The Power of Light

The museum charts the development of technology and how its progress dramatically influenced the development of theatre, particularly during the last century. Visitors are taken on a tour which begins in the Renaissance and ends in contemporary times, presenting the different methods used to light the stage. The museum contains authentic artefacts from the last century and reconstructions of models of historical stages. It also presents demonstrations of how controlling the intensity, colour, direction, distribution and movement of light contributed to the rendering and design of stage space and theatrical performance. An audio-visual show provides a fitting finale.Working alongside Redler on the project were scientific advisor BenZion Munitz and designer Eitan Levi. Between them, they designed the museum with theatre professionals, visual artists, art and theatre students in mind, and have spent the last two years talking with collectors all over the world, to assemble the various exhibits.In time, chandeliers began to hold multiple candles, but even then the light was faint and diffused. Scenery painters depicted shafts of light on their canvases in order to simulate real light. The means of theatrical lighting were so important that Molière's troupe (which was forced to leave its theatre when Molière died), took with it, as its 'inheritance', 10 chandeliers which they rented out to other theatres as an additional source of income (the first lighting hire company on record perhaps?).

In a medium-sized 18th century theatre, 800 to 1000 minute flames - in the form of candles or oil lamps - were lit every evening (this is evident from an English court claim where a candle manufacturer sued a theatre which did not pay its debts). It's little wonder that so many theatres burned down. These blazes eventually brought about legislation, which insisted on the installation of an iron curtain between the stage and auditorium.

In the early 19th century, gas led to a revolution in lighting. The foyer of the new Paris Opera, one of the finest buildings constructed in Europe at the end of the 19th century, was decorated with statues of goddesses, including those dedicated to harmony, music, construction and . . . gas lighting. The auditorium was adorned with a colossal chandelier containing dozens of gas burners, above which was a huge chimney. When electrical lighting later replaced gas burners, the chimney was covered up and decorated with a Chagall mural.

The real revolution in stage lighting, of course, began in 1880 with the advent of the electric light bulb. Theatre professionals, who were on the look-out for any new invention they could use to brighten up the stage, were among the first to embrace the ne