NY Public Library Launches Online Theater Lighting Document Archive

The New York Public Library is introducing an online archive of theater lighting documents.

Modern theatrical lighting is a uniquely American art form, which until now has been exceedingly difficult to study due to limited access to original lighting documents. This collection contains actual plots, focus charts, cue sheets and much more from four landmark productions digitized from the collections of the New York Public Library. For the first time, these masterworks can now be studied in theaters, classrooms, libraries and homes far from the archives that hold them. Our aim is eventually to expand this site to include further productions, to develop new research tools, and to gradually build the Database into the premiere online resource for the study of lighting design. Feel free to analyze, compare, zoom in, download, hang, focus, and use!

The Lighting Database is a joint project of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the NYPL Digital Experience Group, and the Lighting Archive, and is funded by the New York State Council for the Arts. Documents in the Lighting DB are intended for non-commercial use only.

So far the featured productions are:
A Chorus Line, Tharon Musser Lighting Designer
Fall River Legend, Thomas Skelton Lighting Designer
Hair, Jules Fisher Lighting Designer
Sunday in the Park With George, Richard Nelson Lighting Designer

http://lightingdb.nypl.org/

Photo: Tharon Musser