Hi everyone. Well it is that time of year again. Getting ready for the end of year recitals. This year our studio is staging exerpts from the ballet The Nutcracker. The scenes include:

Party Scene
Sugar Plum Fairies
Arabian Dance
Waltz of the Flowers

Would dearly love to hear what you guys could recommend. Remembering our lighting crew is a pretty professional crew so no holds barred. Go For It. I look forward to receiving all your wonderful replies re: special effects, colours, experiences and funny anecdotes

Well, my recommendation is what it always is: if you want professional lighting, hire a professional lighting designer.

Imagine what your reaction would be if you read a post such as:

"I'm a lighting designer and I'm staging Swan Lake. I have really good dancers. What should I tell them to do?"

<small>[ 13 October 2004, 09:20 AM: Message edited by: salzberg ]</small>

thanks for that. guess i will work on my own ideas and put forward a tech sheet. unfortunate thing is i am not a professional lighting technician but i am expected by my employer to come up with a professional tech sheet plus all the idea's for the main tech sheet. just was wanting some help that was all:)

It sounds like you need not a lighting technician, but a professional lighting designer.

Why not urge your boss to join us hear and participate in the discussion?

Spangles, if you are not able to hire a lighting designer (or convince your employer to do it), and must make do yourself, how about finding some books on basic stage lighting? That might at least help you use the correct terminology. As for the creative aspect, maybe someone will see your post, take pity and offer some suggestions.

Too often people are asked to do things they aren't trained to do, and, of course, expected to produce good results. It's a shame.

It does seem like Spangles is caught between a rock and a hard place. The problem with stage lighting books is that they rarely address dance lighting.

You might try finding a series of articles that Tom Skelton wrote in Dance Magazine in 1955-56.

Some specifics about Nutcracker:

I often use a very tight special on the clock when it chimes.

The falling snow is best lit with sidelight and backlight.

Everything else pretty much depends on the choreography and the set.