Brighten Your Performance: Theatre Lighting for Beginners

Make it Sparkle Video with Camron Ware
Projection & Lighting Designer

3:11 (runtime)

Director’s Notes

Camron Ware emphasizes the importance of color, texture, and angles in lighting design. He suggests avoiding the common practice of only using white light from the first catwalk position and instead experimenting with different hues and gobo textures.

• Camron encourages educators to let their students experiment with lighting as a means of learning. He attributes much of his own knowledge in the field to hands-on experience and exploration, having not formally studied theater tech.

• Camron suggests theater directors to leverage all available tools and resources, including borrowed gels and fixtures, to experiment with lighting. He highlights the importance of thinking creatively about fixture placement.

• He recommends beginning a lighting design with just one light and building up from there, rather than starting with all lights on. This approach encourages creative thinking about how each light contributes to the overall design.

• Camron shares his own experience of starting with limited equipment at his church, emphasizing that a lack of advanced tools can actually foster creativity and innovation in lighting design.

• Ware's final advice is to embrace making mistakes as a part of the learning process. He stresses the importance of safety while experimenting but encourages not being afraid of errors as they are an opportunity to understand the tools and techniques better.

More About Camron

Camron and his wife and collaborator Courtney love creating experiences through projection.

Their approach is to do creative things visually, and still make them practical and obtainable.

When they’re not on a plane, on a show, or dreaming up some crazy idea with clients; they’re hanging out in Dallas, TX.

“We don’t have any house plants—we’re not home enough to keep them alive.” they say.