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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.

Scenographic design work for Music Theatre Wales’s opera production (composer: Michael Berkeley; librettist: lan McEwan), 2008/9 Performances: Linbury studio, Royal Opera House, London, and then UK tour Commissioned by MTW with support from the ACW/PRSF New Notes scheme, the Esme Fairbairn Foundation, part of the Jerwood-MTW New Opera Plan. Music Theatre Wales co­ production with Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon Supported by: Arts Council of Wales, Arts Council England, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, the PRS Foundation, and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Research questions: How might a theatrical production develop beyond the static scene or referenced 'place' towards a more sensory investigation of fluid reconfigurations of scenic space and enhance the emotional narrative led by the music? Significant features of process, and reflection: These questions were investigated through a kinetic scenographic exploration, utilising a number of minimalist scenic elements (oak boards) in a choreographed scenographic dance. The starting premise was to take the emotional subtext from each scene and construct a physical/visual manifestation. We developed simple divisions of the scenic space, and the interaction of the performers within the reshaping spaces created places of restriction, which were then released: open ‘fields’ transformed into mazes, which, together with the revealing of the stage depth or constriction to shallow stage, performed a spatial narrative that manifested emotional circumstance more clearly than the physical location that the libretto had requested. This employment of scenography as a performer within the event extends from earlier work with kinetic scenery but here further development is suggested by the re-moulding of the stage-space: like the music, it leaves behind echoes and resonances, unfolding to create the cumulative whole.