This volume explores three core themes and provides a framework for thinking through the role of light in performance:
1. Experience - considers both the audience's experience of light and the ways in which light influences the experience of performers
2. Creativity - examines both the creative, performative capacities of light in performance, as well as the creative practices of lighting designers
3. Meaning - offers an expanded view of performance aesthetics by examining the capacity of light to influence and generate meaning within performance.
The case studies are drawn from a wide-array of lighting practice, including: Jennifer Tipton on the role of light as a structural language in performance; Jesper Kongshaug on the lighting of Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens; Lucy Carter on her work in installation and dance; Psyche Chui on the productive fusion of Western lighting techniques with contemporary Chinese opera; Katharine Williams on the role of light in feminist political theatre made by RashDash; and Paule Constable on storytelling with light in a range of productions, including War Horse, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and Angels in America.