donut

1. Lighting. Inserted in the colorframe holder, an accessory for an ERS that looks like a single-sided colorframe with a hole in the center ranging from 1" to 4". Used to sharpen a gobo image due to inaccuracies in reflector and filament design. The smaller the hole the sharper the image, but at a loss of intensity. Usually one wants the largest hole that will achieve the sharpness desired. Donuts compensate for the fact that no lamp filament is an actual point source, thus negating slightly the ideal geometry of the ellipsoidal reflector.

Available commercially, but also can be fabricated out of anything non-flammable that will withstand the heat at the lens of a unit. An easy DIY is to place a piece of BlackWrap™ in a colorframe and cut a hole in the center. For an interesting effect, use a saturated color to cut the hole out of. Tom Skelton, one of the best lighting designers of the past, used this technique often, and very effectively; known as a "color donut."

Link to one manufacturer.


2. Touring. Slang term for portable "wheel cups" used for stacking road cases atop one another. See wheel cups.

3. Stagehand. Fried circular bagel-shaped pastry used as a reward, bribe, gratuity, or requisite.