Showlight 2013 Paper Topics Announced

The Showlight 2013 conference will take place May 18-21 at a castle in Ceský Krumlov, UNESCO Heritage Site in the Czech Republic, and its organizers say this year's conference has something for everyone -- from theatre, architecture, and event lighting designers to those in film and television.

There are many events planned, including a welcome reception, excursions throughout the area, and chances to mingle over meals and tea breaks. The conference also prides itself on the large variety of papers presented at the conference on a wide range of topics. Here is a glimpse of the 25 papers that will be presented in Ceský Krumlov.

Lighting designer Don Holder will share his insights into the challenges of lighting Spiderman on Broadway as well as his work on Dreamworks TV's Smash, where he has turned his talents to lighting a TV drama -- about a stage musical.

Beverly Emmons and Ken Billington, award-winning Broadway lighting designers, will discuss a project to establish a lighting archive available on the internet while Tim Routledge, lead programmer on the London 2012 Olympics, will entertain participants with stories of the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympics.

Tupac Martir, who has pioneered the use of automatic moving light tracking in dance, will talk about the lighting of Nierka, and Alfred Bodvarsson, the lighting and set designer for Icelandic TV's production of the X Factor, will tell what happened when he was expected to match the UK version with the budget of a country of just 300,000 inhabitants.

Christopher Baugh will discuss the iconic Czech scenographer Svoboda, pioneer of projection and light curtains, whom Baugh worked with at London's National Theatre, and Durham Marenghi will dish on the lighting of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace.

In addition, an LED panel will also convene to discuss the many advantages of LEDs, their use and misuse, the color balance problems with video cameras, and the dangers of specifying them for the wrong reasons. Panel members include Jim Tetlow, Fred Foster, Ryan Fletcher, and Fabiano Besio.

As a first for Showlight, Johanna, Anar, and Toomas, three young lighting designers from Estonia-based "Dare to Light," will present dialogues featuring a lazy lighting technician, a megalomaniac designer, and a director suffering from know-it-all. This satirical musical performance has delighted audiences of lighting professionals across Eastern Europe, and this is a chance to see the performance in English!

Additional paper topics can be found at the URL below, and more papers covering film and architectural lighting papers may still to be confirmed.