Hours: Open to students 24/7

Students present their final projects for William Kenyon's Lighting Design course.

The Penn State School of Theatre Lighting Lab is one of the most advanced and well-equipped labs of its kind in the country. Seating 25, with ADA access, the Light Lab serves as the primary classroom, lab, and research facility for the School of Theatre’s Lighting Design concentration.

The lab is equipped with a 19’ x 19’ flying truss grid, mobile truss booms, a ground row and an FOH position. There are traveller tracks with a cyc, a scrim, and a drop, along with a fixed RP screen. The system is controlled by an ETC ION with a fader wing, running a 48-Dimmer ETC Rack.

Thanks to a generous donation by ETC, the lab is equipped with a significant inventory of incandescent and LED Lekos and Pars, along with a stock of other incandescent fixtures representing the inventories found in our other theatres. Other resources include a system of Wybron CXI Color Scrollers, 2 Vari*Lite VL3000s, 2 Vari*Lite VL2500s, 3 Vari*Lite VL1000s, a complete stock of gel, a sound system, and a Lex PowerGate 100A 3phase Distro.

Other consoles and equipment are available for special projects as needed. Equipment demos and training sessions are often provided by visiting manufacturers, and beta-testing is available to anyone, with a full suite of electrical, intensity, and spectrometry testing possible.

Lighting, Design, Presentation

The Theatre lighting lab is a premier facility nation-wide, boasting a fantastic array of leading-edge professional equipment.