Featured Productions
About This Project
Modern theatrical lighting has been developing over the past 60 years, primarily in America. Until now it has been exceedingly difficult to study due to limited access to original lighting documents. This collection contains actual plots, focus charts, cue sheets and much more from four landmark productions digitized from the collections of the New York Public Library. For the first time, these masterworks can now be studied in theaters, classrooms, libraries and homes far from the archives that hold them. Our aim is eventually to expand this site to include further productions, to develop new research tools, and to gradually build the Database into the premiere online resource for the study of lighting design. Feel free to analyze, compare, zoom in, download, hang, focus, and use!
The Lighting Database is a joint project of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the NYPL Digital Experience Group, and the Lighting Archive, and is funded by the New York State Council for the Arts. Documents in the Lighting DB are intended for non-commercial use only.
The Lighting Archive
Executive Director, Beverly Emmons
The Lighting Archive is a sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Advisory Committee
- Ken Billington
- Eric Cornwell
- Jules Fisher
- Vivien Leone
- John McGraw
- Richard Pilbrow
- Marilyn Rennagel
- Steve Terry
- Kenton Yeager