Contemporary Performance Lighting

This is the first major collection of critical responses to performance lighting and includes contributions from award-winning lighting designers, researchers and artists. Showcasing recent examples of work - with case studies of lighting practices in Britain, Europe, the US and China - ­­combined with theoretical and analytical approaches to practice, this will enrich your understanding of the role and potential of light in performance and related creative practices. This volume explores three core themes and provides a framework for thinking through the role of light in performance: 1. Experience - considers both the audience's experience of light and the ways in which light influences the experience of performers 2. Creativity - examines both the creative, performative capacities of light in performance, as well as the creative practices of lighting designers 3. Meaning - offers an expanded view of performance aesthetics by examining the capacity of light to influence and generate meaning within performance. The case studies are drawn from a wide-array of lighting practice, including: Jennifer Tipton on the role of light as a structural language in performance; Jesper Kongshaug on the lighting of Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens; Lucy Carter on her work in installation and dance; Psyche Chui on the productive fusion of Western lighting techniques with contemporary Chinese opera; Katharine Williams on the role of light in feminist political theatre made by RashDash; and Paule Constable on storytelling with light in a range of productions, including War Horse, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and Angels in America.

Katherine Graham is Lecturer in Theatre at the University of York, UK and currently co-convenor of the Theatre and Performance Research Association's Scenography Working Group. She has published work about light in Theatre and Performance Design and Contemporary Theatre Review and has worked extensively as a lighting designer for theatre and dance. Scott Palmer is Associate Professor in Performance Design at the University of Leeds, UK. His publications include chapters that focus on light, space and the technologies of performance and the monograph Light: Readings in Theatre Practice (2013). Kelli Zezulka is Lecturer in Technical Theatre (Production and Design) at the University of Salford, UK and has previously written for theatre journals and in applied linguistics. A practising lighting designer, she is also a non-executive director of the Association for Lighting Production and Design and editor of its bi-monthly magazine, Focus.

List of Illustrations Introduction: Thinking Light - Katherine Graham (University of York, UK), Scott Palmer (University of Leeds, UK) and Kelli Zezulka (University of Salford, UK) Section One: Experience 1.1 Theatrical Atmospheres and the Experience of Light, Scott Palmer (University of Leeds, UK) 1.2 Felt Dramaturgies of Light, David Shearing (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, UK) 1.3 Transforming the Visitor Experience Through Light: Tivoli Gardens: A Case Study, Jesper Kongshaug (architect and lighting designer, Denmark) 1.4 Narratives, Choreographies and Felt Experiences of Light, Lucy Carter (lighting designer, UK) 1.5 The Unbearable Brightness of Beams: Light, Darkness and Obscure Images, Yaron Shyldkrot (University of Leeds, UK) Section Two: Creativity 2.1 Language, Creativity and Collaboration, Kelli Zezulka (University of Salford, UK) 2.2 Northern Lights: Natural Light Phenomenon as Stage Lighting Concept, Michael Breiner (lighting designer and Danish National School of Performing Arts, Denmark) 2.3 Light in Contemporary Chinese Opera, Psyche Chui (Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, China) 2.4 RashDash: Fusing Feminism and Light, Katharine Williams (lighting designer, UK) 2.5 Reflecting on Light, Jennifer Tipton (lighting designer, USA) Section Three: Meaning 3.1 Aesthetics, Materiality and Meaning-Making in Scenographic Light, Katherine Graham (University of York, UK) 3.2 Storytelling with Light, Paule Constable (lighting designer, UK) 3.3 Tracing the Light: Light and the Process of Looking, Nick Hunt and Hansjorg Schmidt (Rose Bruford College, UK) 3.4 LX ludens: Mediations Upon the Play of Light, Christopher Baugh (University of Leeds, UK) Index