For You: Scenographic design work for Music Theatre Wales’s opera, supported by the Arts Council of Wales, Arts Council England, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, the PRS Foundation, and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Part of the researcher’s developing body of design work that is advancing current scenographic and performance thinking applied to the particular performance structure of contemporary opera.

A new Opera. Composer: Michael Berkeley Libretto: Ian McEwan, commissioned by Music Theatre Wales. A minimalist and kinetic scenographic exploration. This was a development beyond the static scene or referenced 'place' towards a more sensory investigation of how the fluid reconfigurations of scenic space, the animated drawing of space through the manipulation of basic scenic elements might enhance the emotional narrative led by the music. A Scenographic dance. The starting premise was to take the emotional subtext from each scene and construct a physical / visual manifestation of these using very simple divisions of the scenic space. The interaction of the performers with the space restriction/ release /open field/ maze/ stage depth or shallow stage performed a spatial narrative that spoke more clearly of emotional circumstance rather than the physical location that the libretto had asked for. Significantly it was in the movement between each of these states that the scenography and the music achieved a more visceral connection with the viewer as the stage space was re-moulded always under construction and never finished, the possibility for further development establishing both an expectation and curiosity that settled for a moment before mutating once more. After opening at the Linbury studio, Royal Opera House, London, 'For You' toured to Sherman Cymru, Cardiff, Gala Theatre, Durham, Theatre Brycheiniog, Brecon, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, RNCM, Manchester, Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Oxford Playhouse MTW is a revenue client of the Arts Council of Wales, receives touring funding from Arts Council England and gratefully acknowledges support from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, the PRS Foundation, and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. For You has been commissioned by MTW with support from the ACW/PRSF New Notes scheme, the Esme Fairbairn Foundation and is part of the Jerwood-MTW New Opera Plan. For you is a co-production with Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon.