Ready?
Lighting Technician — your shift
Bond everything, dress the cables, focus then plot — and test every cue. Do the job one step at a time. Tap the thing that should happen next.
Full screen — no distractions
What does a lighting technician do?
You hang, cable and focus lanterns above people's heads, then build the states a show is seen in.
Also called: LX tech, lighting operator, electrician (theatre).
A day looks like
- 1You rig from a plan, and every lantern gets a safety bond as well as its hook clamp.
- 2You dress cables so nobody trips and nothing pulls on a connector.
- 3You focus in a dark theatre with a hot lantern and a colleague on the deck telling you where the light is landing.
- 4You plot the cues and then you test every single one before an audience sees any of them.
Hardest part
Everything is above people. A lantern weighs several kilos, it is on a bar over a stage where performers will stand, and the only thing making that acceptable is that every single one was bonded.
Best part
A state that makes a set look like somewhere real, built out of eight lanterns and a colour you chose.
How you actually become a lighting technician
- At schoolAny theatre crew work; electrical awareness helps and is trainable.
- TrainingTechnical theatre course or on-the-job; working-at-height and electrical safety are formal.
- How longA year to rig confidently, several to design.
- Your first jobCasual crew on fit-ups and get-outs.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a safety bond?
- A steel wire loop around the lantern and the bar, independent of the clamp holding it. If the clamp fails or works loose, the bond catches the lantern before it reaches the stage.
- Why focus before adding colour?
- Because judging where a beam lands is harder through coloured gel, and fitting the frame can nudge the lantern. Doing it in that order means the focus is set on what you can actually see.
- Why test every cue?
- Because a cue that has never been run is untested code. The cues that get skipped are always the ones late in the plot, which is exactly where a failure is most visible.
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