The lighting designer’s most basic function is to tell the story whether that is with a choreographer or with a director for a play or musical. With dance, the story is not always clearly defined or even finished when the lighting designer enters the process. Through a series of conceptual meetings with choreographers and other designers, plenty of time watching dance rehearsals, and strong guidance from the choreographer, the designer must come up with an image of light or a series of brushstrokes that will paint the stage and bring the story to life. That image of light becomes the design and then is translated into a set of specialized technical drawings that consist of light plots, detailed drawings, construction drawings, and schematic drawings as required. Drawings are the middle step of the process.
The lighting designer will also produce other types of paperwork for themselves used during the technical rehearsal process, also known as “tech.” During the tech process, everyone comes together and builds the show live on stage without an audience. Magic sheets are a valuable tool for the lighting designer as they must quickly be able to turn off and on individual lighting, instruments to paint the stage with light and make the action visible, focused, and modeled, while also creating a mood that helps to keep the audience engaged. The documents I have included here provide a sneak peek into some lighting design basics: a finished light plot with the technical information required to prepare the design and the magic sheets that a designer will use to quickly create the look on stage with a series of cues called by the stage manager.
