One of the greatest advances in the history of modern theatre came with the development of flexible stage lighting. In the days before electricity, and before gas was introduced in the mid nineteenth century, theatres were lit by either candle or oil light and often the only light available lit both actors and audience. The introduction of gas light enabled theatres to lower the light levels in the auditorium and raise those on the stage, and through the introduction of limes, which burnt fiercely in the heat of the gas flame (producing limelight), new and dramatic effects began to be possible.
In the theatre today, lighting is used to create all kinds of special effects, but it still remains a very basic tool in storytelling. Lighting can signal the time of day, as demonstrated in
Act 2; the location, such as the vestry room in
Act 3; time passing, as created in
Act 4; and can enhance the atmosphere, as in
the prologue when the actors are on stage in lantern light. Director Jonathan Church tells us that in
The Crucible,
the lighting was very important since the play takes place at a time before there was electricity, when the presence of light brought comfort whereas its absence instilled fear.
Mark Jonathan, the lighting designer for
The Crucible , demonstrates the lighting effects used in each Act of the play. One effect he employed in
Act 1 was to light under the stage from a lamp that moved gently from side to side, and whose light shone up through the gaps in the wooden floor. This gave the sense of an attic room, with people from the community gathering in the room below. But stage lighting must also light the actors, since if an audience cannot see an actor clearly when they are speaking, especially the face and mouth, then it is harder for them to actually listen to what they are saying.
