The lighting of a show reflects not only the lighting designer's technical and professional skills but also his or her ideas, concepts and preferences. Creating the lighting of a show is an interactive process which involves the entire production team, and in particular the director and the scenery and costume designers. The creation of a theatrical performance is about blending diverse arts, tastes and ideas into one unified show. Even when the lighting designer is at odds with the other artists, he or she must strive to reach an understanding. Ideas will be exchanged, concessions will be made, and the lighting designer too will have to be flexible enough to adapt his or her ideas and concepts to conform with those of the other artists.
Apart from artistic considerations, all decisions pertaining to the design of the lighting are made in a technical, organizational and economic context, which must be taken into account.
Boytre, The Cameri Theatre of Tel-Aviv.
The lighting design concept will be affected by factors such as the type of auditorium, the makeup of the theatrical group, the genre of the performance and its technical complexity, and the availability of lighting positions, equipment, budget, time and personnel. All artists involved in the show act within the same production framework and their work is affected by the work of other members of the production team. A lighting designer who maintains a clear, consistent course throughout the production process is an asset for an artistic team which strives to work harmoniously together to achieve a coherent result.
Designing and preparing the lighting while making the most of the available lighting layout requires considerable professional expertise. The technical complexity of the existing lighting layout can also be of consequence to the design, depending on whether it is a simple layout of a few dozen luminaires or a complex and sophisticated system of hundreds of luminaires.
Detailed and meticulous planning precedes the execution of the lighting. The technical and artistic complexity of lighting design makes it necessary for most lighting designers to adopt a lucid, clearly defined, step by step path, leading from the formulation of ideas and concepts, through the planning of technical specifications and work schedules, and culminating in the execution of the lighting.
