Photo Credit: Baron Spafford
Remember Elphaba’s rise above a stage bathed in Green during Wicked or the famous crashing chandelier in Phantom of the Opera? Without expert lighting, those moments wouldn’t have created the emotional impact that made them iconic.
Recognizing how essential lighting is to any show, The Granada is excited to debut their new LED wash lighting fixtures this September at The Granada Gala. This is the first phase of a multi-year lighting upgrade, made in part by a grant from the Alice Tweed Touhy Foundation and other generous donors.
This project marks the first step in an effort to update the auditorium and architectural lighting systems at The Granada. In addition to upgrading the theatrical lighting system, plans include replacing and enhancing wall controllers, dimming, color accent LEDs, and converting tungsten fixtures to LED with proper dimming characteristics. To guide the necessary upgrade from fixtures to the infrastructure required to support the lighting and control systems, The Granada has retained the expertise of Norman Russell and Steven Cooper of NV5 Consulting
Lighting’s Starring Role
When we go to the theater, we don’t often think about the lighting, but it’s one of the main characters.
“Lighting begins and ends the show and tells the audience where to look and how to feel,” said Daniel Lyon, Technical Coordinator at The Granada.
Lighting is essential to storytelling. For example, in The Little Mermaid, it creates an underwater world with shimmering blues and greens. In A Christmas Carol, it casts a cold, eerie glow, making Marley look dead, and Scrooge appear barely alive. This is all achieved with lighting.
According to Carlin Das, Head Electrician at The Granada, lighting is the element that makes live theater so compelling.
“It’s easy for people to get into a story if they think they’re in it themselves,” she explained. “That’s why theater is more immersive than a movie. The lighting is all around you and brings you in. It takes down the wall between the people and what they’re watching.”
The Granada’s New System
Photo Credit: Baron Spafford
The Granada kicks off its fall programming by debuting the first phase with new LED lighting fixtures that replaces the incandescent wash lighting. The arrival of 30 GLP Impression x5 wash moving lights will replace down and backlight systems. With full 360-degree pan and tilt capabilities, these fixtures allow for unmatched flexibility in design, enabling lighting to be directed anywhere on stage or throughout the auditorium. This versatility not only enhances the visual impact of performances but also increases efficiency, as fewer fixtures can achieve a wider range of effects, reducing setup time and energy consumption.
The new system replaces 16 stage lights with six lights to cover the same area. In the old system, a color gel filter was placed in front of the light to change the colors on stage. Because of the heat of the bulb, the filter would burn through in one night, making lighting very expensive.
“That’s why we needed so many lights,” said Lyon. “Now we won’t need filters, and we can control the lights focus and color from a light board during the show. It gives us way more control.”
Additionally, the color had to be set on the lights by hand before the show. It would often take four hours to focus the color. With the new lighting, it takes 15 minutes.
New Viewing Experience
Photo Credit: Baron Spafford
Granada audiences will see the results of the new lighting system in shows of all kinds.
“The new lighting frees up the designer to be more creative, which in turn will capture people’s attention even more,” said Das.
The lighting can be tailored to the type of performance, from rock concerts to Broadway shows.
“For example, when The Doublewide Kings perform Psychedelic Symphony on November 8th, 2025, we can build more energy and movement with these new lights, giving them an even larger presence on stage,” Das said.
Community Impact
For any show to be a success, there are dozens of people, like the lighting engineers, who make it happen. While the performers get the applause, there is way more to theater than the on-stage roles.
This year, several high school groups toured The Granada, where they discovered firsthand the many career paths that exist beyond the spotlight. For many, seeing the lighting systems in action and meeting the professionals who run them was an eye-opening experience.
“The students experienced what it’s like to work in a professional theater,” said Das. “At such a pivotal time in their lives, it was especially meaningful for them to connect with the Granada stage crew and see the diverse career paths that exist beyond the spotlight.”
Lighting may not always get the respect or recognition it deserves in a theater because it works through so many little effects you might not consciously notice. But perhaps that’s exactly what makes great lighting so magical-you don’t see the craft itself, only how it transports you into another world.
The Granada is excited to share the work on these upgrades over the next few years. Stay tuned for more updates on our lighting system upgrades, as we are just getting started.