Lighting Control Positions
This page contains information on the position of lighting controls systems in theatres, generally in the second half of the twentieth century.
London Theatres 1961
Information from: Reid, Francis. Yesterday’s Lights: A Revolution Reported. Cambridge:
Entertainment Technology Press, 2005.
This information was gathered by FR while researching a new control system for Glyndebourne.
| Theatre | Control | Position | Notes |
| London New Theatre [Now the Albery Theatre] | Not stated, but probably Strand System CD. 154 ways. | Control room, rear of stalls. | p.43 “Dimmer bank situated at fly floor level. Desk in room at back of stalls. View of stage impaired by overhanging balcony – curious feeling of detachment from stage and impossible to see faces of characters on rostra, even when downstage.” |
| London Aldwych Theatre (Royal Shakespeare Company) | Strand CD/TH/II, 120 ways | OP box, next to stage | p.44-5 “Dimmer bank under stage.Console situated in OP box next to stage, giving a side view of apron stage and restricted view of main stage – but feeling of contact with the stage. Also, being on the opposite side of the stage to the comer, operator and SM have stage manager in the prompt view of the entire stage area between them. Nevertheless, console operator cannot judge total effect of his lighting.” |
German, Belgian and Austrian Theatres 1961
Information from: Reid, Francis. Yesterday’s Lights: A Revolution Reported. Cambridge: Entertainment Technology Press, 2005.
This information was gathered by FR while researching a new control system for Glyndebourne.
| Theatre | Control | Position | Notes |
| Hamburg Staatsoper | AEG 240-way thyratron board installed in 1956 | Control desk in cabin off the stage right lighting tower. Master desk here and also duplicated in lighting box at the rear of the auditorium. | p.46-7 “Watched Act 4 from FOH lighting box. Master desk not used but cues given by microphone with timing counted down by microphone. from box to backstage.”” Last cue would have been much smoother if done from a position where the operator could see the stage.”” Cues operated from the backstage lighting cabin, talked down by the beleuchtungsinspektor from the FOH box. He did not use his own masters and this seemed a pity as some of the fading seemed visually rough to me although operated strictly to time.” |
| Hamburg ThaliaTheater Refurbished 1960. Schauspielhaus playing drama repertoire. | Siemens Mag Amps, 120 ways, 4 presets | Control room at rear of circle. | |
| Berlin Deutsche Oper, opened 1961 | Lighting control desk in cabin on OP perch – far too small, with control boards built vertically rather than horizontally which seems to make operation more difficult ... A small master desk faces the stage with a view whose restriction varies with the type of scenery. This master desk is repeated in the producer’s box at the back of the auditorium. | p.50 “Seemed to me to be too many uncoordinated control desks in flys, on stage, under stage, etc. Co- ordination so bad that I suspect there is too much departmental independence in performance ... The extraordinary thing is that there are master faders in the production box but (as in Hamburg) they don’t use them.” | |
| Vienna Staatsoper | Bordoni (as per the old control at Glyndebourne). 280 ways. | PS Perch. “with master control at the onstage end from where chief operator has excellent view.” | p.51 Illustration of Bordoni board. |
| Nuremberg Schauspielhaus “recently converted from a cinema” | Siemens Mag Amps, 4 presets | Electrics control room is FOH centre behind stalls | |
| Nuremberg Opernhaus | Bordoni, but about (1961) to change to a Siemens Mag Amp. | “The control room is being constructed at the back of the circle by enlarging a room at present used as a production box.” | |
| Stuttgart Staatstheater | “Board is an ancient AEG auto-transformer, (160 ways, 110 volts)” | On the prompt side perch. | “Impressed by the sensitive operation of the board. Despite its age and inconvenience, the two operators got good results; limited perhaps but well executed within the limitations of the equipment.” |
| Mannheim Nationaltheater – Grosses Haus | Siemens Mag Amp, 240 ways, 8 presets | “Control room at back of stalls with superb view of the stage.” | “Watch performance of Lohengrin from here: quite an elaborate plot with a good deal of projection of swans and heavenly rays. Impressive to see such a complex plot so relaxedly handled by one operator. Almost converted to a Siemens board tonight but logic prevails and I still feel that it is just a large board made small rather than the new control philosophy that must develop from the possibilities of all- electric dimming.” |
| Frankfurt Schauspielhaus | Bordoni | “The board is a motorised Bordoni with the speed controls and motor switches in a tiny cabin within the orchestra rail so that the operator has a complete, if rather low and close, view of the stage.” | |
| Cologne Opernhaus | Siemens Mag Amp | End of perch | |
| Münster Stadtheater | AEG, 120 ways | FOH (but not specified exactly where) | |
| Brussels Monnaie | ADB tracker wire, auto- transformers | Cabin on OP Perch | |
| Liege Opera | ADB Mag Amp | Perch cabin |
UK Theatres, late 1960s
Information from: Reid, Francis. Yesterday’s Lights: A Revolution Reported. Cambridge: Entertainment Technology Press, 2005, pp.81-3
This information was gathered by FR while a freelance LD.
| Theatre | Control | Position | Notes |
| Liverpool Empire | 96 way Grandmaster | Perch | Flood battens and Acting Area floods over stage, plus 12 Patt 43 on No.1 bar. |
| Eastbourne Congress Theatre | 2 way PR | Rear of stalls | 12 Patt 223 on No.1 of bar, then battens. |
| Golders Green Hippodrome | Grand Master | ||
| Brighton Theatre Royal | 120 way Major grandmaster | ||
| Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham | 120 way System CD | Rear of stalls | |
| Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon | 144 way Preset Electronic | Front of house |
N.B. The original source contains more details of lanterns, etc., than shown here.
UK Theatres, misc.
| Theatre | Control | Position | Notes |
| Birmingham Hippodrome | MMS, 120 ways (the first theatre installation of MMS, 1974. | Stage box | Ref. Reid, Francis. Yesterday’s Lights: A Revolution Reported. Cambridge: Entertainment Technology Press, 2005, p.104. The position “gives the operator a tremendous feeling of involvement in the show.” |
| Manchester Palace Theatre | Light Palette, 240 ways. | Control room at rear of auditorium | Ref. Fred Bentham, “Pitlochry, Manchester and Puddledock”, Sightline, 15:2 (Autumn 1981), London: ABTT. |