Being a school teacher in Art and Design I had already been involved in stage lighting and been involved in all kinds of stage and display projects in our school, both regarding internal and external events. I had long felt settled in my role on the church committee and for years I had pushed forward on the issue of church stage lighting, keen to try to draw the different parts of our church into one thematic lighting with of course a greater emphasis on the worship areas but with a focus not just on Sunday morning services or Evensong but also for the full range of occasions, from weddings, christenings and concerts to the many candle-lit services and the seasonal settings and the increasing numbers of services for children.

Stage Lighting For Old Churches

We finally fixed a budget and brought in a specialist team to work on the lighting of our beautiful old church. These experts were brimming with new ideas are new and were able to achieve results to the church stage lighting to a very high standard and within the costings ensure that the equipment would be supported by an on-going maintenance service we had control over. I worked with the lighting company and because of my lead and my experience at school, our approach to the church stage lighting design was similar to my previous input on school theatre lighting design.  When it was completed everyone was delighted with what the experts brought to our Church - they had interpreted our eclectic range of needs and created a number of pre-programmed 'scenes' tailored to different services and the results have proved flexible for the various spaces within our church which are all lit to perfect results for all kinds of occasions.

Now that I’m actually retired from teaching I am able to give more time to our church and having overseen the revisions of its church stage lighting I am delighted to be able to work with the marvellous design changes that have been so successfully installed. For the Passion for example I added  some twine and nails to create words and shapes on to plywood and was proud that this kind of embellishment was enhanced to great effect by the well lit stage designs and I’m happy I am able to make significant events even more spectacular.