CA State Thespian Festival 2026

This class discusses the physics of light and how light works. This will establish a foundation
for how we use light to create different scenes, from recreating natural light to dramatic
beam looks and dynamic effects. We will cover the objectives of lighting design, from
establishing visibility, revealing form, to creating composition and mood. We will discuss the
controllable properties of light: intensity, color, distribution, and movement. You will learn
that lighting design is not just a single concept, but rather a complex sum of parts that all
come together to form an important part of a cohesive production design. This class aims
to give you an overview of the role that lighting takes, and how important the choices you
make early on in the process can be.

We discuss the history of control of lighting fixtures, from manual control
through analog control through the DMX control that we use today. We talk about how
DMX was developed and why it has become the industry standard. Next, we learn how DMX
is transported through network systems and what those topologies look like. We talk about
how basic systems are laid out and why it matters. Finally, we discuss some technologies
being deployed in today’s fixtures that will likely become more prevalent, and how these new
features will impact the topologies of the future.

This class discusses the physics of light and how light works. This will establish a foundation
for how we use light to create different scenes, from recreating natural light to dramatic
beam looks and dynamic effects. We will cover the objectives of lighting design, from
establishing visibility, revealing form, to creating composition and mood. We will discuss the
controllable properties of light: intensity, color, distribution, and movement. You will learn
that lighting design is not just a single concept, but rather a complex sum of parts that all
come together to form an important part of a cohesive production design. This class aims
to give you an overview of the role that lighting takes, and how important the choices you
make early on in the process can be.