A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, 2nd Edition

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A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO STAGE LIGHTING

it can be referred to as overhead sidelight (or high

sidelight, or high sides). Instruments lower to the

stage, on the other hand, can be referred to as low

sidelight, or referred to by their hanging position as

boom sidelight.

Overhead Sidelight

Sidelight systems are often used to provide dimension-

ality on performers’ bodies, and three-dimensional

scenery. When walls are involved in the scenic design,

overhead sidelight can gain even more importance. If

other systems behind the person can’t reach particu-

lar areas of the stage, the overhead sidelight may be

the only system that can prevent an area from look-

ing “flat” (the result of being illuminated only with

frontlight). In many situations, overhead sidelights are

often plotted like another system of area frontlight,

with a pair of instruments, one from each side, focus-

ing to the same focus point.

When the stage is more open and has less scenery,

several overhead sidelights can be plotted to provide

a single-zone full stage wash from either side. An even

sidelight blend in a single zone is often achieved using

only three instruments focused to the far quarterline,

centerline, and the near quarterline. With careful

beam spread choices and hanging placement, these

three instruments provide an even blend of sidelight

coverage from one side of the stage to the other.

When the batten isn’t long enough for the near

quarter instrument to match the focus angle of the

other two, the far and center instruments may remain

hung on the overhead electric, while the near instru-

ment is shifted to a sidelight boom in the same open-

ing. The boom unit’s vertical location on the boom is

measured to the proper height in order to duplicate

the focus angle of the other two overhead units; the

same angle of light is projected onto the near quarter

line of the stage.

Another style of overhead sidelight plots only a

single instrument at the end of a batten to create a sin-

gle light wash only onto the opposite side of the stage.

Instead of plotting additional overhead instruments to

complete the wash from the near side, this manner of

plotting relies on boom sidelight to “fill in” the cover-

age from the near side instead.

When overhead sidelights are used in scenic

designs involving side walls, providing coverage at

head height invariably implies that the beam will

also be splashing onto the opposite wall. Though a

top shutter cut can reduce the amount of light on the

wall, the beam is usually softened, so that the edge of

the beam “fades out,” rather than abruptly stopping

with a barrel focused to a sharp edge. A stage with-

out scenery, however, presents a different challenge.

The instrument focused to the far quarter line also

splashes light onto the black masking legs. To reduce

halation and retain as much light as possible, the bar-

rel is often focused so that the shutter edge is sharp.

To reduce the amount of light hitting the legs, the

upstage shutter is then cut off of the black mask-

ing leg that defines the upstage side of the opening

containing the overhead sidelight.

Producing a high angle sidelight from an overhead

electric often results in the instruments being hung as

far offstage as possible at the end of the batten. This

common hanging location has become another name

for the system. Overhead sidelights hung at the end of

a batten are also referred to as pipe ends.

Boom Sidelight

Adding formalized sidelight booms to light plots is

generally credited to a woman named Jean Rosenthal.

While reviewers of the day had little appreciation

for the look low sidelight produced on performers

(making them look more dimensional or “plastic”),

the angle and placement of the lighting system has

become recognized as one of her many contribu-

tions to the craft of lighting. Low sidelight is now

a cornerstone of every major North American dance

company’s light plot, and used in countless produc-

tions around the world. A boom sidelight system is

typically comprised of a series of instruments, one in

each opening, that are mounted at matching heights,

equipped with matching colors, and focused in match-

ing ways. A successful boom sidelight system is gen-

erally viewed as an even wash of sidelight that covers

the entire depth of a performance space and illumi-

nates the sides of performers’ bodies (or dimensional

objects) from the audience’s perspective.

While the instrument type and focus designation

assigned to boom sidelights are unique to every show,

there are some general guidelines. Usually, the farther

the actual throw distance, the smaller the beam spread

and the higher the mounting location on the boom. For

example, instruments mounted at the top of a 21′-0″

boom are often assigned to focus points between the

centerline and the opposite black masking leg. Since the

actual throw distance to their focus points is the great-

est, their beam spreads are comparably the smallest,

often having beam spreads of 12 to 30°. Instruments

mounted between 10′-0″ and 15′-0″ above the deck are

often assigned to focus points between the two quar-

ter lines. Their beam spreads usually range between

30 and 40°. Units mounted below 10 feet are often

assigned to focus points between the near black mask-

ing leg and centerline. The beam spread chosen is

often selected to fill the depth of each near opening,

so that the performer passing up- or downstage next