Learning about stage lighting sometimes seems a mystery to those who are just starting out. Lighting design and technology can seem like black magic with all it’s strange terminology and jargon. Learning all about stage lighting is best done in a variety of ways, not least hands on experience in theatres or concert venues. Reading books on stage lighting is a great way to study the theories and practice as well as learning new stage lighting terms.

Here are five of the best books on stage lighting that have been chosen by On Stage Lighting as having their own unique qualities and would be useful to anyone wanting to learn more about the subject. These books have all played a part in the lighting education of the On Stage Lighting team at some time.

The Stage Lighting Handbook by Francis Reid (6th Edition)

Francis Reid’s book has been the foundation of many lighting designers education for many years. Demonstrating the theories behind designing lights for the theatre, it has been updated to include information relevant to the modern world of lighting while still retaining all those simple lighting principles that will never change. The Stage Lighting Handbook is probably the most “famous” book on stage lighting design that there is.
Verdict: An absolute “must read” for anyone interested in learning, and progressing in, stage lighting.

Lighting And Sound (Theatre Manual) by Neil Fraser (Phaidon)

This book is part of the excellent Phaidon Theatre Manual series which are all well worth looking at if you have a passion for learning about “backstage” stuff (I owned the whole series when I started out!). Lighting And Sound is split into two parts covering the two different subjects and gives you an excellent grounding in the basics of theatre lighting. Lighting design principles are well explained with some nice illustrations and there is a useful glossary of theatre terms. The sound section gives you a good introduction to theatre sound although if you have a little experience, you will probably want to get a more in depth guide.

Verdict: The book is just right for anyone taking their first steps in technical theatre and is the best “introduction” book.

Concert Sound and Lighting Systems by John Vasey (3rd Edition) (Focal Press)

Concert Sound and Lighting Systems is a great way to understand the particular subject of lighting for live music shows. The “rock and roll” scene, as it is still known, has history and techiniques that have grown up outside of theatre lighting design. It also has different problems and solutions. This book does not pretend to be a guide to the first principles of lighting design, but explains the techniques and processes involved in lighting live concerts. Particular attention is given to aspects of touring and quick set ups and introduces an important part of temporary stage lighting systems – rigging. Concert Sound and Lighting Systems shows you techinques that are also highly relevant to modern award shows and coropate events.

Verdict: If you want to learn live concert lighting, touring events or corporate shows, this book has loads of useful information that you just don’t get in a theatre lighting manual.

Automated Lighting: The Art and Science of Moving Light in Theatre, Live Perfo……. by Richard Cadena (Focal Press)

- This book has a ridiculously long title, but maybe for good reason. Intelligent Lighting has been a huge driving force in lighting for the entertainment industry for quite a few years now. Where it was once a weird luxury, it is now as much a part of stage lighting as a 500w fresnel. The crossover between theatre, live shows, concerts, television and corporate events means that the lighting design boundaries now blur. Automated Lighting? Everyone is doing it.

Despite the march of moving lights into everything we do in the lighting industry, not many of us have taken the time to write a comprehensive book on the subject. It seems such a huge undertaking to even try to cover this exciting subject that has made the art and technical aspects of stage lighting SO much bigger. Richard Cadena knows his stuff and his book is a brilliant guide to moving lights, design concepts and just the business of using all these funny “waggly mirrors” and “nodding buckets”. In the modern world of lighting, you have to know this stuff too.

Verdict: Great to understand the subject of intelligent lighting and progress further in the brave new(ish) world.

The Automated Lighting Programmer’s Handbook by Brad Schiller (Focal Press)

Programming “the desk” in stage lighting is now, more than ever, a special skill. In the old days, when you only had to worry about dimmers, the skill came in remembering how to get your “memory desk” to boot again after you had moved it to the stalls for the lighting plot. With the prevelance of automated lighting things have got a lot more complicated. The modern programmer must not only know how their lighting console behaves but now make lighting design decisions, organise their data efficiently and understand how each model of their intelligent fixtures works. Add to this the “we’ve got no time to program” ethic that most shows (well, the ones I work on, anyway) seem to run on today and you soon realise the range of skills needed to program and control automated lighting.

Brad Schiller is a professional moving light programmer with an impressive CV. The Handbook contains lots of useful tips on programming, organisation and design. Importantly, it also explains exactly what it is like to work as a moving light operator and how the role fit’s into the modern show. There is also some interesting advice from many other well respected operators in the industry and his diary as a programmer for the Sydney Olympics really brings the whole subject to life.

Verdict: If you think that you might be interested in working in this field this book gives you an accurate idea of what it is like. It also will help you with your own programming, even if you are working on smaller shows.
I hope that you have found this article useful and, by the way, we don’t have any links with Focal Press. They just publish a lot of stage lighting books.