THEATRE LIGHTING DESIGN

Conversations on the Art, Craft and Life By Emma Chapman and Rob Halliday

Theatre Lighting Design: Conversations on the Art, Craft and Life is a book that is based on a series of interviews with a handful of theatrical Lighting Designers.

This book offers a bridge between the basic skills of being a Lighting Designer, to taking early steps as a professional Lighting Designer. Established designers share inspiration and practical advice, useful to anyone embarking on a career in the industry.

It is a little different from other books out there on the topic of Lighting Design. The content is less structured than a textbook and has the input of numerous people, giving a much more spontaneous feel to it and perhaps bringing forth information you wouldn’t otherwise get in a more structured set up.

About the Authors

Emma Chapman is a lighting designer known for her work on productions including Kiss Me, Kate (Paris, Luxembourg); Marjorie Prime (Menier Chocolate Factory, London); Ghost Quartet (Boulevard Theatre, London); The Importance of Being Earnest (Theatr Clwyd, Mold), Lungs (Paines Plough); and the Olivier-award-winning play The Mountaintop (Trafalgar Studios). She was Co-Designer of Roundabout, The Stage Awards’ Theatre Building of the Year in 2015. She is co-chair of the Association for Lighting Production and Design Awards Working Group and a member of the Association’s Wellbeing Working Group. Emma has also worked as a theatre consultant and designer for Charcoalblue and was a founding member of studio three sixty.

Rob Halliday has lit shows around the world, from the acclaimed dance show Tree of Codes to the intimate production of the musical Amour. He has also worked as Lighting Programmer, Associate Designer or both for productions such as Billy Elliot, Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Equus and Red. He writes about the production of live shows for magazines including Lighting&Sound International, Lighting & Sound America, Live Design, The Stage and others, many of these articles collected together in the Entertainment in Production books, and has been a guest speaker at drama colleges and trade shows around the world.

Who is the book for?

This book is for anyone who wants to be a theatre Lighting Designer and who wants to hear what it is like from someone with ‘skin in the game’. It gives the reader a look at how a theatre Lighting Designer operates and comes at it from an angle that you would be unlikely to encounter in an educational setting.

Who might benefit from reading this book?

Students of Lighting Design or anyone who is likely to be working with a Lighting Designer may benefit from reading this book, regardless of whether they would be working in theatre or not. It gives a fantastic insight into how high-end, professional Lighting Designers approach their work and how they see themselves and their role in the bigger picture of a theatrical production.

Who is this book not for?

This book would not be for an established Lighting Designer. You would likely have your own style and your own well-informed answers and views to all the topics covered in this book.

What I liked about the book

I aways appreciate a book written by seasoned professionals. I like that the subjects interviewed were asked questions of a reasonably similar nature. I found it interesting to hear how much their answers varied on the same topics despite all working at the top of the same field in the same part of the world. I suspect a lot of them knew each other too. The subjects themselves were good picks for the book.

How I think the book could have been better

For me personally, I would liked to have seen a few more questions pitched to these Lighting Designers as to their thoughts on emerging industry trends, opportunities, and challenges we could face in the future. It would have been interesting to hear what some of these subjects thought about topics like AI, automation, remote operation, solar, and wireless technologies, just to name a few.

As a visual person I would loved to have seen more photos of their work too. I really like the photos that were included but would have appreciated more, even if it was a collage at the end of each chapter of each designer’s work.

Readability: 8/10

I found this to be a very easy book to read. It was well laid-out, I found the content interesting. I think there was something about the style, chapter length and layout of the interview format that made for really light reading despite being a 256 page book on a rather technical subject. I read through it in three sittings.

Supporting materials: 6/10

The supporting materials were supportive and relevant. I did appreciate the biography and a website to the Lighting Designers website at the start of each chapter. The pictures that were there were fantastic – I just wish there were more.

Relevance: 6/10

This book definitely holds relevance. A book about lighting design which consists of Lighting Designers interviewing Lighting Designers is going to be relevant and on-point.

Usefulness: 5/10

This is a hard one to score. While it offers great insight, it is not really a book you would come back to again and again to re-read. It doesn’t really have any reference material or anything practical for one to put to use, but the insights are valuable and well worth reading.

Value for money: 8/10

It would make a good ‘under $50’ gift for someone you know who wants to be a Lighting Designer. The combined experience of all the subjects interviewed in the book would be hundreds of years. To have access to that for less than $50 represents good value to me.

Total: 33/50: 4 Stars

“We sometimes get a little bit too involved in our own department to remember that what we are doing is a collaboration.”