but rather invisible, has declined.

We have exciting toys in our armoury, and we want to play with them. DMX and memory control systems have come within the financial reach of event the smallest amateur company. Every hire firm offers colour changing, multiple gobo, moving 'intelligent' lighting off the shelf… and who wouldn't want to try it out?

Every TV programme from music shows, including Top of the Pops, to chat shows via game shows and quizzes, now uses some form of 'intelligent' lighting. The range includes simple colour changing, rotating gobos, x-y scanning and much more. It's all made conspicuous by haze, or in extreme cases, smoke, and is ubiquitous. (Well nearly! 'Countdown' has escaped, but take a look at 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' or 'Weakest Link').

Now don't get me wrong! I've made my living out of stage lighting for over thirty years. I love playing with the technology. The problem is not really with those of us lucky enough to make a full time living out of the industry. We have the luxury of dealing with so many shows in any given year that we will always get the odd opportunity to experiment. (or should that be show off?).

Those in the amateur world rarely get the opportunity to light more than one or two shows a year. Should directors give them their head?

Well yes they should!

But I've always maintained that audiences should not be aware of the lighting. If they know that we technicians are there then we have failed in our prime duty, which is to entertain the audience. If the lighting waggles and flashes with an up-tempo musical number, or to emphasise or dramatise specific moments (as in game shows) it all fits in with the feel of the piece and the audience is not conscious of the effect. It all goes horribly wrong when this sort of effect isn't suitable.

Audiences will come back again and again to venues that offer them both the entertainment that they want, and the comfort they demand. This comfort includes the seating, (Oh no! stacking chairs!) and the auditorium temperature. But there are hidden, and perhaps less immediately obvious, aspects of presentation that can influence your audience.

The public remembers the beginning and end of shows. That's the moment when you houselights go up and down. Do yours go off with the click of a switch, and come back on in an uneven flicker of fluorescent starters? Can you achieve, in your audience, that expectant hush and thrill as the houselights dim, leaving a warm glow of tab-warmers? If you are multi purpose hall users that answer is most likely not. The additional problem will generally be that your venue is equipped with insufficient dimmer channels to use one or more to run houselights.

Lanterns to act as houselights are not a problem. A few basic 500W halogen floods, of the type sold in every DIY store, will give you wide spread, dimmable auditorium lighting. Incidentally because of the colour temperature of floodlighting as opposed to fluorescents your auditorium will feel warmer and more welcoming to your audience.

Which just leaves the thorny question of control.

You cannot successfully use domestic dimmer switches. Proper professionally built theatre dimmer circuits are protected against lamp failure, and noise suppressed, in ways that domestic dimmers are not. The domestic dimmer might last a few shows, but it will absolutely certainly fail once the odd lamp starts to blow, (and will probably give the sound department headaches in the form of hum before it does).

There are two solutions for the budget conscious. Both involve hire, which, unless you present more than three or four shows a year, is economically sensible.

Every hire firm will be able to offer you a single channel dimmer designed to operate followspots and similar. These will be rated for at least 1KW. (the ones in our hire stock are 2KW) and you shouldn't need to pay more than about £3.00 + VAT per week for one of these.

If your venue's lighting control is DMX there's a good chance that the desk (rather than the dimmer racks) will have spare capacity. If that's the case you can hire in an additional DMX dimmer rack (they usually come in lumps of 6 channels). This will give you a channel for your houselights, and an additional 5 channels of control for the show itself…..now what couldn't you do with those!

A week's hire of a six way dimmer rack will cost you less than £20.00 Now hasn't it got to be worth that to start and finish your next show in a more professional way?

Cliff is part of Phosphene which is stage lighting equipment hire company. Find out more about them by visiting their website.