A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, 2nd Edition

14

●

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO STAGE LIGHTING

mounted on vertical booms, adjacent to the sides of

the goods. In that arrangement, the same instruments

are then collectively called vertical toning strips, or

VTS’s.

If the goods consist of an opaque painted drop,

the entire overhead striplight electric and the strip-

light groundrow are shifted to the downstage side

of the goods, in order to light the face of the drop.

Sometimes a short constructed flat, called a scenic

groundrow, is placed immediately downstage of a

drop to hide the silhouettes of the striplight ground-

row and their light leaks. If no adjacent room for

striplights exists downstage of a drop, illumination

must come from other sources.

Generally speaking, the remaining choices are

either low, medium, or high. Low positions include

cyc troughs, footlights, or lighting positions in the

orchestra pit. Medium hanging possibilities include

instruments on stands in the downstage leg openings

or the FOH balcony rail. And high choices include

overhead electrics, or FOH hanging positions. Almost

all of these hanging positions aren’t close to the drops,

so the lighting instruments used are no longer strip-

lights, they’re other types of lighting instruments.

Lighting downstage drops means the goods are

closer to plaster line, and therefore they might be lit

by more hanging locations in the FOH. In most cases,

lighting drops from the house usually translates into

instruments hung on the balcony rail or somewhere

that shoot “straight in” to the drop. Since there is no

need to provide three-dimensionality, the instruments

are usually positioned so that they focus straight into

the goods. While frontlight positions might be consid-

ered, the lower the position, the easier it is to provide

light as high as possible on the drop, up under the

borders.

In many cases, regardless of their hanging posi-

tion, any instruments primarily assigned to provide

illumination onto a backdrop or goods is still often

called a drop wash.

Overhead Template Wash

Other systems are named using a direction and a mod-

ifier. A template wash refers to a system of light that,

rather than a smooth blended wash, is “broken up”

or textured. A template wash can be focused towards

a piece of scenery or a backdrop and assigned that

name: the “mountain template wash,” or the “sky

temps,” for example. It might also be assigned to side-

light booms or the balcony rail. But an overhead tem-

plate wash almost always implies a wash designed to

focus down and cover the performance surface.

These days the word “template” refers to many

objects and devices that can be inserted into the

optics of an ellipsoidal lighting instrument. For many

old-school designers, the term still refers back to

the original object, a thin piece of metal with holes.

Once inserted into an ellipsoidal, the light beam is

reshaped to mimic the design of the holes. Since tem-

plates “break up” the light coming out of an ellipsoi-

dal, they’re perceived as producing “textured” light.

Depending on the angle, direction, color, intensity,

and movement, templated light can define a location,

provide dimensionality, establish a time of day, or

evoke a feeling. They’re usually used in four main

applications.

First, templates can be focused from overhead

positions to produce textured light on horizontal sur-

faces, like a stage. A templated ellipsoidal, equipped

with a window template, produces that pattern of

light on the floor, and can define the scene’s loca-

tion as an interior. If, instead, the window gobo is

exchanged for a tree branch template, that pattern

will be projected onto the floor, re-establishing the

scene as an exterior. An abstract “breakup” pattern,

on the other hand, might project mere blobs of light

onto the stage, and affect the audience’s perception of

the scene, rather than the placement.

Second, templates can be used to add texture

and dimensionality onto vertical scenery. If a lake is

painted onto a backdrop, a templated instrument can

be focused onto the water. After being shuttered to

the boundaries of the water in a soft-edged focus, the

mottled spots of light will add texture to the lake.

The movement of a film loop (inserted into the same

instrument) in the same focus can increase the illu-

sion. If a scenic design consists of several walls, on

the other hand, a system of templated instruments

can be focused high on the walls. At a reduced inten-

sity, the breakup pattern can visually add texture and

subtle interest to the flat surfaces.

Third, templates can be used to supply texture

and dimensionality to animate or inanimate objects on

the stage. One example of this is templates inserted in

low-hung sidelights. When focused as part of a typical

boom sidelight wash, the “mottled” light can be seen

on the sides of performers’ bodies as they move about

the stage. Another example is when templates are

projected onto a unit set centered on the stage. When

templated light is projected onto the scenery, it adds

dimension to the otherwise flat surfaces.

Finally, templates can be used to apply texture

to the air. When haze is used in a show, it’s often not

seen until light beams strike the particles in the air.

Light beams, otherwise unnoticed, can change the

look and perception of an entire scene, shaped by

the different shafts of light now seen by the introduc-

tion of the haze. The number of beams (defined by the

number of holes) from a templated unit can give the