A Brief History of Stage Lighting
I want to discuss in the post the various stages of stage lighting that have undergone of the past 100 years of so. So let's first take a look into the early stage lighting techniques of yesteryear. Stage lighting is in fact as old as theatre. Let's take the early Greek culture for example - They constructed their theatres in open spaces and made sure they were oriented in direct relation to the sun, so they took advantage of the natural light they had available back then. The different types of performances would be played at different times of the day, to take advantage of the natural light positions. Aside to the use of the sun, early stage light objects involved candles, gas lighting and later electric light came into play as well. But it must be noted that early stage lighting was when the major principles of stage lighting were forged.
Let's now fast forward to modern stage light techniques and practices. What really was a game changer in the last part of the 19th century was the introduction of the incandescent lamp lights. This was a massive invention and allowed for lights to become portable and so could be easily slotted in and around a stage performace. However, if you do go back to the gas lights fixtures era, they also had pretty complex lights on their stages sometimes. And you know, the gas era was also a smelly one! And to make matters worse, many theatres back then were burned down in flames due to the gas lights setting on fire. Nowadays of course, modern day stage lighting is a mix of science and art, the introduction of the LED light and the laser light changed everything again. And we will always be changing in terms of our stage lighting techniques.
