How to plot the lighting cues for a school play

Plot a school play in four passes. Mark every lighting change in the script, build each distinct look once as a scene, put the scenes in running order on a single step-through button, and then rehearse cue to cue with the cast before the dress rehearsal. On the night the operator needs that one button and the marked script.

How do you find the cues in a script?

Read the script with the director and mark every place the lighting should change: the house lights going down, the first scene lighting up, each change of time or place, a single figure picked out on a bare stage, the blackout at the end of each act and the curtain call. Write a cue number in the margin next to the line or action that triggers it.

Theatres usually prefix lighting cues with LX, so the margin reads LX 1, LX 2 and so on, in the order they happen. Mark a standby half a page before each cue as well, so whoever is running the show has time to get ready. If a cue turns up later between LX 7 and LX 8, call it LX 7A rather than renumbering the whole book.

How many looks do you actually need?

Fewer than the number of cues, and usually fewer than you expect. Most school productions run on a small set of looks that come back again and again, and building each one once is what keeps the plotting session short.

In HitLight each look is a scene. You can build it by hand or describe it to the assistant and adjust what it writes, and either way you can watch it on the 3D stage with no lighting hardware attached. That means the looks can be built on a laptop in a classroom weeks before the hall is free. How each scene arrives is set in the scene itself: its fade-in time, from a snap to a slow build. A sunset can take its time; a blackout should not.

How do you turn the looks into a running order?

1. 1

   Make one scene per distinct arrival

   If the warm cover arrives slowly after the prologue but snaps on after the interval, that is two scenes with different fade-in times. Name them after the moment, not just the look, so the list reads like the script.

2. 2

   Put the scenes on a step-through button in script order

   One entry per LX number. The same scene can appear several times in the list, which is how a look that keeps coming back stays a single scene to edit.

3. 3

   Label the button in the show's language

   “Act 1” and “Act 2” on two buttons is easier for a new operator than one long list, and a separate button for the house lights keeps them out of the running order.

4. 4

   Check where the list ends

   After the last entry the button starts again from the first, so finish the list on the curtain-call look and bring the house lights up from their own button.

For a show that runs to a clock rather than a script, a saved timeline lays scenes and songs on parallel tracks and runs itself. That suits a dance piece or a number cued to recorded music better than a list of presses.

How do you rehearse the cues?

With a cue-to-cue, also called a technical rehearsal. The cast runs only the moments around each cue and skips the scenes in between, so the lighting and the stage action can be fitted together in an hour or two rather than a full run. Fix fade-in times and wrong looks as you go, and note any new cue in the script first.

You will run the same moment several times, so learn the button's menu early: Previous entry sets it back one place so the next press repeats a look, and Reset to first entry starts the act again. Then do at least one full run with lights before the dress rehearsal, so the operator has pressed every cue once at the right moment.

Who presses the button, and when?

In a theatre, a stage manager with the prompt book calls the cues: “Standby LX 12” at the standby mark, then “LX 12, go” on the line, and the operator presses on the word go. In a school, the operator often follows the marked script alone, which works well as long as the standbys are clearly marked.

MIDI learn binds the step-through button to a pad or a USB footswitch by pressing it once, so the operator can follow the script with both hands free. A footswitch is useful when the operator also has to turn pages or run sound.

What if a different person runs the lights each night?

• Keep the marked script with the computer. It is the only thing a new operator really needs to read.
• Run one cue-to-cue with each new operator. Even a short one teaches the rhythm of the show better than notes do.
• Put the exceptions on their own buttons. House lights and the interval preset belong on labelled buttons rather than in somebody's memory.

Lighting software for schools and community theatres covers the rest of a volunteer-run setup, including colour palettes, the virtual console and what the iOS remote can do from the back of the hall.