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About Us
Theatrecrafts.com >

Theatrecrafts.com has been online since 1997 and is a developing resource for students, theatre technicians, designers and practitioners.

The site has was relaunched in 2012 to make it more up-to-date and easily updateable using Wordpress, and is just going through a redesign again (October 2025) to streamline the site.

The functionality of the databases that drive the site are constantly being improved, so please get in touch with us to suggest additional material or request more features.

There will be weekly updates, and a news feed has just been added. 

Theatrecrafts.com was created by Jon Primrose, Technical Manager at the University of Exeter Department of Communications, Drama and Film in the UK, and he is still the editor, publisher and designer of the site.

We're not connected to Theatre Crafts, the magazine that's no longer in publication. It's been superseded by Live Design magazine.

Strand Archive

This archive started life as a piece of A4 paper listing the Patt. Numbers I knew, so that students at the University of Exeter Department of Drama (where I am Technical Manager) didn't look too confused when I taught them.
That was back in 1991. My interest in older Strand equipment has been growing since them. The archive has been online since 1997. 
I am always amazed when any company appears to have lost interest in it's past, especially Strand, which has been such an innovator in it's lifetime.

The archive material
Most of the information on this site about Strand Lighting has come from Strand promotional leaflets which have been collected by myself and a number of other luminaire luminaries.
Maurice Marshal at Stage Electrics has been the main contributor, although John Staplehurst (University of Exeter), Bruce MacRae (Macsound Electronics, Australia) and countless others have all added their own snippets of information.
Thanks also to Bill Richards at Strand in London and Holly Sherman at Strand in Los Angeles.
It's important to point out that copyright in all of the material is held by Strand Lighting. If anyone at Strand has any problem with me using this material, please let me know. But I hope you don't.
It's also important to point out that I, the University of Exeter or Strand Lighting hold no responsibility for the accuracy of this information. It's provided for historical interest only.
How you can help
If you have any material that I don't, or are able to add information that you've found useful about using some of the equipment, please let me know. If you can type up or scan the information and email it to me it's most useful. 
Use the Contact Us button in the menu above to send information.
 

Latest update: 5 October 2025