Stage Lighting Courses and Training Online

As both a stage lighting and teaching professional, On Stage Lighting’s Rob Sayer HND PG Dip FHEA is pleased to be able to offer stage lighting training in the UK within schools, drama societies, and businesses, and worldwide help online for individual learners.

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Stage Lighting Courses Online

Learn@OSL Stage Lighting Courses

The greatest dedicated advanced programming course I’ve ever taken!

Chris, USA

Rob is an e-learning specialist and provides online stage lighting courses, live webinars and one-to-one tuition through computer-mediated communication (CMC).  The last few years have been spent testing these methods with small learning communities of beginners in stage lighting, providing e-mentoring to lighting professionals and created ‘blended’ learning units for undergraduates and other stage lighting online learning.

The Learn@OnStageLighting platform now has over 500 users.  Our popular online courses DMX Stage Lighting Systems and Introduction to Busking Stage Lighting courses are both available as Instant Start courses which means no waiting for a scheduled course to run.

The intermediate busking stage lighting course BUSK201 has been described as “The greatest dedicated advanced programming course I’ve ever taken!”

We also run training in the industry standard cueing and playback software QLab.  This is available to users from anywhere in the world, both via an asynchronous online course or delivered to groups in real time using webinar or 1-1 tutoring.

Thanks for this informative and candid one to one session. Explained some questions I didn’t even know I wanted to ask. Cant recommend highly enough. Keep up the good work.
Frank, UK

Learning for Individuals

We get a lot of requests from individual applicants regarding hands-on stage lighting workshops.

In general, we do not run ‘open’ live workshops to a regular schedule for individuals to join.  However, we do have a learning solutions to help learners from anywhere in the world.

1-1 Video Tutoring

Increasingly popular, doing 1-1 video sessions are a great solution for very specific learning needs.  They are actually more efficient and effective than ‘off the shelf’ courses in some cases.  Take a look at our 1-1 Tutoring page to find out how this method has helped other learners.

Training for Groups

Rob still designs and runs workshops and online learning for groups and businesses, based on your individual requirements.  There is more Workshop Information here, including a rough guide to the process.

Send an email to learn at onstagelighting.co.uk with your organisation’s training wishes and I’ll get back to you with suggestions and costs.  

Check out the following list of information that it would be helpful if you would send with your enquiry.

For pricing and availability:

  • Your training location
  • Hoped for dates of workshop or generally good potential availability.
  • Number of attendees and rough idea of the group’s current level.
  • 1 or 2 major learning outcomes from the learning.  What do you want attendees to be able to do by the end of the training?

Hands On Workshops

Bringing 20 years of experience in the theatre and event industry, Rob’s stage lighting workshops are grounded in professional practice and delivered to all levels of abilities. A former stage lighting professional and now Senior Lecturer at Bath Spa University, Rob leads modules in Lighting, Sound and Audio Visual as well as professionalisation training for graduates on the Theatre Production course.  Qualified as an educator with a PG Dip of Professional Learning In Higher Education, the high standard of Rob’s teaching practice has been recognised by the Higher Education Academy with membership as a Fellow.

Workshops are tailored to specific needs of a group and are often delivered in your own venue using your equipment, often over 1 or 2 days. Rob has worked in schools on light colour theory with 5 / 6 year olds, lectured as a guest at other Universities and led theatre lighting workshops for drama societies. His style is fun and informal, encompassing practical elements of stage lighting along side relevant concepts and theories. Training sessions are hands on and everyone gets involved.

Introduction To Stage Lighting and more..

I learned more in this module than in any other this year, especially as this was the module I was most dreading as I never thought myself as technologically savvy. This has brought a new passion into my life which I am grateful for.

S, BA (Hons) student.

Some example course content includes:

  • Introduction to stage lighting – theory and practice
  • Lighting design in your venue
  • Getting the most from your stage lighting equipment
  • Lighting equipment maintenance and repair including moving lights / LED
  • Working within your constraints – time, space, budget, knowledge
  • Practical use of moving lights and other complex lighting fixtures
  • Professional theatre lighting design and practice
  • Communication and paperwork for the lighting team
  • Lighting design using colours and effects
  • Getting the most from additions to your stage lighting system
  • Moving light programming for different show genres
  • Lighting design and control for live music including ‘busking’ techniques.
  • Lighting for conferences and corporate events (popular with AV technicians)
  • CAD and planning software for performance and events.  Including Vectorworks Spotlight and AutoCAD.

All stage lighting training are run at the pace and skill level of your group and designed to directly related to your own specific needs as learners. The workshops put professional lighting theory and practice into context with your own venue and equipment, making it invaluable learning for all attendees. Each stage lighting course also enables your group to reflect on future action to improve your lighting system or workflow, getting better results for the future.

If you think that you or your group would benefit from some specifically designed stage lighting training, then email learn at onstagelighting.co.uk with some ideas about what you would hope to get out of a short On Stage Lighting course. We can then make suggestions regarding content and timings. If you are part of a drama society, it’s actually quite cheap to put on a course in your venue with 8 – 10 attendees. Don’t forget that the experience is beneficial, not just for lighting enthusiasts but also Directors and other members of your production team!

Currently stage lighting courses are run in England and throughout the UK, but Rob does have a passport and, contrary to popular myth, is allowed out of the country.

Client Quotes

Had a committee meeting last night and everybody was full of praise for the day. It proved not only a fantastic learning experience but a chance for everyone to bond in a supportive and instructive environment.

Very many thanks for a wonderfully professional and inspiring day. We all gain a huge amount from your skillful presentation and I hope we can in due course have another day to take develop our skills further.

We all learned a good deal, & given that there were mixed abilities to begin with the whole weekend was pitched just about right.

From my viewpoint (on-stage, producer & lighting crew type bloke) I have to say that it was a most enjoyable experience.

The whole weekend was engaging and illuminating. For me being more used to having lights pointed at me rather than being on the technical side it was very useful to start at the beginning on the purpose of lighting and what it is intended to achieve.

Images of a stage lighting workshop at Rottingdean Drama Society.

8 thoughts on “Stage Lighting Courses and Training Online”

  1. Hi I’m enquiring about the online Lighting course, Cost and duration etc. I am the Community Employment Supervisor at the Balor Arts Centre Ballybofey Co Donegal Ireland, I am unable to find certificated training for the Theatre technician, I have 2 participants at the moment looking for courses,
    Thanks
    JC Bonar

  2. Email me at learn @ on stage lighting dot co dot uk with your needs and we can discuss.

    Best wishes,
    Rob

  3. Hi Good day i am in the entertainment industry as an lighting tech i would like to know how i should go about doing your course please assist.

  4. How do i go about doing theatre lighting with u. My email addrress is this, samuelsundayumoren@gmail.com…looking forward to hearing from you.

  5. Hello.

    I am very interesting to do one of your courses, can you let me know where i can contact any of you? please.

    Best Regards.

    Ignacio Riera Garcia.

  6. Hi,

    I am very interested to do the online training course on Lighting technicians.

    Looking forward to hear from you.

    Thank you

  7. I have returned to the rock music industry after a long break, and would like to know which modern LED lights I should use to get similar output (brightness) to what I used to get using PAR 64’s and other incandescent lamps.
    There are a multitude of LED lamps available, but I don’t want to waste my limited resources purchasing low priced lights that will not give me the same impact ( lumins output?? ) that I am familiar with using a mostly PAR 64 rig. I accept that the old saying “you get what you pay for” is likely to be the answer from most lampies, but I would appreciate some advice anyway.

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