All stories by Rob Halliday on BroadwayStars

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Lighting designer Rob Halliday: Life under coronavirus lockdown – talking is one way to show you care by Rob Halliday

There’s a scene from a movie I love, The English Patient, where, as war breaks out the international band of explorers meet

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:00AM
Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Lighting designer Rob Halliday: You can’t accurately preview lighting, so trust your designer by Rob Halliday

One of the best books I’ve ever read about show lighting has nothing to do with lighting at all. In The Blink

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Lighting designer Rob Halliday: Turn down the lights – we have a responsibility to our environment by Rob Halliday

I don’t know where it has come from, but I suddenly have a terrible case of eco guilt. Maybe it’s looking at

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Lighting designer Rob Halliday: Could technicians’ shops return to the West End? by Rob Halliday

You could, if you so chose, take yourself on a technical theatre history walking tour around London’s West End. King Street was

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Obituary: Chris Ellis – lighting designer and former chief executive at Leicester Haymarket by Rob Halliday

Chris Ellis was a prolific lighting designer from the 1970s through to the middle of this decade who for many years also

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:28AM
Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Obituary: Alistair Grant – lighting designer who worked on some of the defining shows of the last 40 years by Rob Halliday

Alistair Grant – ‘Ali Barrel’ to all who knew him, a nickname he enjoyed enough to take as his online address –

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:07AM
Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Lighting designer Rob Halliday: You wouldn’t tune out in a tech – don’t do it during the election by Rob Halliday

So an election, eh? Didn’t we just do that? No, wait, that was us switching leader without an election. So now we

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Rob Halliday: Sustainable energy source should put theatre industry ahead of eco curve by Rob Halliday

Could it be that entertainment lighting is actually ahead of the eco curve? After last year’s great EU tungsten debates that may

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Lighting designer Rob Halliday: Brexit shows MPs could learn a thing or two from theatremakers by Rob Halliday

By the time you read this, we will (once again) be approaching the 30-day countdown to Brexit. Shockingly, despite the six months

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Lighting designer Rob Halliday: Don’t miss the chance to see work from the UK’s best set designers  by Rob Halliday

In this column last month, I bemoaned missing the display of Ivan Kyncl’s theatrical photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum in

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Lighting designer Rob Halliday: Cherish the relationship between lighting designer and photographer by Rob Halliday

Ever woken up to the horrible realisation you’ve missed something? That was me a few weeks ago as it dawned on me

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Lighting designer Rob Halliday: ‘Improve working conditions – my knees can’t take it much longer’ by Rob Halliday

Being on the lighting and the programming and the writing sides of things – a terrible combination of lit stages, dark auditoriums

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Rob Halliday: EU lighting rules process is tedious – but we’re getting there by Rob Halliday

I realise I’ve been silent on the subject of the EU and entertainment lighting, with no update since last October. There’s no

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Lighting designer Rob Halliday: Could production problems spell an end to the tungsten light bulb? by Rob Halliday

If I’d tried to imagine what the beginning of the end of the tungsten light bulb would look like, it might have

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:45AM
Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Lighting designer Rob Halliday: Good show lighting is art and craft in harmony by Rob Halliday

Recently, I went to see Hamilton. Yes, late to the party I know, but sometimes working in theatre means you don’t get

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:01PM
Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Rob Halliday: Light, said Fred – why theatre owes a debt to those behind the behind the scenes by Rob Halliday

Is it possible that theatre is built in three layers? On stage. Behind the scenes. And then behind the behind the scenes:

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 03:00AM
Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Lighting designer Rob Halliday: Will we be able to work in the EU on March 30? Nobody knows… by Rob Halliday

Can we just think for a minute about a friend of mine, who has a gig on March 30 – in Europe.

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Lighting designer Rob Halliday: Building design is as key to the theatre experience as what goes on stage by Rob Halliday

Any way you look at it, and whatever your political views, March is shaping up to be quite the debacle from which

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Rob Halliday: Theatre freelances are more prevalent, but it’s still hard to get a mortgage by Rob Halliday

If I were more entrepreneurial or much better connected, the business I’d be getting myself into right now is providing mortgages for

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Lighting designer Rob Halliday: Latest EU draft Ecodesign regulations prove illuminating by Rob Halliday

I promised to write more about the saga of lighting and European Union rules as soon as there was more. And now

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 03:00AM
Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Rob Halliday: Stage lighting is not just about what you see, but how you feel by Rob Halliday

My five-year-olds appear to have discovered lighting – by which I mean in their bedroom they have LED reading lights that can

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Rob Halliday: Theatre colleagues are like family and losing them is just as tough by Rob Halliday

Our world is not quite like other worlds. The work isn’t work so much, as all-encompassing life. The time spent doing it

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:01PM
Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Rob Halliday: No news turns out to be good news on EU lighting regulations by Rob Halliday

What happens to a story after it stops being headline news? After the initial urgency has gone, it often seems to gently

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Rob Halliday: As Bill Brohn showed, orchestrators perform a special kind of magic by Rob Halliday

Perhaps stage wizardry only seems like magic if you can’t figure out how it’s done. And to some, theatrical lighting may feel

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Rob Halliday: Working 10 to 2 (am), what a way to make a living by Rob Halliday

It feels like we could do with a break from the UK and lighting this month – although because of your support,

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Rob Halliday: EU lighting to-do is about much more than what goes on backstage by Rob Halliday

Yes, this is lighting and the EU again. Sorry. No, actually, not sorry. Because the more you dive into this, the more

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Rob Halliday: EU lighting changes threaten the entire theatre industry by Rob Halliday

Whether you think you care about lighting or not, it is vital that you pay attention right now. Please. Otherwise, in just

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Rob Halliday: ‘Technology advances design but it’s the collaboration that counts’ by Rob Halliday

I have a memory of watching the movie Titanic when it was first released and thinking, “Crap, we’re in trouble.” The ‘we’

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 03:00AM
Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Rob Halliday: Enjoy the calm in the eye of the technical rehearsal storm by Rob Halliday

As a kid, I was fascinated with the eye of the storm, the calm at the very centre of a raging hurricane.

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM
Thursday, January 25, 2018

Rob Halliday: Fingers crossed the EU sees the light over theatre tungsten ban by Rob Halliday

The use of our beloved tungsten light bulbs in entertainment is again under threat by the European Union’s well-meaning, but in certain

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:39AM
Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Rob Halliday: For lighting technicians, time flickers at a capricious pace by Rob Halliday

For something so intrinsically precise, time is strangely malleable and bending time is a big part of what we do in theatre.

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic