Stage Lighting Design | 5 Tips and Tricks

The brilliance of lighting a stage production often hinges on more than just cue stacks and wattage — the real magic comes from understanding the essentials and turning theory into practical impact. Whether you're looking to perfect your next design or inspire fresh ideas in your repertory theatre, these tips will guide you toward lighting that elevates every moment on stage.

The foundational goal of stage lighting is straightforward: make actors visible, especially their faces. Unlike lighting dance, in theatre, every nuance in expression must be crystal clear through thoughtful application of position, color, shadow, and intensity. Lighting shapes not only what the audience sees but also how they feel throughout the performance.

•     Purpose: Help the audience see and connect with performers and the work, defining space and atmosphere, telling time of day and setting, and directing focus.

•     Tools: Front, side, and backlighting mix to create separation and highlight form; light plots are planned in tools like Vectorworks, and programming brings your vision to life.

•     Artistry: Sometimes rules are broken, and that’s how drama is born.

Stage Lighting Tip #1 - Use Layered Lighting for Depth

Don’t rely on front light alone; combine backlights and high sidelights to "pop" actors away from scenery and build a true sense of space. This avoids flat visuals and harsh shadows that can detract from the experience.

Stage Lighting Tip #2 - Balance Warm and Cool Colors

Mix warm and cool lighting for natural realism. Mixing warm and cool colors as well as lighting intensities is a great way to add visual interest and dynamism.

Stage Lighting Tip #3 - Fill Shadows Without Washing Out Detail

Sidelights sculpt faces and bodies but often create strong, sometimes unflattering shadows—especially under the eyebrows or nose. Adding front light can help fill these shadows, but use it carefully: intense or flat front fills can erase detail and leave faces looking washed out or flat. The best results often come from gentle, angled front light — just enough to soften shadows and highlight facial features while keeping a natural, dimensional look.

Stage Lighting Tip #4 - Create Even Coverage 

Make sure actors aren’t wandering through unintended "holes" in lighting by establishing continuous coverage across the stage. This maintains immersion and prevents distracting shifts in visibility during movement.

Stage Lighting Tip #5 - Let Artistic Intent Guide Breaks from Convention 

Some moments call for bold color, dramatic shadows, or outright rule-breaking. Use lighting to serve the story’s emotion and focus — subtle shifts in coverage or intensity can guide the audience’s attention, shape time and place, and even control mood, all without showing your hand as the designer.

Tony Award-Winner Lights “The Bridges of Madison County”

For Donald Holder, a two-time Tony Award® winner with 10 nominations under his belt, there’s nothing more exciting than being in the theater. It’s a love born from spending his youth seeing Broadway shows, opera, ballet, and symphony orchestra performances, and studying violin, tuba, and string bass. 

Holder’s Tony Award-winning projects include “The Lion King,” directed by Julie Taymor, and the 2008 Broadway revival of “South Pacific,” produced in the Vivien Beaumont Theatre. When reflecting on his projects, Holder said, “They were memorable for different reasons, and each had its own particular challenges. These shows represent moments in my career where all the elements were in place for me to do my best work with an extraordinary group of collaborators.”

Holder’s success with past collaborators led him to his role as the lighting designer for Broadway’s “The Bridges of Madison County.” Holder’s work on the production earned him a 2014 Tony Award nomination for Best Lighting Design in a Musical. 

To learn more about the stage lighting for “The Bridges of Madison County,” click here.

“Our Town” at the Barrymore Theatre

Joshua Benghiat, an associate lighting designer, helped create stunning lighting designs for the Broadway production of “Our Town” at the Barrymore Theatre, directed by Kenny Leon and lit by Allen Lee Hughes.

With a unique design featuring hanging lanterns and the challenge of limited features, Benghiat’s work is a testament to how knowing the principles of lighting design can help you put on any stage production.

Click here for a free webinar on Benghiat’s stage lighting design for “Our Town.”

Understanding the tips and best practices of effective stage lighting is really only the first step of your stage lighting design process. Next comes the planning.

Vectorworks Spotlight is purpose-built to meet all your planning needs, helping you implement your creative vision with seamless technical planning.

The Lighting tool set, for starters, lets you place fixtures, customize their positions, and control a wide range of device properties, all in one workspace. You can select from a vast library of manufacturer-accurate symbols, arrange them in 2D or 3D, and tweak details like Beam Angle (the width of light a fixture spreads), Trim Height (the mounting height), or accessories directly. 

When creating your light plot, each piece of equipment tracks vital information, such as its address and channel, which are the ways lighting control systems identify and communicate with each light, plus color and focus. Creating paperwork is quick and automated. The software even integrates with lighting control consoles and visualizers using GDTF and MVR formats. GDTF (General Device Type Format) and MVR (My Virtual Rig) are modern file standards that make it easy to share complex lighting data and device setups with other software and hardware, saving you from manual re-entry.

Real-time rendering is also built into Vectorworks Spotlight. With Showcase, for example, you have access to the only previsualization (previz) program that is directly inside the design software. With Showcase, you get intuitive, live DMX control of lighting fixtures, and you can Record, Playback, and Pause DMX streams directly in your model. 

Showcase also supports PosiStageNet (PSN), a protocol that streams the real-time position of moving objects or performers onstage, allowing lighting effects to follow their exact movements automatically. Network Device Interface (NDI) is another protocol built in for live video streaming, connecting lighting, video, and media systems across the network with minimal delay.

With these technologies, Vectorworks Spotlight gives you the tools to plan, program, and visualize your design, providing a bridge between creativity and execution, no matter your level of experience.