The art of lighting the stage and modeling characters and scenery by means of lighting is also called stage lighting. Its function is to shape the visual image of the stage according to the performance requirements and the overall conception of stage art, using the technical equipment and means of stage lighting to cooperate with the performers' performance.

The functions of stage lighting in modern stage performance are as follows: 1) lighting the performance to make the audience see the performance and the image of the scene; 2) guiding the audience's line of sight; 3) shaping the character image, setting off the emotion and showing the stage illusion; 4) creating the space environment needed in the play; 5) rendering the atmosphere of the play; 5) guiding the audience's attention; ⑥ It shows the transformation of time and space, highlights the contradiction and conflict of drama, and strengthens the stage rhythm, which enriches artistic appeal. Sometimes it's with stage stunts.

In the modern performance, the intensity, color, distribution of lighting area and the movement of light have great plasticity and controllability. The artistic effect of stage lighting is shown with the progress of performance and the constant change of stage atmosphere. The close combination of stage art and stage art is the combination of stage art and stage art.

According to the optical structure, stage lamps can be divided into three categories: floodlight, spotlight and slide; according to the position installed on the stage, there are surface light, ear light, foot light, column light, top row light, sky light, ground light and activity light. Floodlight system refers to the lamps that can emit average soft light and can illuminate certain direction light. Separate floodlights, top row lights, footlights and curtain lamps are generally used to illuminate the sky screen, painting set or performance area. And can control the range of light emitted by the light concentrating system. The principle of refraction is generally used to project different light spots through the lens. If we use the thread soft light lens, we can produce the light spot with soft edge. The light that uses reflective optical structure to obtain the spotlight effect is called return light. The slide system is to add a group of objective lens in front of the spotlight to make it cast light and image. This kind of slide can be divided into: 1) projection slide with slide imaging; 2) projection slide with cloud, water, fire and other flowing images on the scene through rolling disk chain belt; 3) clear imaging of small spot by using long focal length objective lens. The main characters of the lamp are highlighted; 4) the lamp with ellipsoidal concave mirror named modeling lamp.

The stage lighting control system must be able to effectively control and allocate all lamps and produce harmonious artistic effect. It consists of power distribution board, dimmer and general control panel.

The stage lighting design mainly carries on the artistic conception according to the script, the director's request and the stage art overall assumption, draws the lighting design drawing, and displays the work in detail. Lighting design should be able to use a variety of modeling means to adapt to different styles of performance. For example, some performances require the expression of realism, while others require the creation of abstract, freehand or metaphorical artistic conception.

There was a history of open-air or semi open-air performance in the early stage of drama, all of which used sunlight as light source. But with the performance place moved into the indoor or night performance, began to play stage lights. According to written records, after 1102 years, Bianliang in the Northern Song Dynasty performed "Baixi" every Lantern Festival. Under the grandstand, a stage was made of square wood. On both sides of the platform, a lantern ball was hung on each of the buttresses, which was more than ten meters long. It was the beginning of China's artificial light source. In the 16th century, when performing outdoors at night in Europe, camplights were made of resin impregnated ropes as light sources. Between the 15th and 16th centuries, Italian landscape architects carried out experiments on color lighting. At the beginning of the 17th century, Italians made various experiments to control the sudden dimming of lights in performances. And French classical performance has also done how to show the change of time day and night. Since the 18th century, it has become a common practice to turn off the stage lights while performing. In 1755, when the opera "Yeo" was performed at the Dresden theatre, as many as 8000 candles were lit on the stage. Since the 19th century, light sources have changed rapidly. In 1808, the lancin theatre in London first used gas lamps. Because the gas lamp can be controlled by the same pipe and can have light and dark changes, it can be popularized. H. delamont, an Englishman, invented the lime lamp, which can produce a light color similar to sunlight or moonlight on stage. In 1870, the lime lamp was used in England as a tracing light, and then the paint was applied on the glass cover of the lime lamp to obtain the color light effect. In 1846, the Paris Opera House used arc light source, and then used arc light to make color silk filter, and created a stage image with five continuous light changes to show the whole process from sunset to sunrise. At the beginning of the 20th century, after the tungsten bulb came out, it provided the stage with a concentrated spotlight, and provided a favorable premise for the performance of stage space and the creation of stage atmosphere. The invention of dimmer, the same treatment of lighting system and the use of color filter all enhance the expressive power of stage lighting. In 1920, Italian M. fertoni designed a kind of soft light reflection system. The arc light source reflected from silk fabrics was used to simulate the light color of the natural world and express the illusion of the sky.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Swiss stage artist A. Appia and British director and stage artist Gordon gray put forward the theory of lighting art modeling, which required lighting to express the sense of visual sculpture, music and the sense of movement and rhythm in the stage space. Practice has proved that it has opened up a broad world for lighting art. In the performance of modernism, Futurism and expressionism pay attention to the role of stage lighting. For example, the use of flashing lights to create a turbulent atmosphere of the stage; cut light instead of the closing ceremony to create a montage scene on the stage