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Rating: 
Summary: A good course, but somewhat antiquated
Review: Fraser, an veteran instructor at RADA, takes a indirect method of teaching design, calling for self-discovery through the book's exercises. While commendable and valuable, the reader may be frustrated at times with the myriad of questions but often noticeable lack of answers. It is important to think of this as not a book in lighting, but rather a course. Much like any other class, you will get as much out of this as you put in to it.
The book is filled with over 70 hand-on exercises. These range from learning to appreciate natural lighting to hanging hanging various rigs in a lighting lab. However, readers who do not have extensive access to a lighting lab or studio space likely will not find much of this text useful as it calls for the use of luminaries and a grid for a majority of the exercises.
American readers will often be confounded with the instrumentation used throughout the book. Profiles are the primary ERS (ellipsoidal reflector spotlights) used throughout the book in place of the US standards: Source4's, Leko's and Shakespeare's (and older Altman's). This is complicated with the voltage difference in the UK, as well as the odd terminological colloquialisms.
For the American reader, this is a great self-paced course in lighting design for a student with the time and facilities to work hands on with hanging and focusing a plot. I would not recommend this book to a novice LD as this is not this best first source for learning the most basic terms and technique when working in American theaters.
Rating: 
Summary: Neil Fraser shows LDs the light at the end of the tunnel!
Review: Neil Fraser, Head of Lighting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art has continued his excellent guides to the world of theatre lighting design with "Stage Lighting Design, A Practical Guide". This book gives a fantastic first time insight into lighting design for beginners as well as giving useful tips to slightly more experienced designers and students. Sections are concise and maintain your interest with the use of innovative exercise suggestions and links to real life situations from Neil's own career. This is a valuable commodidty in a book of this kind, where it is easy to become bogged down in essential but unexciting theory - the book covers all the essentials in an easy to digest fashion as well as expanding on them to support their relvance to the career. It will shortly be followed by its partner book on Lighting Theory in order to complete the knowledge base required to begin lighting theatre.
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