Designing with light for live performance is a complex mixture of craft, collaboration and art. The designer paints with light - revealing form and composing a living picture from collections of objects and bodies in a given space.
Performance Lighting Design is a practical guide to the art and technique of lighting for the stage. It is a handbook for professional practice from first concept to the development of design ideas, planning, realisation of the lighting rig and on to public performance. It introduces concepts, technologies, ways of working and includes a section on analysing the finished design. Boxed sections offer practical and helpful information.
This new and fully revised second edition brings the guide right up to date, including new material which takes into account the considerable advances made in several areas of technology for lighting design in live performance, including LED luminaires, affordable bright digital video projection, and the now commonplace use of moving lights. The new edition also includes recent research into contemporary lighting practice, addressing emerging trends in the approach to lighting the stage, particularly for drama.
Combining practical information with aesthetic considerations, Performance Lighting Design is the ideal book for students and practitioners of stage lighting working on and for the contemporary stage.
Industry Reviews
This book has to be essential reading for any potential student of lighting design because it manages to combine the aesthetic with technique so successfully. The descriptions of the objectives of lighting design as a creative medium not only inform the student but also inform all the various aspects of theatrical collaboration that makes performance work. There's much to be gained from reading this book for directors, set and costume designers, performers and indeed anyone who is intrigued by our mysterious artform * Peter Mumford, international lighting designer *
Nick Moran's book is a great guide to the subject of how to design light for the stage (or other performance space). It is perfect for anyone studying the art and craft of lighting both designers and technicians as it covers both how and why to make lighting decisions... it is easy to dip in and out of the book for reference as well as reading it through for an overview of current lighting practice. * Nick Peel, Lecturer in lighting design and technology, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, UK *
Impressive ... the author goes carefully through all the minutiae of production and design, through to opening night and beyond, with more big green boxes for HSE and other detailed asides. The updated pictures in the later sections are very useful ... ready to equip its readers with the knowledge to face the LED and moving light era. * FOCUS Magazine *
