Nick Moran

BSc, MA, PGCert
Job title
Senior Lecturer in Production & Design for Performance; Course Leader, BA (Hons) Theatre Practice (Production Lighting), Theatre Practice (Lighting Design)

Profile

I was brought up in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, and went to Imperial College in London to study physics, although mostly what I did there was make theatre. This included designing and directing some of the first productions to be taken to the Edinburgh Fringe by Imperial students. After graduating I began to make a career in lighting and technical theatre, mentored by some wonderful people including Jenny Cane and Howard Eaton. For twenty years I worked internationally as a lighting designer, lighting programmer and production engineer, on operas, concert tours, West End musicals, touring and fringe theatre, large-scale events, and festivals. I also worked as a Gaffer and then as Lighting Director for the BBC and MTV.

At the end of the last century, I took a part-time MA in Modern Drama and Theatre Studies. Around this time, I worked with the Production Services Association to develop vocational courses for concert touring, theatre and events and worked as a visiting lecturer at Rose Bruford and the University of North London. From 2001 to 2003 I was Lighting Manager for English National Opera, where I reproduced world leading lighting and created some of my own. I also gained the National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety from NEBOSH at this time. Then in the autumn of 2003 I came to Central.

Since 2010, I have taught master classes and given conference presentations on lighting and projecting in North America, (at USITT 2018 & 2019) Eastern Europe and Scandinavia (at Scandlight 2018).  I have also spoken and written about the education and training of lighting designers and technicians nationally and internationally. Recordings of panel discussions I chaired at World Stage Design 2013, and at several PLASA Shows can be accessed via the ALPD website, as can my interviews with international lighting designers Yaron Abulafia and Tupac Martir.

I am the treasurer of the Association of Lighting Production and Designers (ALPD) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I am a member of SkillScene and a founding executive board member of the ALPD.

I am also Certified Carbon Literate and hold a C&G BS7909 Certificate.

Areas of Expertise

  • Theatre Lighting Design
  • Production Lighting for theatre concerts and events
  • Projection and video for stage design
  • Sustainability in Production Practice
  • Health and Safety for Live Production
  • Digital modelling and communication for theatre production
  • Collaboration and communication in a theatre production context
  • Semiotics and phenomenology in a scenographic context
  • Contemporary Theatre Design – particularly the use of light on stage
  • Collaborative decision making in the process of making theatre
  • Assessment of competency
  • Assessment of practice through reflection and by other means

Key Publications

2023 Surviving the Death of Tungsten, Journal of The Association of Lighting Production & Design March/Feb pages 10-15.

2023  Associate and Assistant Designer Journal of The Association of Lighting Production & Design Dec/Jan pages 8-13.

2022 Scandlight 2022 Journal of The Association of Lighting Production & Design Aug/Sept pages 14-19.

2019. Performance Lighting Design – 2nd Edition.  A text book to support undergraduate study in the theory and practice of lighting design for live performance (London: Methuen Drama).

2016. The Right Light, a book based on interviews with 19 contemporary lighting designers (London: Palgrave).

2014. Electric Shadows, an introduction to using video and projection on stage (Cambridge: Entertainment Technology Press).

External Practice

2016 (Lighting Design) Plays of Love and War, for Border Crossings, as part of the Noor Festival 

2013 (Set & lighting) Tara Arts, Consumed, for Border Crossings, UK and Chinese tour

2010-11. Transformation and Revelation for the quadrennial national exhibition of stage design, in Cardiff: Four A1 Graphic Panels showcasing the work of members of the Association of Lighting Designers

2010. (Lighting) Soho Theatre, Re-Orientations, For Border Crossings, London and tour including Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre

2002-3 (Lighting) for English National Opera, Verdi’s The Masked Ball, London Coliseum, directed by Calixto Bieita

Register of Interest