Unlike other art forms, theatre is a collaborative art in which a director who specializes in modern theatre, a lighting designer with a flair for special effects, a scenery designer who usually works in musicals, and actors whose style is one of sweeping gestures, can all be brought together to produce an Elizabethan play. A unified stylistic framework enables all of these artists to work together. The lighting designer's point of departure must be the style of the production. The lighting should be stylistically consistent through the entire show, and the style of the lighting must conform with that of the production.
Style can be described as that quality of artistic means which characterizes a work of art. It is also an identifiable technique and a form of artistic expression - the language the artist uses to communicate with the audience. However, style is effective as a communicative language only as long as it is identifiable by the audience.
Harsh lighting angles and contrasts match the expressionist style of the scenery. Hoffmann's Tales, The New Israeli Opera.
The style of a production is conveyed by a combination and succession of signs which are reasonably constant throughout the play. The director, who is responsible for developing the style of the production, will be able to communicate more freely with the other artists by referring to a particular style and using terms identified with it. This will also enhance communication between other members of the artistic team, who can use the same language and terms and thus coordinate their efforts with greater ease.
Most styles encountered in the theatre will be familiar to an experienced audience. A show might be deemed to have an innovative style by comparing this style with familiar stylistic forms. Thereafter, the style of this particular show will be recognized and catalogued along with its predecessors.
The lighting can contribute considerably to supporting the style of the play. Supporting the production, however, does not necessarily imply similarity of stylistic means, and at times different aspects of the same production may have contrasting styles. Such contrasts are coordinated by the director - whether as part of the concept or following a stylistic dictate of the play. As the show develops, each element, with its own definite style, loses its uniqueness and becomes the property of the production, and the stamp of the overall combination of elements will become the style of the show.
A few common lighting styles are: realism, symbolism, expressionism, pictoralism and theatricalism.
Period costumes in a theatrical setting, La Traviatta, The New Israeli Opera.
Theatrical formalism predominates all of the visual aspects of the scene. Don Giovanni, The Israeli Opera.
