Stage lighting is achieved by the use of a large number of powerful stage lights, or lanterns (or luminaires). There are a great variety of these, for different applications, or of different make or vintage, but the majority fall into four basic classes: P.C.s, fresnels, profiles and floods; the first three forming the generic class of spotlights. Also used are PAR cans , but these offer little control and are used more in rock lighting than in theatre. The most common types in this country are the Strand Lighting range, closely followed by the C.C.T. range. PAR cans come from a variety of manufacturers, notably Thomas, but are all much the same anyway.
Some types of lanterns have specific names, but most are named in families and share a common name with various extensions to denote the different members of the family. Numeric extensions usually indicate a profile, and describe the range of available beam angles in degrees; alphabetic extensions denote other types. Lanterns within the same family are almost always of the same power. For example, Strand Lighting manufacture a family of 1.2kW lanterns (which can also use 1kW lamps) called Cantata. Within the family are three profiles with different beam angles: Cantata 11/26 , Cantata 18/32 and Cantata 26/44; a fresnel, Cantata F and a P.C., Cantata PC. Other extensions used include FS for follow spots and EP for effects projectors. There are still many of the older types of Strand lanterns in use, and these do not have names but are instead known by their pattern numbers , e.g. Patt. 23 . Books on stage lighting are inclined to refer to lanterns by type or construction in order to remain manufacturer-independent. This is very rare in practice, since it is far too verbose. (loc. A table of the lantern types used in the A.D.C. is given at the end of this appendix.)

Lanterns are hung (or rigged) in lighting positions and are focused (or angled) onto the stage (or anything else). If coloured or tinted light is required, as is usually the case, sheets of gel (or colour) held in special gel frames are placed in front of the lanterns. The lanterns are then tailed and plugged up to dimmer outlets via a patch board (loc. on the bridge in the A.D.C.). All the connections along the way use 15A round pin connectors, a near universal standard in U.K. theatres. Each dimmer is usually connected to two or more outlet sockets in order to make it easy to connect more than one dropper to the same dimmer channel . All the information specifying what lanterns are to be hung where, what colour gel they should have, to which dimmer channel they should be connected, etc. is on the rig plan or lighting design. Conventionally, (though not everyone obeys the same convention!) the dimmer channel number is shown in a circle near each lantern, while the gel number is written within the symbol for the lantern.

When the rig is finished, and sufficient of the set has been built on stage, the lanterns are focused. The lighting designer is in charge of this process, and is aided by one or more electricians. A tallescope is usually used to reach the on stage lighting bars. Ideally before, or sometimes during, the tech run, the lighting states are plotted. This usually involves the lighting designer sitting with the director at the plotting table and calling for specific channels at specific levels which an electrician, usually the chief electrician, will bring up from the switchboard or stalls control. When the L.D. is satisfied, the state is recorded and the process moves on to the next one. The recordi