research ⁽³⁴⁾

A sense of direction: the directionality of light and the creation of meaning and feeling on stage Summary The direction light comes from is one of its fundamental properties, alongside brightness and colour. However, the directionality of light on stage – the qualities, effects and…

Theolux is a lighting control interface I designed as part of my PhD research, to implement some of the concepts I developed as part of the research process: Both the concepts and the practical realisation of Theolux are described in detail in the documentation I…

You can find a list of my research publications on my Academia.edu page, including articles, book chapters, conference papers and projects. Academic publications are often only accessible to other academics who have access through their institutions. To make my work accessible to a wider audience,…

Passages was a devised performance created to develop, test and demonstrate aspects of my PhD research. Following the principles developed through that research, I undertook the role of 'lighting artist', creating the lighting throughout the rehearsal period using a bespoke lighting control system I designed…

I completed my PhD in 2011. My mixed-mode thesis was titled "Repositioning the Role of the Lighting Artist in Live Theatre Performance", in which I proposed a series of changes to the process of theatre lighting to give greater emphasis to creative decision-making in the…

‘What’s the Small Idea?’ is a research investigation that seeks to ‘stage’ a series of dichotomies to do with seeing. Theatres are machines for seeing, and the word theatre derives from the Greek theoria, to contemplate – both to gaze upon and to think about…

Traces is an interactive light installation by Nick Hunt and Hansjörg Schmidt, initially created for the Performing Light symposium at the University of Leeds in 2017. Since its initial appearance in Leeds, Traces has been recreated in a variety of forms, changing in scale and…

My research often engages with the history of technical theatre, not simply for its own sake, but also because knowing about the past is essential if we are to understand the present and how we got here. This in turn enables possible futures to be…

Light, Warmth and the End of the Age of Tungsten Since humans first learnt to control fire a million years ago, people have created artificial light through heat. For most of that time, the naked flames of open fires, candles and oil lamps have illuminated…

Theatre Polski, Warsaw

Plaza Cinema, Caracas

Her Majesty’s Theatre, London

Adelphi Theatre, London

Aula Magna, Caracas

Coliseum, London

Festival Hall, London

Stoll Theatre, Kingsway, London

Empress Hall, Earl’s Court, London

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London

Palace Theatre, Manchester

National Opera House, Ankara

Palladium Theatre, London

Theatre Royal, Bristol

South Shore Icedrome, Blackpool

S’Carlos Opera House, Lisbon

The Original

This page contains information on the position of lighting controls systems in theatres, generally in the second half of the twentieth century. Information from: Reid, Francis. Yesterday’s Lights: A Revolution Reported. Cambridge: Entertainment Technology Press, 2005. This information was gathered by FR while researching a…

The Grand Master was an early electric stage lighting control system, using resistance dimmers and mechanical operation via levers, wheels, shafts and gears. As a part of my research, I have created a ‘virtual’ Grand Master - a software emulation that reproduces how the original…

The Light Console was a unique and innovative lighting control system created by Fred Bentham in the mid-1930s. While it was not commercially very successful, it was of great significance in the development of lighting control, and challenged the ideas of the time about the…

A Significant Lighting Control Failure In the early 1970s, a unique lighting control system was installed in the Mermaid Theatre, London: Plotlite. At the time, Plotlite was the only system on the market to offer full memory control with fader-per-channel preset manual control, features the…

One of my long-term research interests is stage lighting control - not just the evolving technology used but, perhaps more importantly, the philosophy of how and why we choose to control light on stage in particular ways, and what this means for the art of…

Photoscenography is an ongoing research 'meta' project investigating the relationship between photography and scenography. The project has multiple elements, loosely interlinked, each of which approach the intersection of photography and scenography from a different perspective. At present, photoscenography has three elements - click the image…

My research interests first arose from my experiences as a professional theatre lighting designer, together with my work teaching lighting design at degree level. My PhD investigated the idea that theatre lighting could be performed rather than designed - that is, more of the creative…