In an extract from his new Platform Paper, the lighting designer discusses a famous scene from La Bohème.

Nigel Levings, one of Australia’s leading lighting designers, has written about his 45-year career and working process in a new Platform Paper for Currency House entitled THE LIGHTING DESIGNER: What is ‘good lighting’? Levings has lit around 500 opera and theatre productions, both in Australia and overseas. In 2003, he won a Tony Award for his lighting design for Baz Luhrmann’s Broadway production of La Bohème. He is currently lighting productions of Tartuffe for State Theatre Company of South Australia and Tosca for State Opera of South Australia.

^{Nigel Levings. Photo courtesy of Currency House}

This is an extract from his Platform Paper, published this week:

“Playwrights will from time to time get to see how designers interpret their work. In this case they have the chance to exercise their judgment, and ask themselves, is the lighting for their play ‘good’? My friend and colleague the stage designer Stephen Curtis, the author of a recent Platform Paper, suggested that stage directions in italics should be ignored unless written by Patrick White; but I...