Lighting design

At the off-Broadway or off-off-Broadway level, the LD will occasionally be responsible for much of the hands-on technical work (such as hanging instruments, programming the light board, etc.)

The LD will read the script carefully and make notes on changes in place and time between scene—and will have meetings (called design or production meetings) with the director, designers, stage manager, and production manager to discuss ideas for the show and establish budget and scheduling details.

Examples of typical paperwork include cue sheets, light plots, instrument schedules, shop orders, and focus charts.

The lighting designer uses this paperwork to aid in the visualization of not only ideas but also simple lists to assist the master electrician during load-in, focus, and technical rehearsals.

Professional LDs generally use special computer-aided design packages to create accurate and easily readable drafted plots that can be swiftly updated as necessary.

The LD will discuss the plot with the show's production manager and the theatre's master electrician or technical director to make sure there are no unforeseen problems during load-in.

After focus has occurred the LD usually sits at a temporary desk (tech table) in the theater (typically on the center line in the middle of the house) where they have a good view of the stage and work with the light board operator, who will either be seated alongside them at a portable control console or talk via headset to the control room.

At an arranged time, the performers arrive and the production is worked through in chronological order, with occasional stops to correct sound, lighting, entrances, etc.

The lighting designer will work constantly with the board operator to refine the lighting states as the technical rehearsal continues, but because the focus of a "tech" rehearsal is the production's technical aspects, the LD may require the performers to pause ("hold") frequently.

If the only work to be done is maintenance (i.e. changing a lamp or burnt out gel) then the production or master electrician will be in charge and will direct the electrics crew.

During this time, if the cueing is finished, the LD will sit in the audience and take notes on what works and what needs changing.

At this point, the stage manager will begin to take over the work of calling cues for the light board op to follow.

With the advancement in computer processing and visualization software, lighting designers are now able to create computer-generated images (CGI) that represent their ideas.

In addition to computer visualization, either full-scale or small-scale mockups are a good method for depicting a lighting designer's ideas.

Fiber optic systems such as LightBox or Luxam allow a users to light a scale model of the set.