10 A PrActicAl guide to stAge lighting it can be referred to as overhead sidelight (or high sidelight, or high sides). Instruments lower to the stage, on the other hand, can be referred to as low sidelight, or referred to by their hanging position as boom sidelight. overhead Sidelight Sidelight systems are often used to provide dimension- ality on performers' bodies, and three-dimensional scenery. When walls are involved in the scenic design, overhead sidelight can gain even more importance. If other systems behind the person can't reach particu- lar areas of the stage, the overhead sidelight may be the only system that can prevent an area from look- ing "flat" (the result of being illuminated only with frontlight). In many situations, overhead sidelights are often plotted like another system of area frontlight, with a pair of instruments, one from each side, focus- ing to the same focus point. When the stage is more open and has less scenery, several overhead sidelights can be plotted to provide a single-zone full stage wash from either side. An even sidelight blend in a single zone is often achieved using only three instruments focused to the far quarterline, The instrument focused to the far quarter line also splashes light onto the black masking legs. To reduce halation and retain as much light as possible, the bar- rel is often focused so that the shutter edge is sharp. To reduce the amount of light hitting the legs, the upstage shutter is then cut off of the black mask- ing leg that defines the upstage side of the opening containing the overhead sidelight. Producing a high angle sidelight from an overhead electric often results in the instruments being hung as far offstage as possible at the end of the batten. This common hanging location has become another name for the system. Overhead sidelights hung at the end of a batten are also referred to as pipe ends. Boom Sidelight Adding formalized sidelight booms to light plots is generally credited to a woman named Jean Rosenthal. While reviewers of the day had little appreciation for the look low sidelight produced on performers (making them look more dimensional or "plastic"), the angle and placement of the lighting system has become recognized as one of her many contribu- tions to the craft of lighting. Low sidelight is now