Contemporary Performance Lighting

Contemporary Performance Lighting is a coming of age story for the field of lighting design. On the shoulders of a century of technical and artistic progress, a collection of international designers and thinkers usher in a new era for our discipline one in which meaning finally becomes the central pursuit. Seasoned practitioners and new designers alike will find inspiration in these terrific explorations. * Deanna Fitzgerald, Lighting Designer and Vice Dean, University of Arizona, USA * Light that immaterial material with the power to dematerialize performs as an agential force in our daily lives. But within the shadowy realms of theatres, galleries, found spaces and nocturnal outdoor sites, it is employed as a transformational aesthetic medium by artists of technical alchemy attentive to the subtleties and intensities of its appearing. This timely anthology critically celebrates light as a performative medium and an event in itself. Meditating on processes, practices and projects its contributors confront the politics of perception and constructions of visuality to challenge conventional hierarchies and assumptions not only in the world of theatre but within the world as theatre. Chapters explore its relevance to the performing, visual and spatial arts including architecture and urban design to reveal how lighting design integrates effects and affects to orchestrate, enliven and shape our individual and communal experiences. * Dorita Hannah, Designer and Independent Academic, New Zealand *

Katherine Graham is Lecturer in Theatre at the University of York, UK and currently co-convenor of the Theatre and Performance Research Associations 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