Abstract:

Theatre is by its nature an in person and hands-on craft, and so of course are the classrooms that teach theatre. With the global pivot to teaching online during the pandemic crisis, educators needed to innovate and reinvent their teaching tools and strategies. Theatrical lighting design traditionally requires in-person learning, hands-on instruction, demonstration of equipment and lighting instruments. When this is no longer possible, what do educators do?
Luckily, new technologies are elevating what is possible to achieve in an online classroom.

In a virtual light lab space, interactive visualization tools allow for assign similar projects and achieve similar learning goals as in-person assignments would. The simulator offers a 3D rendered virtual theatre space, with lighting instruments and programmable features that precisely mimic the lighting instruments used in the industry. It includes realistic color, pattern, focus and beam spread options, as well as ways to program cues and timing sequences.

Not only are these visualizers useful for the classroom, but it can also link with lighting console software that directly translates for use in the live professional venues. Pre-visualization has been growing in popularity, even before the pandemic, and it will only continue to grow. Designers for companies like Nickelodeon, Mercedes Benz, and Pink Floyd all use Capture in preplanning. Knowing how to use these pre-visualization tools will be a very marketable skill for students when they graduate.

There are a range of visualizer options, including some free and open source. This poster presentation will demonstrate new 3D rendering programs that facilitate an engaging teaching environment, and were used by the author in design classes.

Keywords:

Theatre, Theater, Design, Lighting, Digital, Virtual, Laboratory, Technology.