Lighting Design and Related Courses

Stage Lighting Design (Undergraduate only)

This course is structured to introduce the student to the aesthetics of dramatic stage lighting, to develop and practice a systematic approach to creating a lighting design, and to build an appreciation of lighting design's artistic contribution to staged productions. Script analysis, concept development, effects plotting, conventions of stage lighting, properties of light and visual perception, basic lighting technology, drafting of plans, organizational paperwork, and related aspects of producing a design are taught in the course. The labs, assignments and practicum are structured to provide a progressive and challenging exploration of theatrical lighting fundamentals and skills. The final project provides an opportunity to create, on paper, a complete lighting design for a modest production.

TUTORIAL (No Credit)

All MFA Lighting Students will schedule a weekly, one hour personal tutorial with the Faculty Lighting Designer.

Lighting Design

(for incoming MFA Lighting Design students and MFA Lighting Design Minors)

This course explores, on an intermediate level, the aesthetics of dramatic stage lighting and systematic approaches to the processes needed to transform design goals into an effective lighting design. An emphasis is placed on concept development and communicating the design idea through a series of exercises including verbal presentations, visual materials/light renderings, and written reports. The research, analysis, engineering and organizational techniques required by the Lighting Designer will be developed into a set of working tools and methods. The practicum component of the course is designed to bridge the theories of the lighting design process with the realities of production.

Lighting Design Aesthetics

This course, with a seminar type structure, provides the advanced graduate student in Design with an exploration of contemporary visual styles and values with the goal of increasing visual vocabulary and developing a deeper sensitivity to Lighting Design Aesthetics and related arts. The course will also explore the history behind modern lighting techniques and then strive to define a set of lighting conventions in current practice and the current lighting aesthetic. Television and film productions have significantly influenced the practice of lighting design and capture, in motion, the visual aesthetic of their time. Part of the course focuses on viewing and analyzing the visual techniques associated with the significant genres of television and film entertainment between 1910 and the present. The evolving visual vocabulary will be used to analyze various approaches to live entertainment lighting design. Efforts will be made to attend some performances, as a class, selected from opera, theatre, movies and a music concerts.

Dramatic Lighting for Environments (taught in tandem with Consulting)

This course is intended to instruct graduate students who are experienced in stage lighting design or have studied interior lighting design, in the approaches, tools and methods necessary to begin designing dramatic light within an urban environment. Architectural lighting aesthetics, human factors, task determination, code requirements, basic illumination engineering calculations, design approaches, evaluation methods, luminaires and layout, lighting technologies, specification procedures, presentation techniques and professional practice will be studied through the lectures, labs and project work. The course provides a framework to migrate theatre collaboration, lighting concept development and implementation to the architectural lighting process and practice. The IESNA Howard Brandston student lighting design competition project serves as the final project for the course.

Lighting Consulting for Theatre Spaces (taught in tandem with Lighting for the Environments)

(guest presenters include practicing consultants, engineers, project managers and manufacturer reps)

Lighting designers are often asked how to improve/update the lighting systems in a theatre and most prominent theatre consultants have their roots in lighting design. Following a survey of basic lighting tenets and code sources (Electrical, Building, Fire, Life Safety) the course centers on creating a full lighting consultation for a modest theatre space, from concept and program development through schematic and costing. The course concludes with a class presentation to the theatre's management.

Rendering Light

The purpose of this studio course is to provide the advanced student in Design with a guided hands-on experience through the techniques and applications of Physically Based Computer Visualization and related imaging techniques, following a survey of traditional light rendering approaches used in design development and presentation. Progressively complex projects, including interior design and theatre lighting, will be assigned to challenge the student's analytical, concept and modeling skills culminating in a large concept study. The course will cover such topics as Global Illumination vs Traditional Computer Graphics, data acquisition and translation, geometric and material modeling, the Radiance scene description and rendering procedure, visualization and the design process, output formats, image enhancement, and packaging the picture. The student is assumed to have an intermediate knowledge of stage/studio lighting or dramatic architectural lighting design, computer skills in CAD and image manipulation, and experience in the concept development process as it applies to theatre. Software applications include RADIANCE, WYSIWYG, EFFECT, LytPlot, AutoCad, Photoshop. Projects include lighting the Statue of Liberty, or possibly Mount Rushmore , in a simulation environment.

Advanced Lighting Design

Offered as needed. Cotemporary lighting design practices and techniques are explored through a series of weekly projects and presentations such as a critique of current control systems, moving light challenges, new lighting tools, developing an effects based language and advanced lighting problems and organization.

Lighting Design Workshop (proposed course)

Offered as available. These intensive workshops, varying in format and duration, are designed to advance professional practice and skills. A topic might be centered around the expertise of a guest artist or taught by faculty or staff specialists.

Independent Study

All students are encouraged to develop and propose independent projects/courses in personalized areas of professional interest. Lighting Topics have included Advanced Architectural Lighting Design Practice, Developing an Approach and Curriculum for Undergraduate Lighting Instruction, Advanced Sound Design and Mixing Techniques, and Laser Projection Techniques and Applications.

Design Research and Collaboration Studio

(Taught by Design and Technology Faculty)

This studio course builds and strengthen research, collaboration, communication and artistic/presentation skills. Student teams research, investigate, design and present innovative approaches to major projects, devised to challenge their individual and collective growth as collaborative artists and technologists.

MFA THESIS

See thesis requirements.

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Theatre Technology and Related Courses:

• Stagecraft I (not for graduate credit)
• Technical Drawing
• Electronics for Theatre Technologists
• TD I (Shop Management, Materials, and Equipment)
• TD III (Mechanized Scenery)
• Structural Mechanics
• Rigging I
• Rigging II
• CADD for Theatre
• Sound Design
• Independent Studies

Scenic Design and Related Courses:

• Scene Design I (Not for graduate credit)
• Scene Design II
• Advanced Scene Design
• Studies in Scenic Design
• Rendering
• History of Decor
• Scene Painting I
• Scene Painting II
• Production Design for Television and Film
• Independent Studies Research work.

Costume Design and Related Courses:

• Stage Make-Up (not for graduate credit)
• Stage Costuming I (not for graduate credit)
• Independent Study Opportunities for Undergraduates
• Stage Costuming II
• Costume Design I
• Historic Costumes for the Stage
• Costume and Character in London Theatre
• Advanced Costume Design Aesthetics
• Studies in Stage Costuming
• Third Year Portfolio Preparation
• Independent Studies