1. A history of stage and
theatre lighting
Performance lighting has evolved drastically since it’s origins.
It dates as far back as the Greek amphitheatres where performances
took place during daylight hours, dramas where often performed at a
certain time and written to take full advantage of the suns position in
the sky and light available to them. This was commonly high noon
and the Greeks would uses mirrors to reflect the sunlight as a means
of manipulating it how they wanted.
From different societies progressed with means of lighting perfor-
mance such as the Roman Empire who used mirrors much like the
Greeks however they harnessed the power of torches and candle
lighting power along side mirrors.
Candles where later used in metal cylinders which where the first
attempt at dimming lights.
The breakthrough of the use of oil lamps was a real progression how-
ever the did cause an awful lot of smoke and a foul smell. However it
was still in competition with candle light until the introduction of coal
gas. Once more coal gas was short lived as the technology was short
lived, this was when technology started to progress more and more,
faster and faster. The monopoly that was theatre lighting had begun
and technology started to updated every few decades.
More on the progression in my presentation.
