Help the Techies

My techs are finding it difficult to follow the changes in lighting states during the play. I have relatively new techs who don't really understand why the lights are changing. I was thinking today that anyone with theatre experience would understand the philosophy behind technical work. For those that are new I feel it takes a little more time to explain why we change the lights when we do. Particularly during my productions – where the lighting states are very much impressionistic - I need to spend some time explaining to my crew the reasons behind my choices so that they can then understand why they are doing what they are doing and this will, hopefully, make it easier for them to understand how they are to change the lights when they need to.

Understanding the why also helps them feel the times when they need to modify the states ever so sightly if they make a mistake. Perhaps this is something with which I shall have to experiement with some first years next year.