Explore light
Lighting Lab
Learn lighting, practise with short challenges, then build and compare your own states.
Learn · Practise · Design
Open Lighting LabLearn · Practise · Design
Theatre design
Choose a tool to explore light, costume or a complete production. Test your choices, then explain their effect on the audience.
Choose a tool
Explore character
Costume Lab
Compare costumes for a character, inspect the detail and explain what each choice communicates.
Open Costume Lab
Build a production
Production Studio
Bring set, performers and lighting together to develop a complete stage picture.
Open Production Studio
SetSpace, levels, materials and movement→
SoundSources, timing, texture and silence→
Design Decision PlannerSpecify and justify a focused choice→
My designsProduction Studio projects on this device→
A place to start
Learn. Practise. Design.
New to lighting? Follow these three steps.
Find a starting point or develop your idea
Start from your set textOpen a ready-made scene in Lighting Lab or Production Studio.+
From first lesson to independent design
Working on a set text?
An Inspector Calls · Full StudioEditable Birling dining room, six performers, gaze controls and five-light starter rig.
The Crucible · Full StudioEditable Salem rooms, court and jail with performers, furniture, stage configurations and a complete lighting rig.
DNA · Full StudioEditable street, wood and field worlds for ensemble pressure, proxemics, spatial design and lighting.
Blood Brothers · Full StudioEditable homes, street and country worlds for class contrast, relationships, staging and lighting.
Choose a practical briefShort challenges and production briefs with real constraints.+
BTEC, college, GCSE and school productions
Production briefs with real constraints
Start with a defined scenario, audience intention and practical limits. Build and test the design in 3D, record decisions and refinement, then export the brief and evidence together. These are practice briefs rather than official awarding-body assignments.
Small-scale touring productionAdaptable staging, a one-van scenic limit and a 60-minute get-in.
Site-responsive performanceAudience routes, portable equipment, access and the architecture of a non-theatre venue.
Youth theatre festivalA shared rig, rapid changeover, compact storage and a strong visual identity.
GCSE devised key momentA school-stage design built around a precise dramatic intention and rehearsal testing.
Whole-school productionEnsemble routes, scene changes, masking, storage and supervised technical practice.
Try a short challenge
Practical design briefs
IsolationMake one character appear emotionally cut off while remaining physically close to the ensemble.Set · lighting · staging
Power shiftShow control moving from one character to another during a single scene.Costume · lighting · spatial design
Unreliable memoryCreate a world in which the audience cannot fully trust time, place or recollection.Set · sound · lighting
Pressure buildingDevelop tension across a scene without simply making everything louder and darker.Sound · lighting · staging
Two social worldsDifferentiate two groups while allowing moments where their visual identities overlap.Costume · set · ensemble palette
Visible transformationTrack a character’s change across the performance through practical design details.Costume · makeup · lighting
Plan and justify your choicesDesign disciplines, a repeatable process and evidence checks.+
A repeatable process
Five stages of useful design work
- 1Read the briefIdentify the moment, context, practical limits and central intention.
- 2Test alternativesTry more than one solution before settling on the obvious answer.
- 3Specify the detailName materials, colours, positions, transitions, textures, levels and operation.
- 4Test the effectAsk what the audience can actually see, hear, infer and feel.
- 5Refine and justifyKeep, alter or reject the choice using evidence from rehearsal or modelling.
Choose your discipline
What are you designing?
SetSpace, levels, entrances, materials, symbolism and actor movement.
LightingAngle, intensity, colour, focus, shadow, transitions and visibility.
SoundLive or recorded sources, volume, placement, timing, texture and silence.
CostumeSilhouette, colour, fabric, condition, period, status and practical movement.
StagingAudience configuration, proximity, sightlines, focus and spatial relationships.
Before calling a design finished
Check that the choice can survive four questions
- What exactly changes?Give observable technical detail rather than a vague adjective.
- Why at this moment?Connect it to action, relationship, context or dramatic structure.
- What does the audience experience?State what they notice and the meaning or response created.
- How would you test it?Identify a rehearsal, model, cue run or comparison that could improve the choice.
Teaching design
Demonstrate, then let pupils try
Open the tools and student previews from the teacher resources.