...
- You, or the master electrician (talk to them to figure out where division of responsibility lies) will coordinate the hanging and cabling of lights (where/how they get plugged in, this is sometimes not trivial) onto the ceiling during or around put-in, and then you will focus the lights; i.e. point them in the right places. For specific hardware and /cabling questions, see the Master Electrician page (especially if you also are or are working with a first-time Master Electrician).
- During tech week, you'll combine the things you thought about before (where people are onstage, what world they are in) into cues which are "snapshots" - saved 'looks' in which the board remembers how bright each light is (and color, place, etc. if you're using intelligent fixtures). This can take a while.
...
The very first thing you need to do as lighting designer is familiarize yourself with the script, read it (probably more than once). Pick out themes that you think are important and might be able to translate into different looks. (Contrasts tend to be easy to work with: winter vs. spring, Egypt vs. Rome, etc.) Meet with the director, find out what they want to emphasize and if they have any ideas about how they want the stage to be lit. At this stage, take in all suggestions you can get — feasibility can be worked out later. Once you have an idea of how you want the scenes to look (generally after the semifinal set design is due), you need to figure out if you can do it. The two main spaces the Ensemble uses are Kresge Little Theater and La Sala de Puerto Rico. KLT has a large stock (an inventory list is in the PDF attached to this page); if you aren't doing anything too crazy, I doubt you'll run out of anything. Sala's inventory (salainv.xls) is a bit smaller.
At this point you should also meet with the Set Designer to see what the set designs look like. You need to know about major set pieces that may need to be lit, or different levels of playing areas that you will have to deal with. You should also see a "designer run" so you have a more concrete idea of the blocking and general mood of the show. If in KLT, you should also decide if you are going to use a cyc. Next, you must come up with a plot (specifics as to where each lighting fixture will be hung). You need to pick what kind of light, and where it should be hung to illuminate a specific part of the stage in the desired manner — needless to say, this can take a bit of trial and error. Your next job will be during put-in/prod week. As a lighting designer your job will be to tell your electricians where to focus each and every instrument once it's hung and circuitedcabled. Once the lamps lights are focused you need to sit down with the director and write the cues. This process is often called "paper tech".
Q2Q (cue-to-cue) rehearsal (the first tech rehearsal is your chance to refine the cues live, in the theater, with the actors onstageafter put-in) is, in the words of Jake Gunter (although the spelling "theater" instead of "theatre" suggests it may not have been written by Jake), "your chance to refine the cues live, in the theater, with the actors onstage". As of Spring 2018, the Ensemble does not have a coherent opinion about what actually happens during Q2Q. During the Fall 2017 production of Hamlet, the Ensemble quixotically was frustrated with the LDs for writing cues during Q2Q, thus implicitly expecting the LDs to have written all the cues in the 10ish hours between 7AM and the start of Q2Q rehearsal. My take is: write as many cues as you can during this time. Don't let people get mad at you if cues are not written, because when were you supposed to do that anyways. Finish writing cues during/after Q2Q and ideally before the next tech rehearsal. During subsequent tech/dress runs, you can further refine cues, and (if necessary) the focuses of particular instruments. (Realize that much if not all of your free time during tech week may be spent in the theater.) Finally, sit back and enjoy the beauty of beauty of your work.
The Lighting Plot
...